sports salaries Essay

Sports are something that everyone in the world, regardless of age, sex, or nationality, can enjoy. Whether it's a child playing in his first t-ball game or a professional athlete swimming in the Olympics and everyone in between, sports can connect almost everyone. Fan support and overall devotion for athletic competition has raised professional athletes to superstars and national icons; Super Bowl Sunday is a national holiday to some, and sports are one of the largest moneymakers in the economy.

Professional sports has become one of the most popular industries in the world today. The media spends billions of dollars on advertisements and teams spend millions of dollars on professional athletes all for one reason, the fans. The fans ticket sales and merchandise purchases are what keeps all the sport teams around and prevents professional athletes from losing their jobs. There are three types of fans in the sports world, average fans, fanatics, and fair-weather fans.

Do you think professional athletes are overpaid? You might think they earn more than what they are worth for playing half a year, but athletes have many things which contribute to their salary. Some of these things include their earnings from endorsements, ticket sales, performance, merchandise, their social contributions, and TV ratings. Although there are many factors that contribute to their salary, professional athletes may be overpaid because as a society, we contribute to their success. So, in the end, part of the athlete’s salary comes from the people who support the sports in the first place. These are just some of the reasons why athletes are paid so much money.

In thirteen years of golf, Tiger Woods has made over a billion dollars making him the highest paid athlete ever. He has been the highest paid athlete now for five years in a row. We all know that many people in the world watch him play every weekend and admire him, but is the amount of entertainment he provides really worth 128 million dollars a year? Tiger is only one of many professional athletes who are extremely overpaid. “People forget that sports is entertainment,” says Leonard Armato, a sports agent. Although professional athletes provide entertainment for millions of viewers around the world, they are overpaid because the millions of dollars that they make could be distributed more evenly throughout society and go to things of a

Anyone who has been involved in an organized sport, whether it is backyard football or a high school sports team, knows that these sports all have organizations that are responsible for setting rules, determining conditions of play, and penalizing individuals who infringe the rules. Some of the organizations like the National Football league and the MLB are familiar to most people, the rules they follow are not generally understood by anyone who is not closely associated with the sport. Most fans and sport critics assume that what is happening inside these organizations are of little concern to them. However, this is not the case. In the MLB, the New York Yankees spend an excessive amount of money every year to obtain big name players. A

Imagine a business that was bringing in millions of dollars every year in revenue solely off the employees, and the individuals who are working to bring in the money, do not see a cent of it. This is essentially how college athletes feel at their respective universities. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is seeing $11 billion dollars in revenue come through their doors annually, and not one penny goes back to the student athletes who, in reality, create that money. The money is passed down through the executives, directors and coaches, but none is given to the players. With putting in an average to 43 hours per week, which is more than the average work week, student athletes can be compared to

Twenty-five million dollars made per year. Over one hundred fifty-four thousand dollars made per game. Over forty-seven thousand dollars earned per at bat. Sounds a little ridiculous, does it not? That is what current Texas Ranger shortstop Alex Rodriguez earns to play the game of baseball (azcentral.com). Baseball is a game that children have been playing in schoolyards and fields for the past one hundred years. It may not be a game anymore. On the Major League level it has become a business. This is where the problem starts.

Every child at some point in their lives dream about becoming a rock star, doctor or an astronaut, but the career that stands out the most is becoming a professional athlete. Why? One reason could be the ever increasing media coverage on each individual sport with certain channels devoted for just that particular sport, keeping viewers updated and thirsting to get out and play. Another could be the ease of getting out in the backyard as a kid to shoot the basketball, throw a football, or hit a baseball because it is harder to perform heart surgery or fly to the moon when you're only a child. With that being said; it is easy to look up to a professional athlete and put your heart and soul into them wearing

The fans that come to watch the athletes and who pay nearly $20 to get in the ballpark are padding the pockets of these owners. Statistics taken from online site http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001 /03/30/news/baseball/ show that baseball ticket prices have gone up from $16.67 to $18.99 in just one year. A quote from the same online site http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/03/30/news /baseball/ wrote by Chris Isidore says, "Baseball fans going through the turnstiles on opening day across the nation Monday will be paying about 13 percent more than they did last year, according to a survey of prices…The increase makes baseball the sport with the fastest growing prices." Baseball in the United States is no longer America's Pastime. Baseball has changed to a high priced business, where average players make millions and above average players make tens of millions. To make the situation even worse, the dumbfounded owners and greedy sports agents who contaminate the game and the talented young athletes playing in it, control this business.

Every child, at some point in their life, dream about becoming a rock star, a doctor or an astronaut. The career that stands out the most in young boys and girls dreams, is becoming a professional athlete; Why is that? One reason could be the ever increasing media coverage on each individual sport. Certain channels are devoted just for that particular sport, keeping viewers updated and thirsting to get out and play just like professionals on television. Another reason could be, how easy it is to get out in the backyard as a kid to shoot the basketball, throw a football, or hit a baseball because it is a lot harder to perform heart surgery or fly to the moon when you're only a child. With that being said, it is so easy to look up to a

Just because a team has the money to go out and pay the high price free agents, does that mean that they are going to be successful? Not necessarily, as the Baltimore Orioles have shown, they have one of the higher team payrolls in the majors but they are at the bottom of their division. So maybe it is what you do with the money that matters. And in the Minnesota Twin's case this year, who are a small-market team, they got the best out of their relatively unknown players. But the thing that eventually hurt them was their inability to go out and get a key player before the trading deadline.

Michael Vick, quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, was convicted of operating a massive dog fighting ring and was sentenced to 23 months in jail in 2007.

Imagine you are a troubled kid that grew up in a gang-controlled neighborhood. You live day to day not knowing if today is you or your family‘s last day. Now imagine someone telling you that they can give your family money to help them get out of the hood and into a safe place. You have a scholarship to a major university and if you work hard you will become pro and make millions of dollars a year. But you can’t bear to see your family suffer any longer so you take the bit of money and use it to get your family to be safe. Now that same university is filing sanctions against you and the person that gave you the money. They are dropping your scholarship and now no other college in the country will take you.

Both Dave Zirin in "The Shame of the NCAA" and Tim Ajmani in "Compensation for College Athletes" would agree that student athletes are being taken advantage of. In Zirin's piece, he speaks about how this treatment towards these students is a civil rights issue. These students are being overworked on the field, some may consider playing a sport in college is more than a full-time job, and aren't getting form of payment or protection. These corporations and universities are “enriching themselves on the backs of uncompensated young men whose status… deprives them of the right to due process guaranteed by the Constitution"(Zirin 204), the NCAA justifies its purpose with two principals, amateurism and student athletes. Since these athletes are students and playing amateur games, they don’t have to be compensated. The NCAA also justifies the fact that students don’t get paid by giving them free room and board but Ajmani makes a point that paying students would provide more of a motive for them to stay in school and complete their degree. In Ajmani's

Athletes argue that they are role models for children and endorse products. This is true, but it is what goes along with the job. I would be prod if I knew that billions and billions of young impressionable children wanted to be just like me. You should not have to be paid to be a role model, there is no reason that one should be negative, commit crimes, and do “bad” things regardless of you being an athlete or not. It should be an honor to be praised and loved by billions, this is why I feel the reasoning of the professional athletes that demand higher wages are illegitimate.