Sports rich list: Chasing the money with New Zealand’s top-earning athletes

Steven Adams topped the Herald's sporting rich list. Photo / Photosport

EDITORIAL

This week’s Herald sporting rich list highlights an odd incongruity about our national game.

While the All Blacks and their oval-ball code dominate our sporting consciousness, no rugby players appear in the top 10 of our sporting rich list. Nor are there any league players.

Yet it’s reasonable to presume that skill with an oval ball (and, in many cases, skill at smashing other people who are carrying an oval ball) still remains the surest path to a sporting career with a decent salary for young New Zealanders.

There’s no doubt that when you add up professional leagues in Europe and Asia and at home, more Kiwi rugby players would be earning a reasonable salary than those in any other sport. It’s understood there are 450 players contracted through NZ Rugby, and more beyond that contracted directly to provinces.

For decades, New Zealanders have found a place in the NRL – the premier league competition in the world – finding themselves able to build a credible career with many able to establish a financial or professional base for their post-playing days.

Yet, like their XV-a-side cousins, league players are absent from the top echelon of our rich list. The really big money lies elsewhere.

All Blacks fans might look at Steven Adams and wonder at how he might have fared as an international second rower, but there’s no doubt that Adams’ bank manager would applaud his career choice.

Golfers hold the most spots in the Herald’s top 10 of any sporting code. Yet beyond the top-flight efforts of Lydia Ko, Danny Lee, Steve Alker and Ryan Fox, the life of a promising tour pro can be difficult.

In motorsport, Kiwis are carving out lucrative careers – the rise of Liam Lawson on the books of Red Bull suggest he will be in line for a higher spot on next year’s list.

The rise of football for Kiwis as a participation sport and increasingly as an entertainment option through the English Premier League has been well documented. Yet only one All White – Nottingham Forest’s striker Chris Wood – makes the list.

There are plenty of other young All Whites developing very successful careers in other major football leagues around the world: Liberato Cacace is at Empoli in Italy’s Serie A, Marko Stamenic is running out with Olympiacos in Greece, while there will be many Kiwis in action when Auckland FC hosts the Phoenix this afternoon.

When Winston Reid burst on to the scene for the All Whites and West Ham in 2010, then national skipper Ryan Nelsen summed up the financial appeal of football ahead of rugby for young athletes.

“A lot of Māori and Pacific Island players will see a young Māori man making a name for himself playing soccer. It’s got to be appealing. And he’s making a lot of money for doing it. Instead of being paid buttons and getting smashed up in rugby mauls and all that.”

Today, there’s certainly bigger money to be had for those who can make it to the top of football, but for those young Māori and Pacific Island athletes Nelsen spoke about, the two rugbys – union and league – seem more likely to deliver a sustainable career pathway in sport.