Today's salaries are no where near what they were 30, 20 , even 10 years ago. Even the worst players on a team make a great living. The lowest salary for any player in the NFL, MLB, NHL, or NBA is $260,000. When athletes were first getting paid to play they didn't have agents or others to negotiate their contracts, they were just happy to be paid to play. They weren't paid a lot of money and would never even dream of not playing because they want a new contract. Now every athlete has an agent and most have endorsement deals. The highest paid athlete in the world is Tiger Woods earning $110 million last year, almost all of that money came from endorsements. Tiger has been hurt much of the last year and he made his money mostly through his endorsement deals with Nike, Gatorade, Buick, and AT&T. Endorsements have become a big part of sports because it is a way that both the sports leagues and athletes can get more money.
The ancient gladiators did not get paid dirt. hee hee Why are these guys making more than scientists and doctors again? Is it really that important to be entertained? Everyone wants to have the winning team, because they'll make the most money. In order to do that, you need the best players. Hence over the years salaries keep rising. When will it end?
ReplyDeleteI was wondering the same thing Stephanie was, why are these people making more than doctors? What are they contributing to society that is actually going to make a difference. Doctor's help save people's lives and are paid less than sports players.
ReplyDeleteWithout doctors, some of the sports players may no be able to play or even live due to injuries, so why pay the players more. Doctors seem more important to me, after all, the economy is going down and these players are still getting paid the same. Not sure I agree with this at all! Good post and information though Steve.
Its crazy to think about how these players can make this kind of money just for doing something that they have such a passion for. i cant help but think about the Yankees salaries. I am a Yankee fan, and i still find it obscene how much A Rod gets paid a year to play baseball. I didn't even consider the money they get for endorsements! They always have top of the line batting gloves, cleats, and even name brand sweat bands! Kind of makes me regret not playing a sport!
ReplyDeleteI think people forget that in sports with salary caps, such as the NFL, the viewers decide how much the players get paid. Each team has to give its players 60% of the defined gross revenues that was divided by the 32 teams in the nfl. So if you want the players to get paid less, stop watching the games and buying their merchandise. As long as you keep spending money on the sport at hand, than the players deserve to get paid as much as they do.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how much the players get paid you also have to remember the owners get paid way more. Yet no one ever complaints about that.
Salaries in professional sports are a heated debate in today’s economical crisis. Yankees spend around 700 million dollars after free agent players this off season. They also build new stadium worth 1 trillion. In this economical crisis professional teams are spending so much money after players. It has gotten out of hand the amount of money is being given to players. Alex Rodriguez is making 25 million dollars per year for next 10 years. In NBA, Kevin Garnett is making around 30 million per year. Lebron James is going to be a free agent next year, this number will be increased at least 10 million. Compared to these sports I like NFL because of their salary cap. But even with salary cap Albert Hanyeworth got 100 million for 7 years. So these amounts are growing each year by a huge margin. We have to put a stop to this. This numbers are absolutely ridiculous to be given to one player. This number is sure to hike up every year. In this economic situations, we cannot afford to spend this much money after players. There has to be a limit where every contract has to stop. This is getting out of our hand. People have fun watching the game and reading the news but now they are going to have to do something. This is a excellent topic.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely unbelievable that the highest paid professional athlete is a golf player. Now Tiger is a freak of nature with how good he is at golf. His endorsements are a testament to how no matter what sport that you play, as long as you are good enough you will succeed. It is interesting to read about all these sports related issues.
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