Has The Time Come To Start A Professional Swimmers Association?

With recent posts on social media calling for the creation of a Professional Swimmers Association and with John Leonard, Executive Director for the American Swimming Coaches Association and World Swimming Coaches Association supporting the movement, Swimming World decided to revisit the topic of Pro Swimming.

A “Call To Action” was sent out by Leonard in which he asked any athlete who is intending to turn pro to contact him at JLeonard@SwimmingCoach.org in order to assist the effort. The initial response has been overwhelming.

Call To Action Request

Professional Swimmers Association

In order to give a greater background to the life of a Professional Swimmer, Swimming World pulled a recent article from the Swimming World Magazine Archive dated October 2016.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

by Annie Grevers

Professional swimming…is it a real profession? When an athlete says, “I’m a professional swimmer,” most people outside of the swimming bubble think one of two things. Either, “You must be rich!” or “You can make a living off that?” The reality for most professional swimmers in the United States is somewhere in between. Yes, pro swimming exists. But no, pro swimmers are far from rich. It’s not like the NFL, where players make a million bucks per year, even if they are bench-bound.

ALL PRO SWIMMERS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

There are pro swimmers, and then there’s Michael Phelps. Phelps has a face and name that have become more valuable to the sport of swimming than the invention of goggles (forgive the hyperbole). Phelps has a net worth of $55 million, according to Forbes. The next highest-paid swimmer probably was Ryan Lochte at $6 million, though he lost most of his income in the post-Olympic Games incident in Rio. Missy Franklin’s worth is about $5 million, and Natalie Coughlin can round out the payroll of MVPs at around $2 million.

Some Olympic swimmers make an OK living from one major endorsement deal (usually with a swim apparel company) and a stipend offered via the United States Olympic Committee. This stipend usually comes to around $30,000—enough for an individual to live on, especially when the only article of clothing you really need is a swimsuit.

Median household income for Americans in 2015 was $51,000 per year. According to Forbes, on average, NBA players make $5.15 million per year; MLB, $3.2 million; NHL, $2.4 million; and NFL, $1.9 million. Yes, these are more heavily spectated sports than swimming—but not during Olympic years.

There may well be a way to present swimming to the land animals of this world in a fascinating way. Olympic production will always be novel, though it would likely lose some of its luster if it came more often than every four years. But rather than emulate the format of Olympic swimming, perhaps we can look at the way other sports have crafted a money-making system for their athletes.

INSPIRATIONS FROM BEYOND THE POOL

According to the PGA’s (Professional Golfers’ Association) website, “The PGA of America is the world’s largest sports organization, comprised of 28,000 men and women golf professionals who are the recognized experts in teaching and growing the game.”

The association was launched in 1916 with 35 charter members. In 1927, Samuel Ryder presented the Ryder Cup as the prize for the inaugural competition between British and American golfers. Now every two years, 24 of the best players from Europe and the United States go head-to-head in match play competition for the Ryder Cup, one of the world’s favorite sporting events.

Swimming has made attempts at their own Ryder Cup: The Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool. The event is no doubt a spectacle and a tremendous team-building exercise for Team USA and the “Euro Stars.” But it’s lacking in the purse department. Prize money for Duel in the Pool wins is nowhere near what the PGA is able to give at its biggest tournaments.

The PGA’s purse money comes from two places: 60 percent comes from the Tour’s TV rights deal; the tournament sponsor contributes the remaining 40 percent.

According to Forbes, “Title sponsors pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 million a year for events that are televised on NBC and CBS. The TV networks get a pretty good deal on the golf: the Tour sells between 65 and 75 percent of the TV advertising to its sponsors. The networks have to make up whatever remains.”

The richest tournament in golf is the Players Championship, which flaunts an $11 million purse. Twenty-nine percent of that pot goes to the top two players in the field. But those placing fourth and below are not hung out to dry (as they often are in the sport of swimming). Tenth place still rakes in nearly $300,000. Forty-seventh place at this tourney will earn you what swimmers get paid by the USOC for one year—a little more than $30,000.

HOW THIS RELATES TO SWIMMING

There’s no way swimming could bring in an $11 million purse for a meet right away, but the PGA has been around for 100 years. It takes time, energy and some passion to form an organization that will eventually make the sport a sustainable form of income for those who are among the top 50 in the world.

If someone graduates from college and is ranked 17th in the world, he or she misses out on receiving a monthly stipend from the USOC. It’s very hard to justify prolonging your swimming career without pay, even if you feel you have untapped potential in the sport.

In 1970, the total purse for 55 PGA Tour events was $5.5 million. By 2000, the total purse for 49 events was $164.4 million. By 2012, the 45 PGA events had a combined purse of $279 million.

But the PGA is not a business of greed. The association has been on a mission to give back since its establishment just before World War I. The PGA has raised $1.7 billion in charity since 1968—it gave away $121 million just last year.

This sounds a lot like the USA Swimming Foundation. The Foundation is the philanthropic branch of USA Swimming. It has invested millions of dollars to “provide grants to qualified learn-to-swim programs, to spread national awareness and to bring together strategic partners to end drowning.”

The USA Swimming Foundation’s mission is to save lives and build champions. Part of building champions in this sport is providing them the means to compete and unveil their potential in the sport.

In 2013, breaststroker Katie Meili had just graduated from Columbia University and was ranked 37th in the world in the 100 meter breaststroke. She was not fast enough to become a sponsored athlete, nor was her world ranking high enough to earn her USOC stipend money. But Meili found the means to keep swimming as a post-graduate, knowing she was improving at a rapid pace.

Three years later, she won an Olympic bronze medal in the 100 breast. If she had not had the independent financial means to keep training after college, the United States and Meili would have missed out on at least one Olympic medal (Meili also was a prelim swimmer in the gold medal-garnering 4 x 100 medley relay).

The amount of swimming talent that goes undeveloped due to a lack of money in this sport is probably astounding, but there’s no way to know.

IDEAS FOR GROWING SWIMMING’S PURSE

As shallow as it sounds, part of a kid’s desire to become a professional athlete is the life of luxury—or at least one of comfort. Yes, we have Phelps as that celebrity hero to look up to, but the reality is that we most likely won’t see another Phelps in this century.

An attempt at a professional swimming league was made in 2011. Twenty-eight men, some Olympians some not, rallied together and were divided into teams of 14 swimmers—one dubbed “East,” the other dubbed “West.”

The idea was brought forth by former national team swimmer Bobby Savulich and former Club Wolverine coach Mark Hill.

“Me and Mark were talking one day and saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do something short and sweet for entertainment versus a meet with 800 to 1,000 kids in it?’” Savulich said. The swimmer and coach had the connections and the pool space (University of Michigan), so they just needed athletes and sponsors to commit.

“We raised $12,000 for the event and got commitments from SwimMAC athletes, Tucson Ford athletes and other independents,” Savulich said.

The format was designed to entertain: 50s of stroke, 4 x 50 relays and no distance events (to keep the timeline under an hour and 15 minutes). The Michigan dance team and band kept the crowd entertained in between events, along with UM divers popping off trick dives, and a charismatic announcer. A lot of the pro swimmers did what Savulich called “WWE-style” walkouts.

One not-so-entertaining side of swimming has occurred when a swimmer wins an event, but seems angry or disappointed. At this meet, the swimmers all agreed to celebrate every victory, to rouse their respective teams and the crowd. The prize money involved was further incentive for their victorious fist pumps—first place took home $300; second, $150; and third, $50.

The meet itself was a success, but it didn’t exactly rake in the dough. But neither did PGA tournaments when they first started 100 years ago.

“Similar to the PGA, it would take awhile to catch on…and swimmers would need to be behind it,” Savulich said. “We didn’t feel like we owned the idea—we were hoping a company or sponsor would pick it up and run with it. I feel like it could spark up again.”

ATHLETES AS PAWNS

In the 1950s, the National Hockey League didn’t pay players if they missed a game due to injury. The injured player would be left without any health care or income. If the injury left the player “less effective,” then the league could cut his salary.

Detroit Red Wings’ player Ted Lindsay thought it time to end this unfair treatment and rallied players to form a union in the late 1950s. It took years to take hold, but by 1967, enough players belonged to the NHLPA to convince the owners to recognize their demands.

Now minimum wage in the NHL is $575,000 and salaries are capped at $71.4 million. It would be a pretty good guess that players will be OK for a few games if they’re benched due to injury.

Professional football and basketball players have unified to be heard (and paid) as well.

The NBPA (NBA Players Association) states, “Before the union’s inception (1954)…there was no pension plan, no per diem, no minimum wage, no health benefits, and the average player salary was $8,000.”

According to Investopedia, top NBA players threatened to pull out of the 1955 All-Star game if the NBA president refused their demands. The owners proceeded to make concessions, and in 1957, official bargaining between the league and the union was begun.

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Within USA Swimming, an Athletes’ Executive Committee (made up of current or recently retired swimmers) exists “to discuss and make recommendations on those issues affecting athlete members.”

There doesn’t necessarily need to be an uprising among professional swimmers for their voices to be heard, but having an all-swimmers “think tank” might be a good start for financial growth in the professional realm of the sport.

How many athletes hang up their goggles prematurely due to lack of funding? Swimming may never be a sport that athletes will pursue to get rich. At present, it doesn’t have the requisite corporate sponsorship or fan base to justify multi-million dollar contracts. But there should be a way for the highest echelon of swimmers to make a living as they strive to unveil their full potential.

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Donna Sizemore Hale

6 years ago

I’ll run it

Fred

6 years ago

This is long overdue

Charlie Was Here

6 years ago

JL makes a good point in that action needs to be taken now!

NotGuppy

6 years ago

Reply to Charlie Was Here

Hosszu Should Not Be Leading This Charge

CHARLOTTE

6 years ago

Reply to Charlie Was Here

Totally Agree with Leonard – Nice article by my favorite writer – Annie Grievers!!

Tania HG

6 years ago

Yvonne T de Tortoriello