Income disparity in the sports world

Professional sports players are paid huge sums of money to play a game they love. In the old days families went to see games and join the fun cheering on their favorite team. This was a chance for a family to have fun and bond. Today if you take your family to a ballgame it will cost you a weeks pay. Players are paid 10 million a year in a lot of cases plus bonus. For this we get weekly reports of them being involved in drugs, drunken brawls and vehicular homicide. Being the best at what you do is well and good but quite simply they are not worth that kind of money. The income disparity is alarming and should be capped at $200k a year with a chance for performance a based bonus. You see people screaming about heads of Corporations getting big bonuses but not a word about professional sports players being overpaid. I think 200k a year is a great salary. Paying them 10's of millions of dollars a year is just out of hand. If they love the game they should be happy with 200k. A lot of them would make millions from commercials anyway. Where is the outcry over the income disparity? Hollywood is the same scenario. 40 million for 1 picture is obscene. They don't need that much money nor do they deserve it. Cap it all.

Considering how short the average NFL, NBA or MLB career is, i say get what you can while you can.

If a team owner wants to pay outrageous sums of money to athletes, that's up to the owner.

With TV deals, sponsors, memorabilia and concession sales, teams are making boat loads of money.

That's why I don't watch professional sports. A bunch of overpaid crybabies. Then too many get arrested for drug or DWI charges. Or worse.

Another Cowboy's player just got arrested.

There are a few good ones. But not enough.

Top players can earn more in a week than most people on the planet will earn in a lifetime. It's crazy and a lot of people and families hate having to pay ever-increasing prices to watch their teams play or to wear the colours.

A lot of people will disagree with this...but...I'd sooner they get the money than the shareholders or owners. After all, who gives a rat's ass about the business folk? If a player had their earnings capped prices wouldn't change and the money would sit in the bank accounts of people we don't pay to see.

I'm not naive and the excessive pay-scales are ridiculous. People argue that nurses and firecrews are underpaid and that's probably true. Unfortunately, it is what it is and it's not likely to change soon. Until it does, if stupid amounts of money get heaped on people in sport, it's better that it goes to the players themselves.

reply to post by jimmiec


They make an obscene amount of money. But only because the NFL makes an obscene amount of money. If we capped them at $200k .. that would be a huuuuge profit increase for NFL franchises. They make billions. With a B. Compared to how much they earn, sports stars make ok money. I personally do not support professional sports except Hockey, who have the lowest average pay of any sport. I'd rather watch college football, or minor league baseball. More fun, cheaper, and knowing you're not making them rich is an added bonus. (minor league hockey is also more fun simply because they don't have all the pathetic rules the NHL has.)

These leagues, NFL etc are tax exempt. They do not deserve that status.

If you study history, you'll see the the pendulum, regarding sports, has simply overcompensated for earlier slights - and has swung way too far in the other direction.

Not too many decades ago - professional athletes were paid poorly, got no benefits, had no retirement funds, and no rights to even switch teams if they were unhappy.

They unionized - for all of the right reasons. Then egos started being involved. People started saying "I'm better than everyone else, if you want me, you'll have to up the pay."

That has spun so ridiculously out of control as to be almost incomprehensible. I mean for someone to say "I only have a 15-20 year career ahead of me - so $100,000.000.00 per year seems fair!"???

The trap we now face is that the pendulum will most likely swing back towards a more modest and reasonable amount - as the public continues suffering and having to cut back. Sadly, even as players salaries dip. We will likely not see a reduction in ticket, concession, and merchandise prices. This, is after all, the world we live in. And NOBODY lowers their prices to reflect actual cost any longer. All savings - regardless of source - are pure cha-ching for the pockets of the folks who own the businesses.

~Heff

Take away their tax exemption and it will be a big help in reducing the national debt. Non- profit status is not the reality. They make obscene profits. They pay no tax on those profits yet you hear nothing about it. I understand they only have 20 years or so playing but they can move into coaching or a 1000 other things related to their career. The best brain surgeons in the world don't make as much as an NFL player. The POTUS does not make as much. It's madness.

The average career for NFL player is about 3.5 yrs, MLB about 5.6, NBA 4.8, NHL 5.5 yrs.

Yes, they get paid huge amounts of money and if i was in the same situation i'd get as much as i could before the window of opportunity closed.

And the owners laugh all the way to the bank.

So they are paid 10 million a year because they might only get to work 3 or 4 years? 99% of the population work 50 years and won't make that much. They do not deserve that ungodly amount. Plus they get the best doctors in the world, personal trainers and free gym with the best equipment on the planet. People scream about Wall street, Corporations making too much money but at least they pay tax on their profits. The big leagues pay no tax and nobody complains. Who is getting paid off to give them non-profit status? They make huge profits.

Well i thought this might be a good topic given the screaming about the imbalanced pay scales in America. Is it because people like sports so much that they put these people/leagues on a pedestal? The income disparity is incredible. These people make so much money that they buy fleets of 200k cars. They buy 20 million dollar homes and burn through money like it's nothing. The Leagues make billions yet pay no tax on those billions. Yet not even a whimper about it. Where are the income disparity criers? What am i missing here? How is this not an issue?