Shohei Ohtani, 29, has signed a 10-year, $700 million ($921.3 million) contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball.
The $700 million is not split over the 10 years of the contract (2024-2033).
It’s a deferred payment arrangement where he’ll receive $20 million ($26.3 billion) for the first 10 years and the remaining $680 million ($89.5 billion) over 10 years, from 2034 to 2043, like an annuity.
The Dodgers avoided the salary cap balancing act (luxury tax) right away, and Ohtani saved money because he’ll be taxed based on his residency in 10 years.
This is the kind of deal Ohtani wanted.
Ohtani’s 10 years in a Dodger uniform will average $2 million ($2.632 billion).
The salary seems like pocket change when you consider the $35 million to $50 million ($46 billion to $65.8 billion) in annual sponsorship and advertising revenue he earns in Japan, the U.S., and elsewhere.
In fact, Ohtani isn’t the highest paid athlete in the world.
Compared to soccer players like Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nasr), and LeBron James (Los Angeles Lakers), he earns less.
Messi, who plays for Inter Miami in the Major League Soccer (MLS), is expected to earn up to $150 million ($74.4 billion) over the next two and a half years until 2025.
Including all of his salary, bonuses, and sponsorships, Messi’s total earnings will exceed $1.6 billion ($215.9 billion) in 2025, according to U.S. sports website Sportico.
Messi earned more than $100 million a year in salary and bonuses at FC Barcelona, and his pre-tax salary at Paris Saint-Germain was reportedly as high as $70 million. 카지노
Messi’s earnings are likely to increase in the coming years, given that the Saudi Arabian league offered him $400 million per year in salary and bonuses before he moved to the United States.
Messi launched an investment firm called Playtime last October.
Ronaldo, who once rivaled Messi as the world’s best, earned $136 million from May 2022 to April 2023, making him the highest-earning athlete of that period (Forbes estimates).
With a whopping 610 million followers on Instagram, Ronaldo is one of the most attractive athletes for advertising.
He earned $90 million in ad revenue alone during the period.
By 2022, Ronaldo will have earned a total of $1.58 billion ($279.3 billion).
James’ earnings in the National Basketball Association (NBA) are equally impressive.
James earned $47.6 million ($62.7 billion) in salary for the 2023-2024 season, plus another $80 million ($10.53 billion) from endorsements.
That’s $127.6 million ($167.9 billion) in a single season.
That’s 25 percent more than any other N.B.A. player, so the name recognition isn’t insignificant.
Including this season, James has earned more than $1.4 billion ($184.21 billion).
Steph Curry (Golden State Warriors) will earn $119.9 million this season, combining a salary of $51.9 million with $50 million in non-salary income.
Professional golfers in the U.S. also make a lot of money.
The launch of LIV Golf, backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund’s ‘oil money’, has boosted their earnings significantly, with Dustin Jones (USA) earning $111 million (14.61 billion won) in the year from May 2022 to April 2023, according to Forbes.
He set aside $125 million for playing on tour.
Phil Mickelson (USA) earned $107 million (140.8 billion won) during the same period.
That’s not including the $200 million he received for playing on tour.
Mickelson is projected to earn a total of $1.36 billion ($178.95 billion) by 2022.
The highest-earning athlete of all time, past and present, is Michael Jordan, the “Emperor of Basketball.
By 2022, Jordan will have earned $3.3 billion ($4.341 trillion).
Jordan is followed by golfers such as Tiger Woods ($2.5 billion), Arnold Palmer ($1.7 billion), and Jack Nicklaus ($1.63 billion-plus Sportico estimates).
In comparison, Ohtani’s “10-year, $700 million contract” doesn’t seem like much.
However, the economic impact he generates cannot be ignored.
Kansai University economist Katsuhiro Miyamoto estimates Ohtani’s economic impact for the 2023 season at ¥50.4 billion ($455.8 billion – including ¥1.2 billion spent by Japanese fans at LA Angels games and ¥1 billion in home stadium advertising by Japanese companies).
“It’s unprecedented for an individual athlete to have this level of economic impact,” he said in a recent interview with Bibishi, “It’s the same effect as a popular Japanese baseball team winning the Japan Series.”
He previously estimated the economic impact of Japan’s national baseball team winning the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) at 60 billion yen.
According to the New York Times, locally based professional baseball players are less than half as recognizable in the U.S. as professional basketball and National Football League (NFL) players.
As a result, the amount of money major league players can earn from national advertising deals is very limited.
However, there is a growing curiosity outside of the major leagues about Otani, who is unlike anything we’ve seen in modern baseball.
That’s why the future value of Ohtani, who left the Los Angeles Angels for the “big market” Dodgers, is expected to increase.
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