Are high salaries ruining professional sports?
543127
NO! Not in any way! Remember, for contracts, BOTH sides have to agree. That means the player AND the owner agree to the terms and the finances. So if an owner agrees to pay a player a ridiculous amount, that is their choice.\n\nBesides, money is money. The game itself has remained relatively the same. Just some people are getting paid more than they did years back.
611501
These are two unrelated questions. I will start with the question about athletes.\nFirst of all you need to realize that there is a big difference between most athletes and  “star” athletes. Most athletes go out there day after day and work and train hard and are happy if their income is high enough to allow them to keep training.\nA “star” athlete however earns truckloads of money because he is just that, a star. Hence WE spend more truckloads of money buying tickets, posters, jerseys, and the products that advertise during games on TV. And my personal view is that the athlete SHOULD be getting that money, because it is due to him that we spent it in the first place. We don’t go to the stadium, pay premium prices for third-rate hot dogs and drink beverages with three molecules of actual soda in a bucket of water just so that the CEO of the team can make his yacht payment.\nAnd would you REALLY want a health care professional to charge one million dollars for saving a life? (Don’t forget folks, when it comes to caring for people and saving lives, it is the NURSES on the front lines and in the trenches) I wouldn’t want to be the one to have to set that price tag. I wont even go into the oath that doctors have to give.\n\nAs far as stadiums go, two things. They are paid for by tax payers, but they also generate tax income. I don’t know how much, maybe we are paying more then we spend on them. And even if we are, we are talking about our recreation and fun here. Bread and Games, people. \nSecondly, it is in the power of the voters to determine who is in office and what they do there. Don’t like what they’re doing? Vote them out of office, but voter turnout has always been a weak point in American society. \n\nTo Centurion: One of the reasons we are lagging in the world is because we grossly underpay our teachers, especially in the Junior High to High School levels. If we TRULY care about education, then we should make sure that the teaching staff receives the best possible education and training and meets the highest standard of requirements and then are paid the kind of money that profession truly deserves.
471223
Ok heres my view. Celebrities I don't think are over paid. Movie stars are definately not. The work they put into there role is amazing. As for footballers I believe they are stupidly over paid. When you think that people play football for fun the majority of football stars today are only in it for the money and don't even play that great. It get ridiculous, especially if they are supposed to big a fan of the team they are playing for yet want to demand as much money out of there team as possible. Come on the only good players I know are Van Nistleroy, Henry, and Terry.
988746
This is only true for those players playing in the US, those playing outside ie in the European Leagues are in similar pay scales. All are conditional to what the team they are playing for and what they think they are worth. The US based players get paid what they are worth based on the market. When the sport becomes as popular as basketball and baseball and the teams start making the same kind of money the salaries of US based players should increase.
84871
I haven't followed the NBA for many years for this very reason.\n\nWhile all professional sports seem to have their share of athletes who seem to only care about their statistics and how that translates into a paycheck, there seems to be a lot more of it in the NBA.
1131470
I don't believe that all sports are rigged, especially not NCAA. But it has become appearent over the past 5-10 years that Professional athletes in particular are simply getting paid too much money and it's gone to their heads. They have lost the love for the game.  They don't care to play hard and play good defense or win a championships because they are still gonna get their $25 million at the end of the season regardless. Beyond that, in the NBA especially, it seems that there are basically no rules, whatever happened to fouls or traveling?  It's just street ball, which to me says that at this point it's just for entertainment and players and owners are playing into that, they just give the people what they think they want to see; exciting close games, exaggerated rivalries, and amazing shots, dunks, and passes, not real basketball.
498319
Well, the NFL is the best organized league in the world, and as the most organized league it is the most profitable. If teams and owners were not earninjg big amount of money, they wouldn´t be paying big salaries. Football players are incredible athletes that compete during 6 hard football season months! But a team woulnd´t be paying 100 million in salaries if they weren´t recieving much more. Tickets, merchandise (in and out of stadiums), TV contracts, sponsorship deals amount for such a profit that they can afford those big salaries. True, players go through a lot of pain during and after the season, but i guess rugby players do also, and they aren´t recieving the same salaries. Also, i believe salaries are way too high, but as long as the owners are making money, they will be going for better contracts to attract the best in the business.\n\nGolf ain´t that bad sport. Last Sunday someone won 1.3 million for 4 days of work at the course... not bad! Tiger has a 20 plus million contract with Nike. I believe he has made Nike win more than that or else he wouldn´t get a new contract!
405386
You bring up a good point, but yeah the NBA isn't so much about the sport now, its about how much money the people make off entertaining people. If they lose that ability it will go down the drain.
1163510
i don't think it is that they get paid too much it is that we don't get paid enough when you think about it peoplle are willing to pay that 20-100 bucks( sorry idk the euro amount) to watch a game and it takes alot to become a player they work thier own a-holes off too plus they are prone to injury they ar eout there giving up thier body and fighting for the game every day  if they get injured what do you think happens... they probally lose about 3 months - 3 years in pay and  maybe never able to play again... it is too much of a risk for them to play and not be paid well
911365
Yes!\n\nThey get paid millions just to kick a ball around a field. I think the people who really deserve  to get paid loads don't. People like paramedics, the police, nurses, firefighters, soldiers, engineers etc should be the ones who earn loads because they are making a real difference in this world.\nThe word "hero" is over used. I remember a football figurine advert wih the caption "A hero in your hand". That's not a true hero. A hero puts his/her life on the line for others, with no regard for their own safety. These true heroes should be paid much more for what they do.\n\nThe people who actually improve the world should go down in history and be revered for all time, not sportsmen.
435757
Yes. Of course the millions that are paid to these athletes is mind boggling. And what have the been the results of all that? Recklessness, drug abuse, poor and underachievement and many other unacceptable behaviors.
383091
I think although they thought in the beginning that it would stop the building of super teams, it being the salary cap has become the NRL's worst nightmare. The emphasis on the game has been taken from the love of the game to how much money can I make. My club, the Panthers have come under fire for it themselves, but there are some that abuse it more than others and do seem to get concessions or lesser punishments. While ever the NRL keep changing the rules, clubs will keep looking for ways to beat them and in turn there will be those that make the mistake of breaching. Sponsorship of players and Private deals begin to cloud things and they are the points that I believe were not properly thought out before implementation of the salary cap. Its ruining the game to a degree so one way or another I hope they work it all out soon hey.
884592
These are the average salaries for the three major sports in the U.S.  I don't have info for golf or tennis at my fingertips and with the way hockey went a couple of years ago the salaries will stay down for a while.\n\n$4.17 million NBA\n$2,349,394 MLB\n$1.4 million NFL
666470
Let's face it..nobody's getting rich playing cricket now are they? Your question could apply to footballers, golfers, tennis players, etc. etc. Outstanding athletes in any sport are a marketing tool for sporting goods companies to sell more stuff, and I think if an athlete has the kind of talent it takes to catch the eye of these companies then they should be compensated for it.
118827
There are a couple professional players that make several hundred thousand a year.  The very best players can add to that a bit with the few endorsements reserved for the very top players.
727681
It has got faster, more players are becoming more technically skilful, players are much fitter. But players are not as consistent as they used to be perhaps because they earn such huge salaries.
265176
A salary cap would not solve the problems, it's the "Holy Grail" of baseball. Read this: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=1345\n\nMore appropriate, I believe, is your other suggestion, a "salary floor". There is currently no incentive for some owners (Tampa, Milwaukee, for example) to spend on quality players. Revenue sharing means that a team like NY will hand out over $60 million to the have-nots of the league. So Tampa gets their cut of this and some merchandising money and a little bit of gate receipts and that's all they need to cover $30 million of salary. They can do little work, field a horrible team and still break even. Force them to carry a roster with at least $55 million in salary and they start thinking, I better put a quality team on the field so people will come watch and more money is generated.