MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark more than tripled his salary in 2014, to $1.99 million, in his first full year leading the union, according to the union’s newly filed annual report.
The document, filed last week with the U.S. Department of Labor and representing calendar year 2014, showed Clark’s compensation rose from $616,613 in 2013. Clark, formerly the union’s director of player relations and deputy executive director, succeeded Michael Weiner as executive director after Weiner’s death in November 2013.
Highest-paid MLBPA employees
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Tony Clark, Executive Director, $1.99M
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David Prouty, General Counsel, $705,000
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Rick Shapiro, Senior Adviser, $705,000
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Kevin McGuiness, COO, $595,833
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Ian Penny, Senior Labor Counsel, $555,000
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Timothy Slavin, Director of Business Affairs, $545,000
Source: MLBPA annual report
Clark’s 2014 salary departs from years of MLBPA practice by Weiner and predecessor Donald Fehr to receive a $1 million salary. But compensation for top sports executives in management and labor has spiked in recent years.
NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith earned $2.95 million in the organization’s fiscal year ended Feb. 28, 2014. Michele Roberts, NBPA executive director since July 2014, earns a $1.2 million base salary that can be boosted by annual $600,000 bonuses. Her predecessor, Billy Hunter, was paid $3 million a year at the time of his ouster in 2013.
The 2014 annual report for the union also showed revenue from “other receipts,” where licensing income is listed and itemized, at $49.06 million, up 26 percent from what had been a nine-year low for the MLBPA in 2013. Payments are credited in the years they are received and not earned, and the report, known as the LM-2, is based on cash and not accrual accounting. As a result, views into the financial state of the organization can be deceiving. Still, 2014 saw increases in income from licensees such as Japanese game developer CyberAgent, which paid $4.35 million, and MLB Advanced Media, which paid $2.63 million.
Total union assets grew 25 percent to $116.1 million. The 2013 asset figure had been the MLBPA’s lowest since 2004.
Research director David Broughton contributed to this report.
