Not only has 2024 been great for sports overall, but individual athletes have doubled and tripled their earnings from off-court pursuits. When Caitlin Clark won the TIME Athlete of the Year honor, there were many who thought the title should have gone to Shohei Ohtani. But now it seems like the two mega-athletes have found common ground to stand on, thanks to their earnings.

Sports Business Journal just released their Most Influential People In Sports Business list and at the top stand Caitlin Clark and Shohei Ohtani, whom SBJ describes as newcomers. Others include Elliott Hill, Michele Kang, Pat McAfee, Egon Durban, Greg Mondre, and Edward Rogers. SBJ clarifies that no one name is at the top and the list is unranked.

Make no mistake, Ohtani’s $700 million deal for 11 years with the Dodgers still stands as one of the most lucrative in sports and would have been the number one if not for Juan Soto and the Mets’ eye-popping contract from just last week. His net worth currently stands at $85.3 million, per Forbes.

And Clark’s WNBA salary of $76,535 for 2024 out of $338,056 for four years is nothing to write home about. But it’s their brand endorsements and other deals that have helped them propel their names in this list. The Indiana Fever Gaurd currently sponsors brands like Nike, Goldman Sachs, Wilson, Gatorade, State Farm, Gainbridge, etc. And yet, despite all the eyes she brought to the W this year, many thought the TIME honor should have gone to baseball’s golden boy.

After all, not everyone can sign a record-breaking deal never seen in all of sports, win the league MVP award, and then lead their team to the World Series. Oh, and break all kinds of records during the season, along with the first-ever 50/50 season in MLB. The league averages 20 home runs per player, even if the number for stolen bases is usually higher.

Shohei Ohtani clearly stands in a league of his own, and he wasn’t even pitching this year. However, one could similarly argue no one has had a better rookie season than the WNBA Rookie of the Year, nor has anyone singularly affected the sport the way No. 22 has.

Rapper joins in on the Caitlin Clark AOY conversation

Ever since Shohei Ohtani arrived on the scene, he has been hyped and lived up to it spectacularly. A well-outed player from Japan in 2017, his arrival as a two-way player was bound to mark a change in the way America played baseball, and it did. But that has been going on for more than eight years now. In that almost decade, no one ever tires of talking about the Japanese wonder but they’ve almost begun to expect greatness from him.

Caitlin Clark is slightly different, more new, her fame not even half a decade old. Before this, she was a college sensation from Iowa and has only finished her first season as a true pro. “I don’t know what athlete had a better year than her. What athlete? Tell me, I’m listening,” Ma$se said on the Come and Talk 2 Me podcast.

“She took a team that had nobody on it to the NCAA Championship. Then she took a team that hasn’t been to the playoffs in years at Indiana to the playoffs. Then she broke every rookie NBA record on the way while doing it.”

The teams’ overall successes aside – because one player can only do so much by herself if her team doesn’t help equally – Caitlin Clark’s impact has been singular for many observers. The most interesting thing is, it’s only just begun. Eight years from now, who knows where women’s basketball will be?