John McEnroe’s BBC wage and comparing it to Gary Lineker’s salary | Tennis | Sport

John McEnroe‘s hefty BBC wage during Wimbledon is over three times what Gary Lineker earns on a weekly basis – despite the Match of the Day host being the broadcaster’s highest-paid employee annually.

Tennis legend McEnroe was one of their lead pundits alongside Clare Balding during the tournament, which saw Carlos Alcaraz defend his men’s crown against Novak Djokovic for the second year running, while Barbora Krejcikova earned the second major of her career by winning the ladies’ title.

McEnroe’s weighty stature within the game, as well as his commentary experience, would obviously bag him sizeable earnings during his work at the All England Club as the BBC‘s annual report of its highest-paid stars saw that the American earned a whopping £195,000 – which is equivalent to £14,000 for every day of the tournament.

While his pay is actually a £10k decrease on the £205k he earned in 2022/23, it’s significantly larger than Gary Lineker‘s paycheck of £28,125-a-week. Of course, the Match of the Day host is the BBC‘s highest-paid employee, bringing in a mammoth £1.35million a year – but his signifcantly inferior wage to McEnroe on a week-by-week basis brings forth an interesting question on what the seven-time Grand Slam winner would be bringing home if he was a permanent employee of the BBC.

Upon finding out McEnroe’s eye-watering fee for Wimbledon, tennis fans were left gobsmacked, with one supporter taking to X, formerly Twitter, to write: “Wow, 2 weeks work at nearly £100,000.00-a-week. Come on, hard work does pay”. While another asked: “How can the BBC justify paying John McEnroe £195,000 to commentate for a few hours per day over 14 days?”