Salary Of Professional Athletes Essay, Research Paper
Today, professional athletes became the richest people in
this country. So much money is involved in contracts with
the athletes, and it does not seem to be a problem for the
clubs to pay them. Some people say that playing certain
sports for living is not worth millions of dollars of salary
and that the athletes are absolutely overpaid. Is it fair
that Michael Jordan used to make $30 million a year for
playing eighty-two basketball games? Yes, he did deserve to
get paid such a huge amount of money. Professional athletes
deserve what they earn.
It is very difficult to be a professional athlete. In
order to become professional, One has to be extremely
hardworking and dedicated to the certain sports to excel
other competitors. People who try to be professional
athletes sometimes have to give up one or more things to
achieve their goals. They do everything they can to improve
themselves although it might seem that they don t work hard.
The fact, that the number of professional athletes is very
limited, makes it almost impossible to become one. There
are not many people who get drafted by professional teams
each year. Therefore, it is totally wrong to assume that
professional athletes are just lucky ones without knowing
how difficult it is to become one.
Professional athletes generate a lot of money, so it is
reasonable for them to share the profits. The pro teams
make their money mostly out of two sources: tickets and
contracts for TV broadcasting. The athletes are the ones
who make people watch the games and TV commercials. So,
without professional athletes, not as many people would
spend hundreds of dollars to buy tickets, and advertisers
would not spend how much they spend now for TV commercials
between the games. It is interesting to compare
professional athletes to other entertainers, such as movie
stars. The movie stars make as much or even more mo
the athletes for considerably less work, but many people are
not aware of that.
What professional athletes earn is what they deserve.
Apparently, how much they make is way above average, but
they deserve it. The law of supply-and-demand proves that
the high salaries are fair. Supply is the number of seats
in a ballpark or in an arena, and demand is people who watch
the games. The owners figure the adequate prices of tickets
to make the games sell out with help of some economists and
accountants. The ticket prices are not based on the
player s salaries, but rather the player s salaries are
based on the ticket prices. So, how was Michael Jordan
worth more than $30 million a year? Well, he motivated so
many people to watch the games he played that the arenas
were always filled with people who were eager to see his
spectacular movements. People also bought magazines and
newspapers to read about him, and the Chicago Bulls made a
huge amount of money from TV broadcasting contracts.
What would happen if pro athletes are paid just about
the average? First of all, only the owners would make
millions of dollars. It is very important for the players
to demand what they deserve to balance the amount of money
going to the players and to the owners even if they have to
fight for it. Also, people would not try as hard to become
professional athletes if they are paid just like others.
It is a lot of money involved in salaries of
professional athletes. However, it is important to realize
how difficult it is, how hard they work to become one, and
how much money they generate in the nation, before
criticizing them for such high salaries. This world could
be very boring for some people without the athletes. If
people acknowledge the athletes passion, dedication, and
contribution to America s economy, it would be much easier
to understand that professional athletes are getting paid
what they deserve.