Mr. Olympia prize money.... Cheap Bastards!

[mewalrus]

ok, they should all do it just for the love of muscles. Prize money taints the whole thing. Actually I'm serious. Let them live off sponsors.

 

[Growman]

They basically do? If you are not a top level guy the prize money isnt getting you anywhere?

All the food, supplements, and travel? The prize money is a drop in the bucket. If you want to get rich off bodybuilding you need to be on the business side of it at some point.

 

[Jefe]

Stike???????????

No athletes, no show, no advertising money.

It will never happen. Just dreaming out loud I guess.

 

[Medic08]

ok, they should all do it just for the love of muscles. Prize money taints the whole thing. Actually I'm serious. Let them live off sponsors.

What is your problem? Now professional athletes shouldn't get paid?

Money taints the sport? That makes no sense. These guys/girls are entertainers and deserve to get paid for their hard work. If you don't like the sport and feel that it's tainted then don't watch it anymore.

 

[Medic08]

No athletes, no show, no advertising money.

It will never happen. Just dreaming out loud I guess.

Oh, you meant to say strike. He didn't understand what you were trying to say.

 

[Jefe]

My fault. Sometimes words/letters get lost between my brain and fingers.

Mr Pickles

 

[Ashop]

I just looked up the total prize money for the Mr. Olympia and I can't believe how much they rip off the winners. They make multi-millions of dollars for the weekend and their total pay out was only $950,000. It might sound like a lot, but not when you consider how many people they paid. It's gotta be a big slap in the face when Phil Heath pocketed $275,000 alone and the entire 212 division pay out was $60,000! Men and women's physique payouts were only $10,000 each. That's really gotta suck considering I'm sure a lot of these people spent way more than their winnings prepping for the show, supplements, paying for coaches, coaches percentages of winnings, travel/lodging costs, etc.... I'm sure the bigger name competitors get their sponsors to pay for some of this stuff, but I doubt everyone has that luxury.

Anyway, here's the total breakdown of each class.

Mr. Olympia: $650,000

212 Showdown: $60,000

Ms. Olympia: $60,000

Fitness Olympia: $60,000

Figure Olympia: $60,000

Bikini Olympia: $40,000

Men’s Physique Showdown: $10,000

Women’s Physique Showdown: $10,000

Total: $950,000

Unless your very elite,,bodybuilders are the most under paid athletes that I know of. You should see the tab of what these folks spend to get ready for these shows. MANY(MOST) end up losing money.

 

[0893]

Stike?

Your spelling teacher must have gone on strike eh?

 

[0893]

No one gives a crap about women's sports...this is the reality. Majority of people simply don't care. Lol. Mens World Cup comes around everyone goes crazy, buy tickets, people debate the games...ect. How about women's World Cup? LOL I don't even know when it's going to be or what country won it last. Does anyone? WNBA compared to the NBA? Not even close...the list goes on

The real BS is how female bodybuilding has been around for ever yet the prize money is only 60k. Yet some joke like bikini is 40k? Ridiculous if you ask me

 

[iceman74]

Your spelling teacher must have gone on strike eh?

No...................... on stIke!!!

 

[Jefe]

Teasing on day one.

This is what I missed about the boards/BBing.

Mr Pickles

 

[buck]

the top 10 get prize money to be fair. not sure of all the divisions.
2
Kai Greene
$130,000
3
Shawn Rhoden
$90,000
4
Dennis Wolf
$55,000
5
Dexter Jackson
$45,000
6
Branch Warren
$35,000
7
Mamdouh Elssbiay
$25,000
8
Victor Martinez
$20,000
9
Steve Kuclo
$19,000
10
Juan Morel
$16,000

 

[Medic08]

Unless your very elite,,bodybuilders are the most under paid athletes that I know of. You should see the tab of what these folks spend to get ready for these shows. MANY(MOST) end up losing money.

Yeah that's what I was saying in my original post.

 

[Growman]

Yup thats the same thing i said in post #22. Alin and Medic are correct, most of the athletes are in the negative. Unless you are a very top level guy with a good supplement company behind you, your not really doing well.

Why do you think most of them still train clients? They need to supplement their income. For every Jay, Phil and Ronnie there's a bunch of guys who struggle to pay their bills.

Its amazing that most of their income comes from outside their "league". Most guys in other pro sports the bulk of their income comes from their pay check they get from their team. In BB the actual money from the shows is the small amount, and then they need to do other things on the side.

 

[mewalrus]

Well they need to figure out how to bring in more money. Someone format it to dramatic and tv friendly ala American Idol ect. The right person could make that happen.

 

[Growman]

Thats never gonna happen. The money is there, it just doesnt make its way down to the competitors, at least not enough of it. The people who promote the shows, own the supplement companies and the magazines are all making out like bandits, and if you wanna get rich in this game thats the direction to go. The competitors work their asses off to make the shows worthwhile and they dont get a very big piece of the pie. The people who have the control and money are not gonna give it up.

Im not going to get into all of the reasons why bodybuilding competitions will never be on main stream popular TV and embraced by the masses, but im sure if you think about it for a minute you will realize that its just not going to happen.

 

[TrojanBB]

No one gives a crap about women's sports...this is the reality. Majority of people simply don't care. Lol. Mens World Cup comes around everyone goes crazy, buy tickets, people debate the games...ect. How about women's World Cup? LOL I don't even know when it's going to be or what country won it last. Does anyone? WNBA compared to the NBA? Not even close...the list goes on

The real BS is how female bodybuilding has been around for ever yet the prize money is only 60k. Yet some joke like bikini is 40k? Ridiculous if you ask me

How is that ridiculous? It's blindingly obvious. Who watches Ms. Olympia? Who does that contest appeal to? Next to no one. Many more people watch the Bikini division and are inspired by it. It's the equivalent of the men's 212 and open divisions for women. The prize money will only be going up in that division. Figure and Bikini will and should be the highest payout in the female divisions. Certainly more than fitness and Ms Olympia. It has nothing to do with the time spent training, as was already discussed in this thread. It's about economics.

What is striking in that pay breakdown is how little mens physique makes compared to Ms Olympia. That will change soon. Mens physique is far more lucrative to the industry than Ms Olympia

 

[Growman]

I get what you are saying Trojan, and I dont think that anyone would argue that the Bikini and Fitness Divisions are more appealing to the average person. In fact im pretty sure thats why they decided to add those divisions, it generates some more overall interest in the industry.

You are more likely to sell some supplements and magazines when you have some "normal" looking people competing and promoting the magazines and supps. The average person knows they are never gonna look like Ronnie or a female pro BB. But when women see the girls in the bikini division its more appealing.

However the main interest from people within the industry will always be the mens BB, hence the larger payouts.

 

[mcswag]

If your a bodybuilder to make money you're in the wrong sport/industry

 

[brutus69]

what's the miss universe pageant pay out?
its pretty much the same thing as bb, only with "talent" and "personality."