Why Baseball Endorsement Expansion Lags Despite Greater Visibility   

Written By Stephen Salamunovich

By Stephen Salamunovich

Some quick comparisons:

The percentage of total earnings derived from endorsements across the three major U.S. sports tends to follow a consistent pattern:

• Basketball: roughly 30–60%
• Football: roughly 5–20%
• Baseball: typically under 10%

Year after year, this disparity persists.

What makes this especially interesting is visibility as the assumed predominant factor. Major League Baseball offers more sustained exposure than either of the other two sports.
A 162-game season unfolds over roughly six months. Basketball spans a similar timeframe but with half the number of games. Football, by comparison, features just 17 games over approximately four and a half months.

If sport visibility alone drove endorsement opportunity, the hierarchy would be expected to look very different.

In comparing endorsement patterns with clients across baseball, football, and basketball, certain contrasts become difficult to ignore.

Football presents another interesting contrast. While endorsement opportunities usually gravitate toward quarterbacks and skill positions, a number of prominent endorsement figures have emerged from less naturally visible roles — linemen and defensive players. What they share isn’t statistical dominance or ball-handling visibility, but something less tangible — revealed in a way that draws attention beyond performance.

Baseball, meanwhile, operates within an inherited culture that has been deeply embedded in the sport and has endured across generations — far longer than football and basketball. Yet this same culture may also be limiting how players are perceived by both advertisers and the public as exposure increases, especially relative to football and basketball.

Simply producing on the field does not always translate into broader recognition. In some cases, elements that might otherwise expand an athlete’s visibility remain muted — or only emerge later, often after retirement, when players transition into broadcasting or commentary roles.

This raises an interesting question.
If baseball offers the most sustained exposure, why does endorsement expansion regularly lag behind sports with far less?

The answer isn’t found in visibility itself, but in what comes through as that visibility increases — or, just as importantly, what doesn’t.

That difference is usually subtle, but it becomes financially significant. While not immediately apparent to most observers, it isn’t fixed by more exposure —
it’s shaped by shifting how athletes are perceived within it.

Stephen Salamunovich

Stephen Salamunovich spent 31 years as a film and television casting director working on thousands of productions for television, film, and commercial media. During that time he collaborated with hundreds of directors including Oscar-winners Miloš Forman and Bernardo Bertolucci and cast well over three thousand projects ranging from network television series, movies for television, national commercial campaigns, and feature films.

His television credits include series such as Simon & Simon, Ferris Bueller, and In Living Color, along with numerous feature films including The Details starring Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, and Laura Linney.

Salamunovich is the winner and three-time nominee of the Artios Award©, casting’s highest honor presented by his peers in the Casting Society of America©. He is also the first — and one of only three — lead casting directors ever to win the award while working outside New York or Los Angeles.

Over the course of his casting career, Salamunovich presided over hundreds of thousands of high-pressure auditions, evaluating authenticity while identifying and resolving barriers under significant time constraints with no margin for error. This unique experience gave him a rare ability to quickly recognize and remove the obstacles that prevent authentic presence from reaching the audience. He later supplemented this practical experience with independent study in human behavior, neuroscience, and performance psychology, refining the techniques he now applies with performers and non-performers alike in high-stakes public and media environments.

Early in his casting work, high-profile athletes were referred to Salamunovich by prominent entertainment attorney and agent Henry Bushkin, who represented talent at the highest levels of sports, television and film. That introduction led to work with NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and shaped Salamunovich’s focus on removing the barriers to an athlete’s authentic on-camera presence—the factor that most influences perception by sponsors and the public. He now advises select sports agents as their clients’ expanding media exposure creates the moments that ultimately shape endorsement value.

He has prepared many public figures for appearances on major broadcasts including Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Today, and The Tonight Show. His clients have included CEOs, trial attorneys, political figures, chefs, authors, entrepreneurs, actors and professional athletes appearing in high-visibility media environments.

Before entering casting, Salamunovich began his professional career as a professional musician in his native Los Angeles, performing as a vocalist with organizations including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Opera Company, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. His recording credits includes contemporary artists David Benoit, Michael Tomlinson, Gerald Albright, Peter White, the soundtrack to The Godfather and the Disney recording of It's a Small World, later designated for landmark preservation by the Library of Congress.

Salamunovich retired from casting in 2016 after a 31-year career and now focuses on advisory work related to media presence, perception, and high-stakes performance. He lives in Seattle with his wife Sheila and also continues to work professionally as a performing and recording musician playing drums. He is currently at work on his forthcoming book illuminating the principles behind his unique work.

https://www.PUREformance.media
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Friction vs. Fuel: From Athlete Visibility to Endorsement Value