Part 1: Data Description

For Part 1 of my final project, I will be looking at the top 100 highest paid athletes from 1990-2014. I find this to be extremely interesting because I have been an athlete my entire life until now. I am very interested to see how salaries differ between sport, gender, hometown, and age. All of these factors play a huge role in determining an athlete’s success financially and on the court/field. Before diving into the data, I would hypothesize that males make more money than females and athletes that partake in regularly televised sports make the most amount of money. I would also like to see how the salary of athletes varies based on the variables present in the data dictionary below and is there is any difference in team sports vs individual sports in terms of earnings.

Data Dictionary

Rank: The rank of each athlete out of 100 based on earnings

Name: Name of Athlete being ranked/described

Sport: Sport of Athlete

Total Pay: Total Pay of Athlete including Salary Winnings and Endorsements

Salary/Winnings: Base pay from sport without outside Endorsements

Endorsements: Pay coming Athlete Endorsements

Nation: Nation from which the Athlete was from

Gender: Athlete Gender

Year of Birth: Year Athlete was born

Birthdate: Athlete birthday

Place of Birth: City, State, and Country of birthplace

Height: Athlete height in centimeters

Description: Brief description of Athlete’s past accomplishments

Looking quickly at the summary statistics, the only information that would be valuable without looking at visualizations would be identifying Year of Birth and Height since they are the only variables currently classified as numbers.

Part 2:

Is there an extreme difference in the number of females in the top 100 compared to the number of male athletes in the top 100?

Sadly, nearly 100% of the top paid athletes are males. Though this data is nearly 10 years old, I would still believe that 90% or more of the top 100 paid athletes are male. As we will be able to see later on, most of the sports that are played by those in the top 100 are male dominant sports that women do not often get the chance to play in front of such large crowds or even at all.

For each sport, what is the average height (in cm) for athlete’s in the sport?

Basketball players are the tallest individuals in the top 100 most paid athletes. Their average height is around 205 centimeters which converts to 6 feet and 7 inches. This is an outrageous average height. The average height for men is roughly 176 centimeters or 5 feet and 9 inches. Therefore, we can clearly tell that havin ga height advantage can also lead you to opportunities that can create financial benefits. Racing has the lowest average height which could be expected since they are trapped in a little car for their sport. In this instance, their smaller stature is an advantage.

In what nations do the top 100 athletes come from?

The United States clearly dominates where the most paid athletes come from. The United States has an abundance of professional sports which is the highest level of sport one can play. Additionally, many individuals in other countries are not always as fortunate tp have the training opportunities that some do in the United States. Over time, we may see this trend decrease if other countries are willing to host professional sports. This would draw more interest from those that are native to the country.

On average, how old are the most paid athletes? How young is the youngest and how old is the oldest?

## [1] 40.6
## [1] 31
## [1] 53

The average age of the top paid athletes in 2014 was 40.6 years old. The oldest age of the current players in 2014 was 53 years old and the youngest age was 31 years old.

Which sport produces athletes with the highest average salaries?

On average, of the top 100 highest paid athletes, boxers earn the highest salary. Golf and tennis have the second and third highest paid athletes on average. This is a statistic I am very surprised by considered how many games basketball and baseball players play. This means that boxers, golfers, and tennis players are making more from each contest they play in overall compared to sports that have an abundance of games.

Which sport is the most diverse?

It can be observed that soccer has the most diversity of top 100 most paid athletes. This is promising for individuals from different nations. Opportunities may be more abundant which can allow more people to feel welcome to play the sport and eventually have a higher salary than they would if they pursued a different career. This statistic also makes sense and is believable because there are professional soccer leagues around the world, so individuals may be drawn to the sport at an earlier age which can peak their interest and get them involved early on.

Which sport gets paid the most through endorsements?

Golfers have a very wide range of salary earnings that come from endorsements. From this information, we can infer that player golf is not as stable of a sport as others may be. The range of salary earnings vary greatly compared to a sport like baseball, boxing, or football for example. Tennis and basketball have a very high outlier when it comes to earnings from endorsements. This is likely due to prize money from very large contests, marketing campaigns, or winning MVP/All Tournament team, etc. Not all team sports such as basketball and baseball can have individuals awarded with a Most Outstanding Player Award.

Part 3: Secondary Data Source

As my secondary data source, I chose to look at the website https://www.on3.com/nil/news/about-on3-nil-valuation-per-post-value/. My first dataset in parts 1 and 2 looked at the top 100 highest paid athletes. This site dives into the payment and valuation of amateur athletes and their valuation due to NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) Deals. Basically, if a college athlete lives in a state where NIL legislation has been passed, they can profit from their name, image, or likeness according to state law. I find this data to be very fascinating because I was a college athlete, and I believe that these athlete’s followings on media platforms and performance in their respective sports are allowing them to leverage deals based on their abilities to make a profit off of their name, image, and likeness. Athleets from this site are ranked according to valuation. I have previously scraped this data to find interesting facts about the top 100 athletes in terms of valuation (https://rpubs.com/overbecka/nil).

Visualization of Word Count for Headers

Of the words in a paragraph, “nil” and “on3” appear the most. I would expect this since they are words in the title of the website. The next 2 most common words are valuation and athletes. These two words give readers a better understanding of what the site is about. We can believe that readers will be reading about NIL and athlete’s valuation in terms of the NIL deals they obtain. One problem with this graph is that “athlete’s” is a different unique value. In many cases, “athletes” and “athlete’s” could be used in the same or similar context.

Visualization of Word Count for Sections

Of the headers on the website, “valuation” and “brand” are the most common words other than “nil” and “on3” which are expected because they are included in the website title. Valuation is also seen as the third common word in paragraph text. As readers, we can infer and understand the importance of this word because of the frequency that it shows up. We can determine that valuation will be a major topic in terms of determining how NIL values amateur athlete’s worth in terms of compensation and media followings. Valuation is also a very common word because NIL is relatively new, so the site wants to ensure that readers are able to fully understand what goes into the valuation of each athlete.

Conclusion

Overall, from this project, one can conclude that I am a big sports fan. Finding how valuable athletes are and what makes them so valuable, including background about their Home Nations, Sport, Base Salary, Endorsements, Gender, Year of Birth, Height, etc. can be extremely telling about how they may line up for success. I tied professional athlete earnings to NIL because as a former collegiate athlete, I have seen first hand that individuals are now able to make a profit off of their name, image, and likeness unlike ever before. Student Athletes are now being enticed to visit schools simply because of the financial benefits they will receive regardless of how much they enjoy the schooling itself. As the top 100 professionally paid athletes data gets updated over the years, the money that they make professionally will not be as impactful in their life as the value of that money used to be. Because college athletes are able to make money, they will be coming into professional sports with an already large sum of money. The real questions will be whether this entices individuals to not play professionally as long since they already have money and will athletes that may not have made it professionally pursue other opportunities from deals that they made with companies during their years using NIL. Only time can tell…