Athletes'+Salaries


 * Sports Salaries: are they too much?**By: Calvin

Can you comprehend a time when you were paid anything at all to shoot some hoops or kick a ball? No, you can't, because it only happens in a fantasy land, professional sports. Pro athletes are paid millions of dollars every time the pick up a ball, or when rednecks hit the gas and drive in a circle. Their salaries are on the increase, and it's not gonna stop soon.

To be completely honest, I believe that professional salaries and money invested into sports ,in general, is way out of control. On the other hand, some people might claim, "They get their money from ticket, jersey, and other sales." Or something like," We paid so they get the money."

On the contrary, they shouldn't even obtain that money in the first place. Why, over all of the hard working Americans, should they get millions of dollars? That money should go to doctors, surgeons, firefighters, police and so forth. Here is an example. Michael Jordan, the greatest player to ever set foot on a basketball court, was paid $30 million a season to play with the Chicago Bulls. Tell me, what on earth can you buy to spend $30 million a year? Thus, my point. Pros can do without all that money with anyone's dream job, sports.

In addition, once they receive that money, they only beg for more. In 2004, the NHL(National Hockey League) missed an entire season due to a disagreement between the Players Association and the NHL having to do with the salaries of players. Just this off season, Phillies pitcher, Cliff Lee, demanded more money. He wasn't able to attain the money and so he withdrew from the Phillies' organisation. If that's not enough, absorb this fun fact. Since 1930, the President's salary has increased only five times. In 2000, the average baseball salary had exploded by 54 times in 30 years!

Furthermore, the price and pay of pro sports is ever rising. In 1950, to go to a NASCAR race it was just $8. Today, it's about $120. The first NASCAR champion was paid a $5,800. If you were to win today, you would secure 1,270 times that, about $7,360,000. One occurrence which it's prices won't stop going up is soccer's transfer market. Basically, what you do is bid on players up for auction. You can either buy or loan a player. Then, the club that is putting this player up for sale picks who this player goes to(usually the highest bid). The club puts some of it into the coach's salary. Often times this is hundreds of millions of dollars already.

To sum it all up, professional athletes are paid way too much. If we do not counter this problem as soon as possible, who knows how much they could get paid just ten years in the future. It is important that we divert this money to the community. These athletes don't hurt for $30 million. The hard working people of America do. Essentially, what I'm implying is that we should put that money towards the things that will benefit the United States and it's people.

__Bibliography available upon request__