Lee Priest believes Arnold Schwarzenegger will continue to raise the prize money for his event.
Lee Priest has shared his opinions on many areas in bodybuilding over the years. He recently discussed the upcoming Arnold Classic and the topic of prize money. It was just last year that Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to raise the overall prize for his competition and Priest believes he can take it to heights no other show has ever gone.
Hadi Choopan won the 2024 Arnold Classic with an impressive performance on stage and following the show, Arnold announced that the prize for this year would be $500,000.
“I think Arnold should come out and go f*ck it, one million here you go. I’m the first one to do it. The first one to hit it. Not try and keep up.”
The Arnold Classic is a prestige moment and one of the biggest shows of the year for the world of bodybuilding, next to the Mr. Olympia of course. But the 2024 Arnold Classic may perhaps get even more attention than usual due to the surprising announcement made by Arnold Schwarzenegger at the tail-end of the competition broadcast.
Lee Priest Talks Arnold Classic Prize Money
Arnold Schwarzenegger acknowledged that the 2024 Mr. Olympia made history by raising the first place prize money to $400,000. In what seems to be a direct response to that record-breaking increase, Schwarzenegger claimed that would be raising the Arnold Classic prize money for first place to $500,000 next year.
Lee Priest acknowledged that this was no coincidence.
“I think it’s like, Arnold hates being beat. That’s like his whole movie career with Stallone and all that. He’s got that competition streak and now Joe Weider is gone. There is nothing holding him back. You know, Arnold would love to be the first one to say I gave one million in prize money to the bodybuilders, not Jake Wood.”
As of now, there is no clue whether Arnold will up his prize money once again following the 2025 show.
“It is still up in the air whether we think Arnold is going to do what the Olympia did and of course, Olympia outed him. I heard that was last minute Jake decided to do that. Do you think Arnold is going to be like ‘okay, oh well instead of $500,000’ like I said, he could always do seven and eight but then it just seems like you’re at an auction.”
As the crowd awaited the announcement of the new Mr. Olympia winner, owner Jake Wood took hold of the microphone and surprised fans by announcing a 50% increase for the winner’s prize to a whopping $600,000 along with a six-figure bump to the runner up check to $250,000. It is clear that the Olympia saw what Arnold was able to do during his show and wanted to take it one step further.
All together, the battle is good for bodybuilding as competitors will get the chance to make more money in prizes over the course of the year. The 2025 Arnold Classic is just weeks away and we will wait and see if there will be more surprising announcements following the show.
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