Are Professional Athletes Overpaid Essay Example

money. The owners are out to make money, and they still make a profit after paying these athletes.

The athletes are not overpaid; they are simply getting their fair share of the money earned from their abilities. Last year alone, Tiger Woods made a little over 62 million dollars, according to Sports Illustrated’s “The Fortunate 50”, putting him on the top of the list for highest-earning athletes. You might think this is ridiculous being that he had a terrible year on the golf course. He did only make 2 of his 62 million dollars by playing golf. The other 60 million came from endorsements. That number may seem ridiculous, but the people love Tiger.

TV ratings confirm that more people watch PGA Tour events in which he plays than not (Bohn). That is what leads to EA Sports making a video game named after him which makes him all that money. Even though Tiger makes this much money, the athletes that people think are overpaid participate in the four major sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL). So, let’s take a look at Alex Rodriguez, better known as A-Rod, of the New York Yankees. Last year the Yankees paid Rodriguez a salary of 32 million dollars. This may seem like a ridiculous number, but does he deserve it? He absolutely does.

Alex Rodrigues is one of the greatest baseball players in the league and of all time. “I feel that if you are the best at what you do, there should not be a limit to how much money one earns” (Shanahan). Look at it like this: Yankee stadium has 51,000 seats at

an average price of $51. 83, and the Yankees have 81 regular season home games per year. That comes out to be $214,109,730 per year in ticket sales alone. This number does not even include all of the beverages sold at the games or the money made from TV contracts. And not to mention, in 2005, the MLB generated 3. 1 billion dollars in merchandise according to MSNBC.

Considering all of these numbers, I do not see any reason to believe that Alex Rodriguez is overpaid. Athletes have a certain set of skills that is rare and cannot be learned. Because of that they generate a lot of money and people pay to see them and the athletes are paid accordingly. The perception that athletes are paid ridiculous amounts of money for kicking or throwing the ball is an ignorant mentality. They are not paid for what they do; they are paid because people want to watch what they do. This is not just a game, this is a business. Actually professional sports are one of the largest businesses in the world.

According to Shanahan, “professional sports are the 11th most lucrative business in the entire world. ” Professional sports are a multi-billion dollar business and the athletes are the businessmen who receive the money. Now if the players don't get the money, who will? The owners. A lot less people whine that they are making too much money. Some people complain that instead of making all this money that they should reduce ticket prices. Well if you ran a business and you could sell a product for 20 dollars compared to 10

dollars what would you do? I think most of you would probably charge what the market would bear.

What I don't understand is that many of the same people who complain that athletes make too much money are those trying to get more money for either themselves or the working class. If an average Joe has the right to make as much money as possible how come the same can't be said for athletes? I realize that 30 thousand dollars is quite different than 30 million dollars, but the principle is still the same. Everybody should be paid what they are worth. Professional sports just happen to be very big business in America and it makes lots of money. How can you deny a man his money which he rightfully deserves?

I mean a star athlete, more than any other employee, has a direct impact on the revenue of his company. If he plays well; fans come to see games, fans buy more merchandise, and so on. If you do not want an athlete to make so much money, do not go give them money. You cannot buy a Microsoft Word program and then call Bill Gates overpaid. Most people, me included, feel as if members of the military, who are sacrificing their lives by serving in the military, deserve millions of dollars a year over someone who sacrifices tearing their ACL on the court, field, or rink. Sadly, that is not how it works though.

We live in too much of a consumerist society. The difference is that we consumers are paying for athletes’ salaries by purchasing all things related and

watching them on TV, being subjected to high-price advertising. Our level of interest in sports is directly related with their level of pay, if one of those factors decreases, so does the other. Although something like a family member serving for the country could be considered a great service, our own level of interest does not dictate their pay. So, from a moral standpoint, they probably deserve more, but from a realistic and consumerist standpoint, they, more than likely, will not get it.

Another good point is, “Barrack Obama’s salary would be considered about entry level for a professional athlete in this country” (Sangimino). The thing is, I do not think that you can compare the president’s salary with that of a professional athlete because the president doesn’t have millions of fans that pay millions of dollars to watch him perform. Here is one argument, however, that I do not agree with: Players should finally put their feet on the ground and realize that there is much to life than money and living the good life. It is definitely a slow process but one that must be done should initiate as soon as possible.

This overpayment has gone far enough and long enough, these athletes do not deserve these amounts of money, they should open their eyes and recognize that there is poverty among us every single day of our lives and that is the real problem we must face. (Overpaid Athletes Research Paper) Whatever this person is trying to say makes no sense to me. This makes it seem like they are trying to say that athletes are to blame for all

of our society’s problems. It also makes it seem like the athletes don’t give back to their communities, which is completely untrue. These sports actually create more jobs for us people.

If the athletes weren’t playing sports their charities and foundations would be out millions of dollars. The athletes are not the reason that there is so much poverty in our nation. If you don’t believe athletes give back to society you are absolutely wrong. Tiger Woods, for example, is the highest earning athlete. He is also a very charitable man. According to Total Pro Sports “he donated $9. 5 million in 2007 and another $1. 35 million in 2008 to the Earl D. Woods Sr. Scholarship Fund and the Tiger Woods Learning Center, both of which help underserved kids get to college” (Cosmell).

Also according to Total Pro Sports, Warrick Dunn, an NFL running back, has helped over 100 single parent families by making the down payment on a house. These are just a couple of stories of athletes making generous donations with their money. There are many, many more athletes who give back to society and their community, so, to say athletes “should open their eyes and recognize that there is poverty among us every single day” is absolutely ridiculous. You don’t think they don’t know this? If it weren’t for professional athlete, I guarantee charities and foundations would lose millions of dollars and many of them wouldn’t even exist.

While I agree that professional athletes do make staggering amounts of money to play a game, the fact is that the leagues that employ them are billion dollar companies, and

the athletes only intake small shares of what they earn through their blood, sweat and commitment. The sports industry is a supply and demand business. If demand went down and people stopped buying tickets, merchandise, and watching them on TV, then they wouldn’t be able to maintain such high salaries. The supply of elite athletes is extremely low and they're hard to come by, so they deserve to be paid more. If there was a ide array of athletes capable of performing at the professional level then the price to keep them around would not have to be as high. But since their athleticism is unique, it must be paid accordingly. Saying all this, I still do believe that there is the occasion that where an athlete is overpaid. The players that I believe are overpaid are usually draft busts, such as JaMarcus Russell, and players who have tested positive for illegal performance enhancing drugs. The latter part is a whole separate issue though. JaMarcus Russell was the first overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft for the Oakland Raiders.

The Raiders eventually signed Russell to a contract with 32 million dollars guaranteed. He ended up being released by the Raiders after the 2009 NFL season and is now considered one of the biggest busts in NFL history. And in the end Russell got over 32 million dollars for being in the NFL for three years and not producing what people believed he would. So, JaMarcus Russell is one of the rare cases where the athlete did not deserve what he or she made. These are the rare cases where I believe the athletes

are overpaid and in the end, the Raiders were the ones that were hurt by this.

They took the risk by drafting Russell and it didn’t pay out the way they thought it would. As Sangimino says, “an owner who overpays will feel the pain from his fan base and in the press. His team will be hindered for years by a bad contract. ” As long as fans willingly pay 120 dollars for a replica jersey, six dollars a beer, and two thousand for courtside tickets to the Los Angeles Lakers, the owners will continue to pass on that money to their stars. People act like they're getting stiffed. Let me ask you, When was the last time, someone stuck a gun to your head and said 'Watch this football game or else'?

Face the facts, the reason they get paid so much is because you keep going, watching, and buying the merchandise. I hope that this can make those of you that believe professional athletes are overpaid see the reasoning of why I believe they are not overpaid. Yes, I know that there is always going to those of you that are always going to believe professional athletes are overpaid. I just would like to ask that you people would not complain about their high salaries anymore. Maybe instead of complaining about LeBron James’s income you should have been working on that jump shot as well.