Sports And Money

Proffesional Athletes High Salaries and Their Effects on Society

In past generations and today's society, sports in America have played an important role in the shaping of American culture from one generation to the next. Whether it be the general pastime of baseball keeping Americans on the edges of their seats watching "The Babe" smack another homerun or the high flying stars of basketball such as "Dr. J" influencing athletes to reach for their goals, professional sports in America have been shaping our culture with every passing generation. Along with that, the continuous ability of professional sports to develop has lead to the influence that they have on the American culture, creating idols and heroes out of human athletes that people of any generation can relate and look up to. However, the harsh reality of the past 50 years in the change of America's is that these professional sports have become less set on pastimes and games, but more business oriented whose main goal is set on making money.

The majority of people in America feel that pro athlete's salaries are too high. Current sports salary contracts are becoming enormous figures. Players are signing 50 million-dollar contracts and up just because they happen to be pretty good at hitting a baseball or shooting a basketball. For example, Kevin Garnett is an18 year old basketball player who had taken the A.C.T test four times in High School, failing all four times and had also taken the S.A.T test once and failed. Kevin decided that he would not go to any college even though he was the highly recruited number one basketball player in the nation, and could have had a scholarship to any college he wanted. So his decision took him to the NBA draft, where he was selected as the fifth pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves.The Timberwolves signed him to a 3 year $5.6 Million dollar contract to play for their team. Every year one hears of some new name, some new player in the sports news getting a new record contract which sets a much higher mark and blows away the high salary from the year before. So who's fault is it that these men and women are getting paid more and more? Most fingers point to the peoples way, the fans way. The fans are the ones that go to these sporting events pay $50 dollars for a ticket, $100 dollars for a jacket, and $20 dollars for a hat of our favorite teams. Americans are the ones who support these teams and the players. The reason ticket prices keep going up is because money is needed to pay all of our great players. Ticket prices do not help that the pro sports programs know that we will pay these prices no matter how ridiculous they increase them. Now pro sports are fun to watch and track, but college games entertain a crowd just as well and they are not being paid a dime.

Sports are some of the oldest activities humans participate in that can be traced back thousands of years, but only recently have they emerged as a problem that effects everyone regardless of if they follow or even like them. Today the average worker in Canada earns about 45-thousand dollars per year. Compared to the salaries professional athletes make, it is only a minor amount. The average professional athlete makes at least 100 thousand dollars a year and some of them do not even participate in a single game for their team. Athletes make more on average then professionals from many other fields, such as medicine and law. Salaries really have lost every sense of reason. "In 1976 the average ball player earned eight times the US average income. In 1991 the average ballplayer earned forty-seven times the average US income" (Zimbalist ?). These absurd salaries leave consequences and impacts in their path. These consequences and impacts land on the laps of millions of taxpayers across the world. In today's world of "money equals power finance", these athletes have a giant hold on the media and many vulnerable people, especially today's youth.

The jobs that drive our country through everyday life such as medicine, have rules when it comes to salaries. A doctor who can work over 300 days per year has a cap on his salary that falls not much higher than the average athlete's salary. These specialists work together to make the world a better place to live. Athletes on the other hand do not help the world, all they do is entertain the people and satisfy what they want. The professionals, on the other hand, satisfy needs of people, whether it is surgery or a lawsuit. People can learn to adapt without sports, but it would be almost impossible for a community to function properly without doctors.

Another problem with athlete's million dollar salaries is that the money used to pay them comes out of the pocket of the taxpayer. Not only are ticket prices unreasonable, but once inside the stadium both food and products have extra taxes added in. Maybe athletes should give some of the money they make back into the economy to make the viewers' sporting experience less expensive. Athletes should be held responsible by helping to fund stadiums, and by giving more money to charity.

The economics involved in sports today hurts the fans, some teams, and the leagues themselves. The sports leagues can actually be hurt by there own actions. The past's NBA lockout was a prime example of money ruining of what could have been a great year. The owners were locking out the players until they could settle on a bunch of points. The baseball strike a few years