Pronger on Twitter

[hockeyrobot]

New to Twitter and definitely worth a follow as he is bringing some insight to the financial life of a professional athlete. Yes of course most people can say "they still make a ton of money", but it's still interesting to get an inside look on something we don't normally see.

Here's a thread from earlier today.

When you hear about X player making $30M over 5 years ($6M/yr) you think wow he made it. However that is not always the reality, in this thread I am going to break down how much they take home and where the rest of it goes.

For this thread here is the example:

X player gets $30M paid over 5 years and earn on paper $6M a year. Here is who they pay:

Right off the bat escrow gets taken out of every check. On average about 10%. Most people have no idea about escrow.

This is money that the NHL withholds from players in case the 50% revenue share is not met. In most cases the player never sees this money again. So that’s 10%

$6M salary minus escrow (10% avg.)

- $5,400,000

Next are federal taxes - 37%

We get bi-weekly checks (13) during the regular season. For each of those checks the gov’t gets 37% +-

• $2,000,000

Now you have to pay the local tax. That could be 0% like in TX & FL or as high as 16% in NYC. For this example let’s use 8%. There is another 8%

• $432,000

Next is agents. They vary but typically the average is 3%. BTW that is 3% of the gross not post tax. So there is another 3%

• $162,000

So let’s total this up now. Player X is now netting $2,806,000. That is a lot of money! But now they have to spend a little more money to do their job effectively.

Housing. Typically players are not from the city they play in so they either rent or buy a house (rent $5k month)

For health you typically have a chiropractor, masseuse and trainer that you are paying for in and out of season. ($20k/yr)

Vehicle. Need to get to and from practice and games. ($75k)

And finally nutrition. Nutritionist and food are $6-7k a month. ($60k/yr)

Now this is all the expenses just to be doing their job at a high level and not living the high life. Which certainly happens but not on this thread. Just a reminder these are averages and not fact!

So Player X is netting $2,591,000. Which is around 43% of the total number. Now keep in mind the average career is 4 years and the average salary is $2M. So yes this is still a nice amount of money but most people don’t realize how much comes off the top before they get to invest

Also keep in mind I am not including when athletes seasons are over they typically go somewhere to relax and unwind. Nor am I including a number of other ancillary expenses that typically come up. For me it was the odd suspension

[stevegamer]

None of that surprises me, but he is including some pretty higher end vehicle & housing costs. For example, $75,000 per year for a vehicle is the purchase cost of a nice new vehicle annually. Stars often get cars partly or fully paid in exchange for showing up in ads.

[forumname]

"When you hear about X player making $30M over 5 years ($6M/yr) you think wow he made it. However that is not always the reality"


Umm, yes it is. Even after you account for all those crazy athlete-specific expenses like housing and transportation.

[roenick27]

It’s an interesting piece, but I think it’s a bit misleading, both ways. It would be interesting to see the contrast in black and white with a superstar player that has played 15+ years in the league vs. a star/superstar that had their career cut short due to injuries etc (say 5 years) vs. a career 4th liner and vs a “tweener” (career ahler that plays in the nhl for spurts or a year ir two- depending on their service time, I would say they still “made it”) He didn’t even go into anything along the lines of external income (i.e. endorsements). On the flip side, he does mention the word invest. Remember, the average guy that “makes it” might be retiring at 30-35 or earlier. They have to stretch that money out an extra 30+ years for retirement and are not earning during years of kids going to school etc. I’m not sure what the long term benefits look like for health coverage either (if at all).

This is a very interesting piece, but I would really like to see a few different examples across the board to grasp a true understanding. Sure these guys are getting paid a ton of money, but my guess is that long term, outside of the huge names, the average nhler might not be filthy rich in the way we think when (if) they get that big contract(s).

[hockeyrobot]

Yep that's all I found interesting as well. I guess I had just never thought about it enough to actually consider the numbers.

[2014olympicgold]

I've always disliked when players/agents/TV personalities complain about taxes on a salary taking a lot. That's for everyone as well. Stop complaining taxes are taking a lot of your multi-million dollar salary.

CBA also includes Rental Car Entitlement, Rent help, House-Hunting Airfare, offseason medical insurance, and even in the extended 2019-2020 season they added in housing cost reimbursements, rental car coverage, and hotel coverages. Then if you are with a team that isn't cheap as heck they'll def cover a lot more stuff on the side for you and your family. I know in the NFL, Pat McAfee has used the owners private jet by just texting him a few hours before if he can use it. Boxes get given out. Perks cover a lot of this stuff.

So I don't care how much gets taken off these multimillion dollar deals, you are going to make a lot of that back and if I can circumvent the Canadian tax system to get some stuff back during tax season by using TurboTax, you can bet these guys can get a lot of there taxes back. If they aren't fire your accountant and agent ASAP because 1 isn't doing their job and the other is making you think you need to sign for more to cover what's lost in taxes to pad his salary.

[Rylant]

The financial threat most athletes face, is ridiculous lifestyles and overspending. Also, because a lot of athletes do that, it rubs off on the younger talent coming in. If you want to live well but protect your future, you have to be smart about it. A lot of athletes don't. I think this kind of thing is really bad in the NBA.

Rylant

[2014olympicgold]

The financial threat most athletes face, is ridiculous lifestyles and overspending. Also, because a lot of athletes do that, it rubs off on the younger talent coming in. If you want to live well but protect your future, you have to be smart about it. A lot of athletes don't. I think this kind of thing is really bad in the NBA.

Rylant

It's to the point where in the NHL, they run camps for 16-17yr olds before they are drafted teaching them about nutrition, yoga, working out and recovery, but also off ice stuff now. They talk about social media, financials, "personal life protection" (wink wink), and social life.

NBA, it's a lot of money coming at young people quickly. Like...A LOT. In the NHL it's a bit better in the sense that they "only" get 3mill in salary over their first 3 yrs. But it's no where near the 10s of millions for NBA guys. NFL is actually the worst. Short careers, no guaranteed contracts, no real minor league systems to make a living off of. The NFL is bad for setting up financial failures.

[doulos]

Cry me a ****ing river Chris....lol

These people live on the moon.

[2014olympicgold]

Like the timing of this is so bad too. People are struggling with inflation, housing issues, and job security and he decides to pump out stats about how a 30mill contract "is really only 15mill". I get that the argument is the 15mill is supposed to go take them through their age 30-80yr old but give me all the money I'll make in my career now and I'll invest to make more income.

It's another argument I dislike about how these guys are trying to make money for their full life in their 5yr career. I'll take 45yrs worth of salary in 5yrs and invest. $30,000,000 for 60yrs is still $500,000/yr. Half that by his standards is still $250,000/yr. They've made it. The money isn't to cover the future, it's more (to me) to cover their past work when they were 15yrs old sacrificing possible regular childhood to chase a dream.

Someone on the NHLXM station talked about Owen Power likely paying to play his first NHL game after buying all the tickets for his family and I was like...Welcome to how 99.999% of the hockey playing world plays the sport.

I also think Pronger is just upset he played in a time where the body gets beaten down even more than players today for less money and he didn't invest his properly. Didn't take advantage of commercials, partnerships and perks from businesses. Maybe his accountant was his buddy with a CPA and didn't get back enough in taxes as he could.

[doulos]

Maybe he should try NOT driving a 75k vehicle. I mean if he's so hard up and stuff. What a clueless idiot.

And, oh no, he needs a house. Like EVERYONE ELSE!

[Feenom]

Maybe he should try NOT driving a 75k vehicle. I mean if he's so hard up and stuff. What a clueless idiot.

And, oh no, he needs a house. Like EVERYONE ELSE!

Bang on, I know when you are making $6M/yr (really about $2M after all expenses) it's a tough life but I'd switch mine any day for anybody he is talking about.

[forumname]

Maybe he should try NOT driving a 75k vehicle. I mean if he's so hard up and stuff. What a clueless idiot.

And, oh no, he needs a house. Like EVERYONE ELSE!

A different 75k vehicle every single year, no less.

[kovalchuk17]

i believe pronger is trying to do good but does come off as tone deaf when it comes down to breaking down the details since this is still alot of money.

overall, i would still follow him as its first series of posts and its very rare for any social media entity to get it right from the getgo. allan walsh chimed in that series of tweets so with the right direction pronger's account could be illuminating moving forward

[audiopile]

It gives us an idea of some of the out of pocket costs anyway. I would have thought things like trainers and other medical experts were part of the organization or at least covered by their union agreement in the benefits. He really shouldnt be adding in expenses we all have. Man it would be great to be able to drop 5k a month on housing.