Bottom Line Isn’t Always the Top Figure : Athletes’ Paychecks Look Great--Before the IRS, the Agents and the Expenses Are Paid

Well, that ain’t workin’ That’s the way you do it Get your money for nothin’ Get your chicks for free --DIRE STRAITS, rock group

The average working stiff finds most Sunday nights rather disquieting. Another weekend is almost over, and all you can think about is what needs to be done at work before the next weekend mercifully arrives.

Unable to sleep, you watch the 11 p.m. news, where a fast-talking sportscaster shows highlights from what he undoubtedly will say was another busy day in sports.

On the screen is some suntanned golfer named Fuzzy or Hal sinking a 35-foot birdie putt to win the Greater El Segundo Volvo Perry Como Invitational and Fish Fry. Then, they show the golfer posing with a check the size of Spud Webb for $90,000, which is literally and figuratively larger than any check you’ll ever earn.

Yeah, money for nothin’ . . .

And he gets Monday off, too.

It is often true that many professional athletes have a disgustingly more glamorous life than the rest of us. But it might be comforting to know that golfers and other athletes don’t actually keep all of the prize money they receive for only a few hours of work.

For example, a study by the PGA and Golf Digest showed that the average male golfer will wind up with less than half of that $90,000 first prize from the mythical Perry Como Fish Fry.

Money figures and tax brackets may vary, but the average pro golfer will lose $39,396 of the $90,000 to taxes, $13,500 to his agent or management firm, $4,750 to his caddie, $800 for the hotel, $400 for traveling expenses and $200 for food.

Once all the deductions are taken out, only $30,954 of the $90,000 remains for the winner. Not a bad payday, but not as lucrative as it seems on television.

However, many athletes have become corporations and are able to claim their travel as business expenses on their tax returns.

For example, the $1 million bonus Bill Elliott received last September for winning three of the four major stock car races didn’t add up to $1 million once Elliott’s accountant had finished.

Even though Elliott was holding an oversized check with six zeros and two commas after the 1, he realized he would be lucky to keep half of that.

“It’s a family deal,” Elliott said. “It belongs to the whole family, not just me.”

Actually, much of it belongs to Elliott’s extended family, which includes car owner Harry Melling, brother Ernie (the crew chief and engine-builder) and the rest of Bill’s crew.

According to a spokesperson for the Elliott family, Bill might have only received $400,000 of that bonus. Not to worry, though: Elliott receives sponsorship from Melling, who, in turn, receives sponsorship from Coors.

Elliott’s 1985 earnings totaled nearly $2.4 million, so you still can call him Million Dollar Bill. Unlike professional athletes in team sports, where the players are under salary and have all expenses paid by their teams, golfers, tennis players, bowlers and, to a lesser extent, race-car drivers earn a living strictly from prize money and endorsements.

Some athletes, such as Elliott and Martina Navratilova, parlay prize money and endorsements into millions. Most can make a good living on their respective tours, but others either eke out a meager profit or lose money and wind up getting real jobs.

Even for many superstars, the travel is not always first class. Hotels can range from a Hilton to a Vagabond to the home of a friend. And haute cuisine is what is available in the tournament’s players’ lounge.

Be it a glamorous life or a grind, these athletes will tell you that you should not feel too sorry for them. The money is still good and, besides, Sunday nights usually mark the end of a working week for golfers and tennis players.

One Monday morning late last summer, Pam Shriver boarded a World Airways nonstop flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles to participate in the $250,000 Virginia Slims of Los Angeles at the Manhattan Beach Tennis Club.

Conspicuously cradling several racquets, Shriver walked back to the economy section, where she unfolded her lanky body for the five-hour flight. Shriver, whose ranking on the women’s tennis circuit has fluctuated from No. 3 to No. 5 during her eight years on the tour, certainly can afford to fly first class.

Or can she?

“I could if I wanted to, but I rarely fly first class,” Shriver said. “Maybe to Australia or Japan or something. But it saves money flying coach, and I have to fly a lot.”

During her week-long stay in Los Angeles, Shriver said she spent approximately $1,000 in airline tickets for herself and Hank Harris, her practice partner. The hotel bill--with a special player discount--was $75 a night. She spent $50 per day per person for meals and about $150 for a rental car.

All told, Shriver’s conservative estimate for expenses for this tournament was $2,650. As it turned out, though, it was worth it. Shriver advanced to the final and earned more than four times that for finishing second.

Earlier in the week, though, Shriver expressed relief that she made it past the first round.

“It doesn’t take long to figure out that, if I had lost tonight, there’s no way I would have broken even,” she said. “If I lose in the next round, then I break even. Once you hit the semis, you do reasonably well.”

Because she usually falls in the “reasonably well” category, Shriver often indulges herself on the road with expensive dinners or plush accommodations.

“If I wanted to, I could save money like a lot of others,” Shriver said. “I like to have a nice hotel room. Some (players) stay with families, but I’d like to know the family first, you know. I could probably eat more meals at the court, but I like to get away. Little stuff. Like in Newport (R.I.), my coach and I found this nice guest house close to the courts, so we spent more money and went there.

“I try to keep track of my earnings and investments. I’m really into real estate and have a corporation. But I’d have to check with my accountant to tell you how much prize money I lose to taxes, and I’m not really sure I want to check. I’m comfortable. I can do what I want. It might be depressing to find out how much I lose to taxes.”

Besides the government, the only people Shriver shares her purse money with are her coach and practice partner. Although she is represented by ProServ, a major sports management firm based in Washington, Shriver does not give a percentage of prize money to her agent.

“Usually, players give up 20% of the (prize) money to their agents,” Shriver said. “But the only person I give a percentage of the prize money to are my coaches. To me, it’s not right for someone who sits behind a desk and is a lawyer to get a percentage of what you earned on the court. They don’t have anything to do with your tennis.

“As a top-ranked player, I had leverage to negotiate a deal where the agents received only a percentage of my endorsements (20%), not the prize money. But a lesser player has to accept that a management group will take 10% off the top.”

Shriver is one of the fortunate ones. Although she tries to keep expenses at a minimum, she could go without prize money for a long time and still not be in financial trouble. That’s because she has lucrative endorsement contracts with Prince (for rackets), Nike (for shoes) and Fila (for clothing).

Besides being paid for using the equipment and having her name and face used in advertisements, Shriver would have received a cash bonus from Prince had she had won the tournament in Los Angeles.

Another source of income for several top players comes from appearance money, which is against regulations in both the men’s and women’s tours. A few years ago, Guillermo Vilas was caught accepting appearance money and was fined and suspended.

“With the men, I know there’s appearance money all the time,” Shriver said. “They try to hide it. They try to do it legally somehow. . . . It’s nowhere near as blatant in women’s tennis.”

Not counting appearance money, Shriver says it takes between $20,000 and $30,000 a year to break even on the women’s tennis tour.

“I’m closer to $30,000,” Shriver said. “I’m pretty darn near at the top of the list.”

First class or no.

They don’t pay Mark Baker, or most any other bowler, appearance money to show up for a PBA tournament. Bowlers must pay a $200 entry fee for each stop on the tour, which includes such places as Akron, Ohio; Wichita, Kan., and Torrance.

Reached by phone recently at a Quality Inn near the St. Louis airport, Baker talked about the difficult life on the PBA Tour.

“Baseball players, they’ve got it made,” said the 24-year-old Baker, who lives in Garden Grove. “Lenny Dykstra (of the New York Mets) and I grew up together, and he laughs about how little I make compared to what they make. It’s as tough to do what I do as it is to hit a fastball.”

Baker is among the PBA money leaders, having earned $90,925 last season. He finished in the top 24 more times (23) than anyone, and he already has three finishes in the top 24 this year.

Yet, Baker worries about making ends meet. Baker says he spends between $800 and $1,000 a week. It would be more except that Baker shares his motel rooms with another bowler and splits rental car costs.

In order to break even for a week at a tournament, Baker and the other 162 regular touring bowlers must make the top 53. That assures a pay day of between $800 and $1,000, depending on the tournament’s total purse. First-place prize money in most tournaments is usually $25,000. Last season, Mike Aulby became the first bowler to earn more than $200,000 in a year.

At a recent tournament, Baker finished 13th and earned $2,600. It was a profitable week. He bought the beer.

“But remember, in addition to that $200 entry fee, I spent $250 for the room, $200 for the rental car and I don’t know how much on food,” Baker said. “If I were to (travel) on my own, it would be double, almost. You don’t think about how many Cokes a day you drink or how many beers you have after you get done. Plus, you see movies on the road. I fly to the cities now instead of drive. These things add up.”

Now that Baker is one of the top 24 bowlers on the tour, he doesn’t worry quite as much about finances. He figures he spends close to $30,000 a year in traveling expenses, so he was able to pocket about $60,000 of his earnings last season--before taxes.

Bowling wasn’t always profitable for Baker. His first three years on the tour, he drove his car, battling below-freezing temperatures in the winter and 100-degree steam baths in the summer.

“A lot of guys go the mobile home route and that’s tough,” he said. “You’ve got to be a master mechanic to do that. You’re always on the highway.”

Even though he had a private sponsor when he started on the tour, Baker earned only $84,691 his first four seasons. He drove a beat-up sedan from alley to alley and ate a lot at adjacent coffee shops.

“I needed a sponsor,” Baker said. “If not for him, I wouldn’t have broken even. After a few years, though, the sponsors go away. Now, I’m on my own. I pay for everything.

“Last year was a good year. Being a 24-year-old kid, I can’t complain. But if I had that type of year in almost any other sport, we’d be talking about a lot more money. But I try not to think about that. I picked bowling, not golf or tennis.”

s Whenever Baker gets depressed with the winter weather, he thinks about the 17 weeks a year that he isn’t on tour and is able to sleep late and relax at his Garden Grove home.

“I like what I’m doing,” he said. “I’ve seen the country--literally. It’s not money for nothing, but I can’t complain.”

Prize money in golf, both for men and women, is arguably the best of any individual sport. Endorsement potential, especially for the men, rivals only tennis.

But golf expenses are rather steep. In addition to the basic travel expenses, almost every golfer has to pay an agent or management firm.

International Management Group, which represents many golfers, sometimes charges up to 25%. The average agent share of prize money is between 10% and 20%.

“That’s a lot of money and I don’t know how a lot of (management firms) justify that,” said agent Linda Giaciolli, who handles both JoAnne Carner and Amy Alcott. “We only charge 5%. We usually are on a straight hourly fee.”

Giaciolli said about 60% of Alcott’s income comes from prize money, the rest from endorsements and investments. But Carner, the all-time LPGA money-winner, earns nearly all of her money from tournaments.

Alcott and Carner each spend about $2,000 a week on expenses and almost always make that up in prize money. Golfers of lesser ability on both the men’s and women’s tours live a more Spartan existence and sometimes don’t win back their expenses.

One thing that rankles golfers is the idea that $1 million total purses at tournaments are too much.

“Consider the fact that the more you make, the higher your expenses are,” Craig Stadler once said. “Expenses are running about $100,000 (per year) and it’s out of our pocket.

“The salaries in other sports are unbelievable. Plus, they are getting their room and board paid and they’re only playing six or seven months out of the year. Our season runs 11 months. We make all our own travel arrangements. Nothing’s done for us.

“Most of the guys have a mortgage back home to consider, some of them a family to support. It’s not all as great as it appears.”

So much money is needed to purchase a race horse and keep it in training that the payoff from a major stakes win may not seem worth it. But then, you hear success stories such as the one about the owners of Seattle Slew, who ran an original investment of $37,000 into $150 million.

For every Seattle Slew and John Henry, though, there are hundreds of marginal stakes and claimers out there who all require similar stabling cost and care from trainers and veterinarians.

“And they all eat pretty much the same,” said Howard Senzell, president of Summa Stables in Riverside, which is owned by millionaire Bruce McNall and mega-millionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt.

The going rate among most Southern California trainers for stabling just one horse is $60 a day. So, without counting insurance on the horse and veterinary bills, that comes to $21,900 per year per horse.

“Depending on the horse’s condition and health, it’s got to cost you a total of $30,000 a year to keep him racing,” Senzell said. “Since the jockey gets 10% of the prize money and the trainer 10%, then the horse would have to earn over $40,000 a year to break even.

“That’s fine with stakes horses, but it’s gotten to the point where you can’t have inexpensive horses anymore because there’s no way out. You’ve got to try to hit the home run, so you don’t stay with horses long if they don’t produce. If we don’t feel a horse we’ve bought can be a stakes winner, we sell.”

Owners generally receive the bulk of the prize money. The jockey and trainer each receive 10%, and the owner also is responsible for paying stable workers such as the groom and exercise rider.

Another expense is shipping a horse to another track for a major race.

Recently, Proud Truth was shipped from the East Coast to Santa Anita for three races, including the lucrative Strub Stakes. It cost Proud Truth’s owners $10,000 to have him flown in. The owners also had to pay a hefty supplemental fee to enter the Strub.

Proud Truth did not win and the owner reportedly lost $39,000 on the trip.

Insuring each horse is another major expense. Sometimes, the premium could be as much as 10% of what the active race horse is insured.

Said Senzell: “The key in traveling is to get enough horses going to Florida or New York for a charter flight.”

Some wealthy owners use their horses as tax write-offs. But, under federal tax laws, an owner must make a profit two out of the last seven years or they cannot use horse-racing expenses as deductions.

“The owner ends up taking the worst of it,” Senzell said. “But he’s the one who also has a chance to turn horses into multi-million dollar commodities.”

If there is a sport in which you really do get money for nothing and chicks for free, it surely must be professional surfing, right?

Not quite, according to veteran surfer Shaun Tomson, who nonetheless is living comfortably in Santa Monica with a clothing company, a surf shop and a prosperous modeling career--you’ve seen him in Calvin Klein ads--thanks primarily to good surfing and good looks.

“There are only about 10 guys making a decent living off surfing,” Tomson said. “The rest of the guys are having a bit of a tough time because there’s just not enough dollars to go around in the sport.”

In most parts of the United States, professional surfing is noticed about as much as pro lawn bowling. But in Australia, for instance, interest is great even if the prize money isn’t.

If a guy were to win every event in the 11-month Assn. of Surfing Professionals (ASP) tour, he would only earn $150,000. Expenses, including flights, run about $40,000 a year.

Fortunately for most surfers, sponsors pick up the tab. There most likely wouldn’t be an ASP were it not for corporations willing to spend money.

“You might have a sponsor that will pay your airline tickets or one that will just pay you a set salary,” Tomson said.

“The key areas of sponsorship are clothing, wet suits and usually a surfboard and accessory sponsor. Stuff like sunglasses. They want to see you wearing their merchandise.”

Tough life, being a professional athlete.

They get paid for wearing items such as sunglasses, and sometimes earn more in a single afternoon than many make in a year.

But they do have to work weekends.