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Now Woods can add one more accolade to his trophy case: the first athlete to earn $1 billion. Our calculations show that the $10 million bonus Woods earned winning this year's FedEx Cup title nudged him over the $1 billion mark in career earnings.
Forbes has been tracking athlete earnings since before Tiger turned pro. Woods had earned a cumulative $895 million going into 2009, by our estimates, from prize money, appearance fees, endorsements, bonuses and his golf course design business. If you add his $10.5 million in 2009 prize money, the FedEx bonus and his take so far this year from his more than $100 million in annual off-the-course earnings, Woods' career earnings are now 10 figures.
I don't get it I didn't see him on Forbes 400 list and it was just published for 2009 last week. The youngest member on it is 35 years old besides Zuck Markerberg.
IIRC Lebron James wants to be the richest athlete ever so looks like the bar has been raised.
Yeah unless China gives him a billion dollars *right now* for him to change citizenship and play for their national team this "goal" of his is never going to happen.
Plus Tiger will be playing until he's in crutches. Even if Bron has a career to rival MJ's he still only has 10-12 more years in his prime to amass the kind of wealth needed to keep up with Tiger (provided no scandals rip all those endorsement dollars away).
I don't get it I didn't see him on Forbes 400 list and it was just published for 2009 last week. The youngest member on it is 35 years old besides Zuck Markerberg.
Last week, Forbes reported that Tiger Woods was the first athlete to earn $1 billion. One problem, though: Woods says he doesn't have that much money. At a Presidents Cup news conference Tuesday, a reporter asked Woods directly about the Forbes report.
Reporter: "This last week, it was announced you hit the billionaire status. What's that like to learn?"
Tiger Woods: [Laughs] "Well, one, I haven't, so I don't know where that number came from."
Forbes cited estimates of Woods's earnings from endorsements, tournament winnings, appearance fees and his nascent golf-course design business. Other than tournament winnings, Forbes could only guess at the other income of the famously circumspect Woods, and the business magazine admitted its figures could not be exact.
As for Woods, only his accountant knows if Tiger is a billionaire athlete yet, but if it did not happen on Sunday [after his $10 million FedEx Cup win] it is likely only a matter of months or his next check from Nike.
Woods is certain to be the first billionaire athlete, but we'll never know when it happens. He likely won't know right away either, and when he does learn, the only acknowledgment of the fact will probably be a private smile behind the tinted windows of a Buick SUV.
Like I said, he certainly doesn't have a billion dollars...He merely allegedly earned that much so far. He probably HAS about half that....oh, and that yacht.
Last edited by surfcity40; 10-12-2009 at 06:35 PM.
Tiger Woods, First to a Billion.
