What about Actors? 20 million per picture and those are less than a year not to mention no chance of bodily harm much less long term results. Singers? They record an album - takes less than a year in most cases. Artist - paint something once . . . or photographic What about them? How about the Owners - they just buy the team and sit back and collect checks. Are they over paid too. They don't even manage the team all year. They 'delegate it to someone else' Rocket River
One more thing. Athletes train year round . . .contrary to popular belief you cannot be a Fat b*stard in January and a Stud Running back in August Are those minimum wagers willing to give up their beers, chilling and hit the gym 3 hours a day . . . Checking the obesity levels in america . . I DON'T THINK SO! Rocket River
Owners charge that much because they know they can get away with it. Most of the Athletes' salaries comes from TV revenue.
Some are paid too much, some are paid too little, some are paid the right amount. If the owner is making money, he's not paying too much total salary.
they arent overpaid (in general) like other members said its the entertainment industry, all the actors and singers are paid as much as the sports figures. The thing that bothers me a bit is that the rookie salary is very high (especially the top 10 picks), they havent played 1 game and they are already earning millions.
The entire entertainment industry is overpaid. Let's just say I don't feel the least bit guilty downloading a song, ripping a movie, or watching a game online. I have to pick between watching games online or attending one single game with good seats.
So you justify theft by pricing? Prices are set by supply vs demand for those songs, movies, and sports tickets. So are other prices. I would be similar to saying you don't feel bad about walking into the Apple store and stealing an Ipod and an Ipad because they cost too much and Apple makes too much money. Its the very same logic. What about the songs you rip off from up and coming artists that don't have any money? Do you differentiate between big budget movies that'll make millions and Independent movies that won't make that much when you download them?
yes..and no. Look at the Tampa Bay Devil Rays - they were a playoff team with very poor attendence. There are many NBA games that don't sell out each season as well. Maybe the Owners should be paying the janitors better. Lets look at it this way. If we turned the Question to CEO's of companys...do they make too much money? Most people in this forum would say yes..and that they should be paying the little guys (janitors, etc) more money instead of the big executives. I think the janitors work just as hard as most athletes..but in a different way and without the same glory. You can say that Janitors don't bring in crowds and TV deals, but they don't bring in money in Corprorations either - yet many people will still say we should pay them more than minimum wage and that the Executives and CEO's should be paid less - however the Execs and CEO's are the ones responsible for keeping the company profitable.
i don't know if athletes are overpaid, but it sounds like dentists are. lets break it down. according to your second sentence, you make nba/mlb/nfl minimum wage, give or take. of the 6+ billion people in the world, i would estimate around 1 billion are male and in the general basketball playing age range. even the lowliest nba player is 1 of only about 500 making a team. that means he's about 1 in 2,000,000. according to a quick google search, there are about 150,000 dentists in the US, which has a population of ~300,000,000. that makes you 1 in 2,000. and yet y'all are paid the same. sounds like the athlete is the one getting screwed here. and your career can go on for many years longer than the athletes.
Yeah, a bit overpaid... Not going to say they are overwhelmingly overpaid just because they give us the much needed entertainment and excitement we look forward to every weeekend to the entire nation.
Athletes are overpaid because owners overpay them. Did anyone put a gun to Drayton's head to sign Carlos Lee? IF he would have just looked at the stats in front of him he would have seen a decline was coming quickly but he decided the Stros needed offense and pulled the trigger. Caballo has many flaws but lets not blame the player for accepting a 100 million dollar contract that was placed in front of him. Albert Haynesworth is a idiot but I don't blame him for taken crazy money from the Skins, everyone understood his baggage and what's happening now is not surprising anyone but Snyder wanted to make a splash and so he did.
Nope, if anything athletes are underpaid in order to support those who aren't as good via collective bargaining. The top players are paid less than they would be in sports with a salary cap. Without the salary structure the NBA negotiated, a lot of teams would have been willing to offer guys like LeBron more money.
I think they are paid too much. But people pay the ticket prices, pay for the outrageous concessions, see the ads and buy those products. Alex Rodriguez being paid $30,000,000/year is flat out crazy.
Of course not. 1. That's capitalism. They aren't the only ones to reap abnormal profits from idiosyncracies in the market. I do think they (and other rich people) should be taxed more heavily. 2. The justification you often hear for the abnormal profits earned by entrepreneurs is that it is compensation for risk. That no one will start new businesses when failure is painful and success is inadequately rewarded. It's the same deal with pro athletes. They are mini-entrepreneurs. Lots of kids are trying hard to become pro athletes and failing, often sacrifcing other career opportunities in the process. If success isn't rewarded, people won't try as hard. And then our athletes won't be as good as they are now. The country might be better for it, but our sports would be worse. Aside. Most people would not be willing to do a pro athlete's job for minimum wage. Given the dedication to training, the constant travel, the injuries, the long-term damage to their bodies -- 99.9% of people would quit and find an easier minimum wage job.
