Open-Mic: The Most Powerful Man In Sports

Sports have become a business; a very large and powerful one at that.

When looking at the most powerful individuals in sports you cannot look solely at their on-field performance or the number of championships they have won; you must also look at what they have done for the business of the sport and what impact they have both in terms of popularity and on the sport's financial well-being.

When encompassing on-field performance, financial impact and the overall power they have at their fingertips, Tiger Woods is head and shoulders above the rest.

There is a lot of talk about how overpaid athletes are today, but, Tiger Woods should never enter that conversation.

Woods has created as many millionaires in sports as Bill Gates has created in the business world.

There was no Nike golf before Woods emerged on the scene in 1996. Although Nike has offered Woods two generous contracts of over $200 million, Woods has single handedly built Nike golf from the ground up into a multi-billion dollar business. Nike has gotten a bargain by paying Woods $400 million plus.

Woods has also created hundreds of millionaires on the PGA Tour.

In 1986, ten years before Tiger’s arrival on the tour, Greg Norman was the Tour’s leading money winner with total earnings of $653,296.

In 1986, a golfer by the name of Bill Isrealson was ranked 130^th on the money list , the cutoff point to keep his Tour card, with total earnings of $58,236.

The top 130 players on Tour qualify to keep their tour card without the demoralizing thought of having to attend Q-School again.

Jumping ten years ahead to 1996, the year Tiger arrived on the Tour, the leading money winner on tour was Tom Lehman, who’s earnings totaled $1.78 million. The 130^th ranked player on the money list, Stuart Appleby, earned $164,483.

In 2005, ten years after Tiger’s arrival on the PGA Tour, The leading money winner was Woods himself with total earnings of $10.6 million, the 130^th ranked player on the money list, Michael Allen, earned $591,829.

In 2007, Tiger topped the PGA Tour money list with earnings of $10.9 million. Brett Quigley was ranked 130^th on the money list with earnings of $717,411.

To put all of these numbers into perspective, in the ten years prior to Woods’ arrival, the total earnings of the PGA Tour’s leading money winner increased by 62%.

Ten year’s after Tiger’s arrival, the earnings of the Tour’s leading money winner increased by nearly 84%.

This essentially indicates that in Woods’ first ten years on Tour, he played a large part in making everyone on Tour at least 22% richer than they would have been had he not been there.

The winner of the 1996 Masters won $450,000. Trevor Immelman earned $1.35 million with his victory at the 2008 Masters. That is an increase of 67% in the twelve years since Woods has been playing in the Masters.

In 1996, there were fifteen players on Tour who earned over $1 million or more.

In 2007, there were 99 players on Tour who earned $1 million or more.

That represents a nearly 85% increase in the number of millionaires on the PGA Tour since Woods’ arrival 12 years ago.

Needless to say, Woods also immensely impacts tournament attendance and television ratings.

According to research done on Woods’ effect on television ratings in 2007, tournaments in which he finished in the top five had a 171% increase in CBS’ ratings over those in which he did not play or wasn’t in contention.

Woods has almost single handedly brought the game of golf into the mainstream arena and has made a lot of other people extremely wealthy in the process.

This year we have gotten our first taste of what the PGA Tour would be like without Tiger Woods.

Woods sat out for a month due to his arthroscopic knee surgery proceeding the Masters.

The Tour obviously continued in Woods absence but in a manner that seemed lackadaisical and, well, boring.

Woods returned onto the scene for the US Open at Torrey Pines and provided one of the most memorable performances in the history of sports and single handedly provided a theater that is not unmatched by anyone in the sporting world.

Now Woods is out for the rest of the season and the Tour is once again trudging along in a slow, quiet manner.

The big story in golf for the rest of the year will not be 22 year old Anthony Kim, will not be Kenny Perry and his miraculous resurgence, and will not be the winners of the year's final two majors. The big story will continue to be about a man who we will not even see on the golf course until early next year.

Woods has become larger than the PGA Tour, a feat that was unfathomable ten years ago.

Woods is the most recognized athlete on the planet and in 2007, his earnings doubled that of the next highest earning athlete, Phil Mickelson; it doesn't get much more powerful than that.