Curling is a lot less strenuous than hockey, although one is paid less to do it. What sports endeavor gets the most pay for the least amount of time and effort? I suppose danger also factors into things, I think golf is preferable to hockey or football where the injuries are more serious.
Although, perhaps the kicker on a football team would make quite a lot for just a few minutes work. Is there an even easier job, like the holder for the kicker? Or perhaps the backup for the holder for the kicker?
On the opposite end of the spectrum, what sport gets the least pay for an insane amount of effort? I’m thinking one of the helper cyclists on the Tour de France has to suffer through a lot of exertion for hardly any pay.
Lawn bowls is pretty slack. A friend’s father was a really good player. Whenever he played tournaments nearby we would go and say hello - he lived hundreds of miles from Sydney. Even in tournament play you would find guys smoking and drinking while playing.
Between darts and bowling, darts wins, hands down.
In 2008, the world champion dart thrower will win a prize of £85,000 ($168,776 USD). In 2007, the winner of the World Tenpin Masters, one of the world’s top bowling tournaments, won $30,000.
A competition dart will range from about 18 to 24 grams. The lightest bowling balls I’ve seen for adult use weigh about 8 lbs, or 3,628.73 grams. This means that a professional dart thrower would have to make about 150 times as many throws as a professional bowler to do the same work. (Yes, that’s a horribly rough approximation that ignores arm swing, desired release speed, etc., but work with me here.)
Now, take into account that the top dartsman wins 5.63 times as much money as the top bowler, and we find that the dartsman would have to make 844.5 throws for every one of the bowler’s to receive the same pay for his total efforts. Between these two sports, at any rate, the answer is clear.
Sure, if you’re already in the U.K. and too lazy to leave. I don’t know what the biggest-money darts tourney in North America is, but I’ll hazard a guess the best darter doesn’t pull down nearly the bucks of the best bowler.
Okay, fine, so the bowling guy gets more money (~1.18 times more) than the dart guy. So, the dart guy now only needs to make 127 times the throws of the bowler to reach an equivalent money-to-effort ratio. I stand corrected.
It’s been said that to play Poker successfully at the highest level requires a great deal of mental stamina and continuous discipline over a protracted period of time. Similarly, chess requires little motion, but is also taxing on the brain. Racecar drivers also don’t move much, but they need stamina over a period of time.
I’m thinking more of the guy who sits most of a game while his teammates are doing the work. Then, if his number is called, he stands up and does his thing for a minute, then sits back down. This guy still gets paid, right?
Benchrest rifle shooting. Your rifle is mounted on sandbags on a bench, and is fitted with a telescopic sight that could be on loan from NASA. You’re sitting down at the bench, and all you have to do is move your index finger a few millimetres to fire the gun.
I’m sticking with darts. Very lazy sport. You can be 200 lbs overweight, drink beer and eat pizza with your free hand and let muscle memory do all the work and whip up on people. Until you can win money playing video games, darts gotta be it!
Yes, you guessed it. I am a big dart player! (or at least I was, before I moved to the middle of nowhere and every place switched to plastic dart machines)
A couple things - First, that article skips every major sport in the world in terms of earning power. No football of any kind, no baseball or cricket, no basketball, etc.
A backup quarterback in the NFL makes a lot of money for holding a clipboard. Jim Sorgi, Peyton Manning’s backup, has been in the league for four years and has played in about 15 games, mostly in mopup duty. He appeared for one play as a holder on an extra point attempt in the entire 2006 season. He makes $850,000 a year.
If you just look at the physical effort required in competition vs. the potential payday, golf would be up there, but golfers spend as much time practicing as they do playing. It is anything but a sport for a lazy person. Golfers (have to) work on their game constantly.
