Are athletes paid too much or too little?

[Nebulous]

Is there too much money in sports? Are athletes paid too much or too little?

[wildmaven]

An athlete's career is most often very short, so the theory is that they should get paid to compensate for that. I'm not sure I buy that, though, as pro athletes also end up doing endorsements after their career ends or coaching, opening up sporting stores, etc. I think I hold them to the same pay scheme as entertainers. It's too bad that those who spend their lives helping others (teachers, health care workers, etc.) are typically at the lower end of the pay scale.

[User 180565 is taking donation]

I feel like we concern ourselves with what others make too much. An athlete is no first responder however there is still alot of work put in we don't see because TV makes everything look easy. We should be concerned about dentists being paid more than doctors and the amount of low poverty income individuals that can't even afford a doctor, even when they have $50 monthly insurance premiums a person citizen can't afford.

So yeah good on whoever for making their millions, your views would probably change if you got paid the same amount they did. Money changes mental thinking way more than your standard "Oh it wouldn't change me." reply.

[Assembly Boards Representative]

User 180565 is taking donation This post kind of becomes messed up when I noticed the blatant advertising in your signature.
wildmaven I'm pretty sure professional athletes don't make as much money from endorsements than from their actual time on the field. They still make too much.

The idea of wealth hoarding was once a taboo and those who have more wealth than others were societally expected to put that money back into the community, but that was the Gilded Age.

[bigballofyarn]

I try to be unbiased with things like this. They earn whatever people are willing to pay them for their entertainment value. We could argue all day about what professions are more valuable than others, but no one would ever agree. I'm neither for nor against the ultra rich as I don't feel I have the right to tell anyone how to spend their own money. No one tells me how to spend mine. I only offer financial advice when it's asked of me. In theory, I could put in the effort to become a rich entertainer, but I don't want fame. I want my quiet life that exists outside of the public eye, even if that means settling for an income that's far below theirs.

[User 180565 is taking donation]

Feb 16, 2024 22:00:51 GMT -8 Assembly Boards Representative said:

User 180565 is taking donation This post kind of becomes messed up when I noticed the blatant advertising in your signature.
wildmaven I'm pretty sure professional athletes don't make as much money from endorsements than from their actual time on the field. They still make too much.

The idea of wealth hoarding was once a taboo and those who have more wealth than others were societally expected to put that money back into the community, but that was the Gilded Age.

Don't know what my dated signature has to do with me expressing my opinion on how we worry too much about others pockets and not our professionals we trust with our health that are also trying to dig in our pockets and make a cooperation out of it. Go figure.

[vank]

What is Catherine complaining about in the signature? I don't see a prob in the signature. I thought this was a civil thread.

[Syko Nachoman]

The way I see it, those sports teams are already raking in a huge amount of revenue due to TV deals, tickets, and merchandise sales, so I think it's fair that the athletes are getting a large cut of that money redirected into their salaries. If teams gave less money to their players, then more of that revenue would just end up in the pockets of the higher-ups. I'd rather see it go to the athletes, since they're the ones who actually deliver the entertaining action that we sports fans crave.

[Derek‽]

First off, no one gets to have a valid opinion on what anyone else makes. Sorry, but unless you sign their checks, cover their shift, or call them your spouse, this subject is Taco Bell: nacho business.

With that said...

At one time, team owners treated players like employees at any other company and tried to get away with paying them as little as possible. Then players started getting agents to advocate for better pay. This became crucial as professional sports grew and the players transitioned from weekend warriors who practiced in the evenings after their day jobs to full-time professional athletes for whom practice and games became their day jobs. Eventually, players formed unions to combat continued exploitation from leagues and teams. Today, every major sports league in the US (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, even NASCAR) has some form of union that negotiates with the leagues for better pay, better conditions, health insurance, etc, just like any other workers' union.

So why do athletes get paid so much now? Because sports generates a lot of money. Other than celebrity entertainers or mall Santas, athletes are probably the only people who will generate money for their employer by just showing up for work. They are celebrities to fans and those fans will pay good money for access. The players know their worth and fight for their cut. Nobody buys a ticket to see the support staff.

The notion that athletes' salaries are based on their short careers is a myth. In fact, the athletes with the shortest careers get the lowest salaries. Let's look at the NFL; a rookie is guaranteed $750,000 for their first season ($41,666/week). They may not be back next season, but they're pretty much guaranteed to stay on the roster all of the current season, barring injury or a PR disaster. Compare that to a member of the practice squad, the very real athletes a team uses to scrimmage against: $11,500 per week with no job security from one week to the next; they could be cut at any time and without warning. How does that stack up to a quarterback? Last year, the Bengals signed Joe Burrow to a guaranteed $123 million contract over five years ($24.6M/season, $1.37M/week). Burrow isn't expected to have a short career, he's touted as the next Tom Brady (he really needs a Gronk, though) and is expected to have a rather long career of a decade or so. The idea that he would have ever made $123 million over the course of a "normal" ~40-year career is highly doubtful (his college degrees are kind of garbage, he definitely put all his hopes into football).

Those numbers might all seem big, but we're talking about the top 1% of professional athletes. There are many minor leagues for all sports. Players in these leagues might not even be able to support themselves on their salaries. Switching to baseball, we can see a big discrepancy in league rookie salaries (all leagues operated by MLB):

National: $720,000
Triple-A: $35,800
Double-A: $32,500
High-A: $27,300
Single-A: $26,200
Complex: $19,800

Not exactly raking in the dough if you don’t make it into the National League (majors). Oh, and those MiLB salaries were significantly increased last year. Before then, rookie salaries ranged from $4,800 to $17,500. This doesn't touch on all of the even smaller leagues that can barely afford to pay players at all.

In summary: No, athletes are not paid too much (how would that even be determined?), but some might be (or were) paid too little. All-in-all, I'd say most athletes are paid more or less fairly based on their fiscal value to the team. Leagues and teams that bring in more money can afford to pay more and do, mostly because those players' performances generate the revenue to do so.