Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Obscure Sports That Pay Big
We all know that players in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and PGA are well compensated for their athletic abilities. They make millions of dollars and enjoy the adulation of fans across the country. You may not have known, however, that athletes in lesser-known sports are highly paid as well. Although they do not receive all of the national attention of their more famous counterparts, they are able to make a nice living toiling away in anonymity. (Find out about overpaid athletes in Top 10 Most Hair-Raising Sports Contracts.)
In Pictures: 8 Money-Saving Tips For Sports Fans
Bowling
Walter Ray Williams Jr. has the most wins in the Professional Bowling Association's (PBA) history with 47 tour wins. He has the single season earnings record raking in $419,700 in the 2002-03 season. Williams Jr. has made over $4.2 million dollars throughout his bowling career.
Unlike NBA, MLB, NFL stars, Williams can continue in his career despite his advanced age. At 50 years of age Williams plans to continue bowling for the foreseeable future. Bowling has produced other multimillionaires such as former PBA Tour champion Pete Weber. Weber has earned over $3.2 million in his playing career.
Darts
Phil Taylor is as popular in England as Michael Jordan is in the United States. Taylor has won an impressive 15 Professional Dart Championships (PDC) and over 150 professional tournaments throughout his illustrious career. Taylor has been rewarded handsomely for winning 15 of the last 21 PDC Championships earning over $5 million pounds (or $7.7 million dollars) in career earnings.
Table Tennis
Table tennis is full of great players such as Ma Long and Wang Hao of China. Long and Hao are the number one and two ranked players in the world. They have both won the International Table Tennis Federation's (ITTF) Pro Tour Grand Finals Championship. Their reward for winning first place in the ITTF Men's Singles Championship was $40,000. (Check out Sports Stars Worth Every Penny.)
Table tennis players can win purses ranging from $2,800 to $33,000 for winning tournaments during the season.
Skateboarding
Do you think skateboarding is just a fad? Well, tell that to Tony Hawk, Paul Rodriguez Jr. and Ryan Sheckler. Hawk has built a multi-million dollar empire on the action sport. He is the highest paid extreme sports star generating $12 million dollars a year in income according to Forbes. Hawk makes money on everything, including skateboards, clothing apparel and videogames.
Skateboarder Ryan Sheckler earned $5 million in 2008 and scored a reality show on MTV. Paul Rodriguez Jr. is one of the most popular skateboarders going. P-Rod earned over $2 million dollars and has his own Nike shoe and a clothing line. P-Rod has been featured in Tony Hawk videogames as well.
Cricket
Cricket players now make the salaries of NFL, NBA and MLB players. The highest paid cricket player in the world, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, makes over $10 million dollars a year. He recently signed a two-year, $42 million dollar marketing deal to endorse numerous different products.
Dhoni is not alone. Indian superstar Sachin Tendulkar earned over $8 million dollars last year. According to Forbes, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is home to nine of the richest cricket players in the world. Each player's salary is well over a million dollars a season. These players make as much as $100,000 per three-hour contest.
Fishing
Who knew that there was big money in fishing? Three-time Bassmaster Classic champ Kevin VanDam has made over $4.7 million dollars in earnings throughout his career. FLW Champ David Dudley has made over $2 million dollars during his pro career. Angler Skeet Reese has accumulated $2.3 million dollars during his 13-year career. Michael Iaconelli and Gerald Swindle are millionaire anglers as well.
The Bottom Line
As you can see, you don't have to play one of the major sports to strike it rich. There are lots of athletes that toil away in obscurity and manage to eke out a pretty good living. (For the flipside, check out Baseball Greats Who Were Paid Like Benchwarmers.)
Catch up on your financial news; read Water Cooler Finance: Goldman Fined, Financial Fixes And Apple's "Apology".
Original story - Obscure Sports That Pay Big
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Role Models Of Skating — A Good Glimpse Of The Ambassador Concept
Skateboarding happens to be participating in a extremely substantial resurgence in fame at this time. The competition ıs popular for nearly 10 years at this point, nevertheless its status even now waxes and wanes based on the mindset belonging to the recent generation of youths.
Luckily for individuals who count on skating’s status to place meals on their family table, right now is a fairly good point in time for the sport. Younger ardent skaters along the lines of Ryan Sheckler (yes, the man lurking behind the ryan sheckler shoes) have became connected well with youths, and are also offering something critical: A presence which the youths are able to relate to.
It’s no hidden knowledge that professional skateboarding lives and dies by its teen market. Once hip-hop experienced an enormous upswing in status in the early 2000’s, youngsters begun to push away from skateboarding. It was subsequently no longer known as popular being a skateboarder, with the suggested punk look not to mention mindset.
It is often a little something which most people fail to see. Skating is not only a sport, it’s also a style. Even if almost all skaters could well be loathe to accept it, these people dedicate nearly as much time & money searching for wardrobe and skate shoes as they do skateboards and bearings. That is why the sport’s reputation encounters these surges and dips. It’s actually style based, just like just about any fashion.
So exactly what has it been that determines if being a skater is going to be in this specific season? Clearly, first off, whether there may be anybody that will signify the fashion that could be at the same time captivating to young people and also marketable overall.
When skate boarding first hit it big time, this was Tony Hawk. The man’s ability to diversify out and assist with video gaming in addition to commercials managed a terrific job for distributing understanding for the sport. Individuals like Bam Margera along with the earlier mentioned Ryan Sheckler have took the torch since then. Not surprisingly, whenever skateboarding is with no adequate ambassador, it’s taken a plunge of attention.
The entire ambassador phenomena is not really specific to professional skateboarding, however. It’s found in different competitive sports, along with trend-centric groups. Basketball seemed to be broadly regarded as being at its best at the time participants such as Jordan and Shaq had been at the forefront.
In the same way, the rap community was greatest when there were good personas in the role of reps. Men along the lines of Jay-Z do an admirable job with representing the scene’s constant “never say die” frame of mind and also teaching urban teens that one can get from rags to riches with a little bit of expertise together with a generous helping of elbow grease. Curtis Jackson displayed that it’s doable to go from a neighborhood hoodlum to the platinum musician, actor, and also computer game celebrity. Marshall Mathers proved to the world that hiphop was not related to the color of one’s skin. The examples could continue indefinitely.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that fair weather skaters will appear and disappear, there will invariably be a collection of true skaters who’ve already been there ever since the outset. No matter whether it is trendy or otherwise, they’ll be here, and they’re the building blocks that the empire cemented on. Whenever Ryan Sheckler fades in the limelight, they will certainly always keep the home fires burning up to the point the next ambassador is just about to move up towards the plate.
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Monday, July 19, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Bill My Parents Lets Kids Shop And Parents Pay… Extra
The birthday list, the holiday gift list, the wedding registry are all designed to help your loved ones know exactly what you want. Because after all, even the people that know you best need a little bit of guidance when it comes to the shopping department.
Teenagers are especially particular about what they want. Choose the wrong color t-shirt and hormones erupt. Suggest a brand that may not be the latest and greatest and expect harsh laughter in your face.
How do you solve the problem of getting a bratty teen exactly what he or she wants? Bill My Parents claims to have found the solution.
“Now there’s a way for you to get exactly what you want — the right brand, the right color, the right style. That’s because YOU do the shopping,” the site promises teens. “Shop millions of items online at a BillMyParents participating retailer. Create a shopping cart filled with exactly what you want. Your parents are sent the shopping cart to review and check out.” Currently, teenagers can enjoy products from Amazon and PacSun.
But what’s the difference between sending a shopping list through Bill My Parents and simply creating a “wish list” on any e-commerce site? Ah, that’s right! The fine printed 3-5% commission and transaction fee. Because in addition to buying your 13-year-old a shirt that he or she will hate in a week, mom and dad would love to pay 5% extra!
So in the case of Bill My Parents vs. The Wish List, we’ll have to vote in favor of the oldie. Bill My Parents may have a flashy website and Ryan Sheckler as a spokesperson, but if you ask us, the whole thing seems a tad pointless, if not scam-y.
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