Show me the money: Athletes should have fun and gains for their efforts

There is a growing belief that the private investment that is swamping sports such as cricket, golf and rugby union could soon flow through to multi-sport events such as the Olympic Games.

A packed Alexander Stadium at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Picure: Getty Images.

There is a growing belief that the private investment that is swamping sports such as cricket, golf and rugby union could soon flow through to multi-sport events such as the Olympic Games.

As Commonwealth Games athletes sweated it out for medals in Birmingham, producing gold class ratings for TV networks, it’s worth remembering they are doing it for nothing.

For the athletes, there is no cut of the millions of dollars in TV rights and sponsorship deals for Olympic and Commonwealth games. Never has been.

While in the AFL and the NRL the television money trickles down to the pockets of its players, there’s no official slice of the TV broadcasting pie for those athletes striving to be the best in the world.

Following the billion dollar investment of the rebel golf league LIV, a Saudi-funded competition that has offered more than $US100m to players, many of whom are well past their best, the question is being asked; could a similarly ambitious program ­target the Olympics?

Olympian turned sports commentator Dave Culbert is ­unequivocally positive.

“Yes, absolutely,” Culbert told The Weekend Australian. “As we saw with Super League and cricket with the Indian Premier League, people with big ideas come along and if they’ve got a big cheque book, yeah, anything’s possible.”

In June, Culbert along with Olympic hockey champion from Atlanta 1996, Louise Dobson, were appointed as co-chairs of a new-look Australian Olympians ­Association.

But prior to this role, for a long time, Culbert who competed at the Seoul and Barcelona Olympics, and has also worked in sports marketing, has openly wondered how struggling athletes with Olympic aspirations can enjoy at least a slice of the financial pie.

Culbert has seen the financial sacrifice made by athletes to perform at their best. He’s heard stories of athletes sleeping on couches, working three jobs, selling their cars, borrowing money, just to fund their Olympic dream.

Zoe Cuthbert, who won silver in the mountain bike for Australia in Birmingham, sleeps in her car as she competes on the World Cup circuit.

Unlike the football codes, the government does provide some funding, as does the Australian Olympic Committee with its various programs and medal incentive schemes, but many athletes are left financially crippled just trying to compete.

Just as cricket, rugby league and now golf’s establishments have been disrupted, Culbert does not rule out the Olympics being targeted by ambitious investors.

“The most remarkable thing, from the Olympics, and it applies to Commonwealth Games as well, is there’s never really been a strong challenge on the ecosystem from athletes – and their managers – so they are happy to do it for nothing. But yet we’re seeing with the ­Commonwealth Games this is a wildly successful television product, of which the main stars are doing it for free.”

The Commonwealth Games has dominated the TV ratings for Seven and stars like Kyle Chalmers, Ariarne Titmus and Emma McKeon have earned headlines for their feats but little else.

Meanwhile, in the AFL, NRL and cricket the likes of Buddy Franklin, James Tedesco and Dave Warner are big beneficiaries of billion dollar TV deals.

It’s a legacy of the Olympics’ traditional amateur ethos that dominated the movement for much of the 20th century. But times have changed.

Network NBC in 2014 locked up the American media rights to the Olympics through 2032 for $US7.75 billion ($11.1b).

In 2014, the IOC announced it had signed a deal estimated to be worth up to $170 million with the Seven Network to broadcast, the 2016 and 2020 Summer and 2018 Winter Games.

“In what other ecosystem does this happen?” Culbert said. “If you’re a movie star you don’t do it for free, if you are an AFL player you don’t do it for free, if you are a champion golfer or tennis player you don’t do it for free.”

For athletes to get a cut of the billions they help generate there needs to be a radical re-think that incorporates not only TV rights but revenue generated from sponsorships, ticketing and licensed products.

So what’s the solution?

“My solution is a bit left field to this that in every market, there’s, revenue generated and that the players, the stars, the participants, the actors should get a percentage of the money that’s generated in that sport,” Culbert said.

“So let’s use the US where NBC paid $7.7 billion for the rights, so the US athletes get paid more than anyone else. Which is the biggest market yet.

“Now Australia’s a relatively small market but there’s still a significant amount of sponsorship and television generated. So the stars, the players get a fixed percentage of that and it just goes directly to them.

“Now how that’s distributed then you know, this is when it can become complicated – is it based on medals, is it based on whether a 100 metre runner gets more than an archer, or is it just a flat rate? To me ... you worry about that later. If every athlete in the Olympic team received 50 grand, there’s 400 of them, that’s a house deposit … that can change their lives.”

The US Olympic Committee pays $US37,500 for a gold medal, $US22,500 for a silver, and $US15,000 for a bronze. Here in Australia? In March the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said it will distribute $1.485 million dollars to 108 athletes as part of its Medal Incentive Funding (MIF) program, based on podium results achieved at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Of course the most prolific Olympians earn individual sponsorships and then there’s funding from Sport Australia and these days philanthropists like Gina Rinehart have also support some of our best athletes including leading swimmers.

But some argue Olympians generate more money than they earn.

The LIV Tour changed the life of Shellharbour golfer Travis Smyth. He was scratching a living on the Asian tour until Greg Norman came along. Smyth hit pay dirt at the inaugural LIV Invitational series event at St ­Albans, north of London.

Smyth collected $US741,000 ($1.1m). In three rounds of golf he earned more than half of what he had collected in five years as a pro golfer.

As Culbert pointed out, big ideas are always about and the Olympics are vulnerable with disruptors lurking around the edges of sport. Private equity is circling rugby union and netball.

There might be a time soon when the Olympics have to offer athletes more than national glory and a stage to showcase their amazing talents.