"Where's My Money?"
Unfortunately, this is a question asked too often by current and former professional athletes. With the average salary for football, basketball, baseball, and hockey in 1967 being $20,000; $100,000 in 1980; $1,000,000 in 1995; and currently $5.4 million for basketball, $3 million in baseball, and $1.4 million in football management of large sums of money becomes paramount. In a recent article focused on pro athletes and their money, one of the largest areas of misappropriated money fell under one category... The Entourage. Many pro athletes as well as entertainers surround themselves with anywhere from one to a 200-person entourage to assist in the day-to-day and long term events. Despite having many members of these entourages being close friends and family members, admittedly, many are along for the easy ride and cash cow.
Where does this entourage money go...many different paths. Housing, travel expenses, and food seem to be the biggest culprits. Just getting tickets for games can be a major expense. As an example, the NBA allows players four tickets for home games and two per away games. The NFL allow two tickets for home and none for away games. If an athlete is paying $80 per ticket for the ten to twenty friends, family, or other entourage members, it adds up quickly throughout the course of a season and comes directly from an athlete's own pocket.
Professional boxer, Oscar de la Hoya dropped ten members from his entourage, mostly consisting of friends, and saved nearly $400,000 a year in food, housing, and travel expenses. Who couldn't use an additional 400 grand in their pocket no matter how much income you have?
As agents and leagues are becoming more proactive and aligning athletes with financial advisors some of the money direction is left up to personal choice. Wise athletes create their entourage of salaried positions, each given a specific task from personal assistance to publicity to nutrition to physical training. With the average personal assistant salary ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 annually, some positions include incentives such as sharing appearance monies, thus looking to create an attitude of, "the more money you make for me the more you get" situation. Another huge piece of advice by agents and financial advisors is to only recruit freelancers as needed. Another successful money management idea is to designate a supervisor. A well-trusted long-time friend or family member that will do the dirty work. Keeping a tight lid on the finances and keeping the entourage in line. Most athletes would gladly give up that aspect of money management as their focus and energy needs to be on their athletic profession.
So whether your entourage is one or one hundred, based on your business needs, use some of these timeless pieces of entourage advice so you're not saying, "Where's My Money" anytime in the near future.
You can find out more about me and my book at: www.fromglorydays.com
