This post is brought to you by way of a class presentation on October 26th.
The answer to the statement in the post title above is false.
Compared to the rest of society, it appears as though ‘athletes are overpaid’ is a true statement.
However, my opinion is that athletes are not overpaid because sport enthusiasts (fans) help to establish their salaries by paying ticket prices and buying team merchandise.
As entertainers, like actors, actresses, song artists, etc., athletes are typically paid according to their value in the market based upon the ability to perform or their ability to sell to the public. According to the Rader (2009) textbook, legendary baseball player Babe Ruth once held out for a higher salary during the Great Depression. Rumor has it that he asked for more money than what President Herbert Hoover was earning at the time. Ruth’s response was: “What the hell has Hoover got to do with it?” Continuing, “Besides, I had a better year than he did.” (p.143)
Athletes are not overpaid because professional sport is a rare business that attracts such a wide-variety and high volume of customers. Pricing is established based upon demand, and if no customer was willing to pay for tickets or merchandise, then the salaries of athletes would be much lower.
The proceedings before and after the NFL Draft would be a primary example for an argument that athletes are, in fact, overpaid. Some believe that it is absurd to spend millions of dollars on a player who has not proven himself on such a high level. While that may be a valid point, rookies in the NFL should not be held accountable for the guaranteed contract dollars that were collectively bargained between the players and the owners. That just represents how far -- and how much $$ -- strong union leadership by the NFLPA can get you.
If I was that talented, and a business wanted to pay me millions of dollars for my skill set, I would jump at that opportunity in a heartbeat. I highly doubt that anyone would decline such an offer.
Do the readers agree or disagree? Add your thoughts to the comments section.
Good day.
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Your arguments about athletes deserving to receive what they do (because fans pay for tickets) is compelling. Perhaps a better question to ask is this: What does it say about our culture that we pay athletes and entertainers so much more than we pay the President of the U.S?
ReplyDeleteIts hard to argue when money is involved in sports. We all say that it is outrageous to pay an athlete millions of dollars to play, but in reality everyone of us would probably do the same thing if we had the ability to play a professional sport. Reminds me of Lebron James when he was deciding on college or the draft. Nike had offered him a 90 million dollar contract right out of high school. Right there he set for the rest of his life and would not have to worry about money ever again. I do not blame athletes for taking more money to play elsewhere, I just hate the fact that this is the world we live in today.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that athletes are not overpaid in regards to the society we live in today. It does say something about our society that fans are willing to pay very high prices for athletes but individuals who have much more important jobs in our society are being paid less. I also agree with Marcus Hoke Blog that we shouldn’t blame the athletes for accepting the amount of money they do. We all think it’s crazy the amount of money these professional athletes make but everyone know that if they were good enough to play a professional sport they would accept the money also.
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