How much do you think athletes should be paid?
doubledragon
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in Sports Talk
I got the idea for this thread when I was looking at some of Aaron Rodgers homes today, it's insane the amount of money athletes get paid. For the best athletes in every sport, how much do you think they should be paid, a cut off amount, I know some of these guys get paid $40 million a season, I think that's insane.
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I think Lebron James owns what 4 or 5 mansions? I know he bought a $36.8 million in Beverly Hills a while back.
It just seems crazy that these guys get paid that much to play a game and police officers are out there putting their lives on the line everyday for peanuts.
I remember Michael Jordan had this mansion with a custom built gate and a full court basketball gym inside.
"How much do you think athletes should be paid?"
That's a silly question! Athletes are entertainers, just like movie stars, TV stars, etc. Whatever value the public is willing to pay for entertainment is always what athletes should be paid. It's very simple economics.
Check out Tiger Woods mansion with the full tennis court in the backyard and notice the diving platform with stairs in the pool.
I don't know the answer to that question......But I do know this.....They would play for minimum wage, or less (McDonald's?) if that was the only option available.....take my word for it.
I think they should get paid handsomely, but $40 million a year, that's ridiculous.
FYI.....most minor league baseball players DO earn less than fast food workers when you figure in the long bus rides, etc....they know it.....they joke about it. A lot of those guys are only playing because mom and dad are chipping in or they just love the game...can't quit!.....ownership knows that....and they take advantage of it.......minor league baseball,.....oh,.....what the fans don't know. Somebody should write a book!!!!
"I think they should get paid handsomely, but $40 million a year, that's ridiculous."
As I stated in my earlier post, it's simple economics!
And a lot of these guys claim they play for the love of the game and the turn around and hold out for more money, it's crazy.
here's the part of Tiger's mansion in Jupiter Island, Fla that you didn't see in double d's piccies above
his "backyard" practice facility -- 4 greens, 6 bunkers, and he can hit every conceivable shot of 150 yards or less
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
Holy crap, I didn't see that part, he's got a golf course in his backyard! 😂😂
people often make comparisons with police/firefighters/teachers etc making a pittance compared to a pro athlete.
its not about the job, or the importance of the job, it is about supply and demand. on planet earth, there are 32 men who have the talent to play QB on an NFL team. of those 32, about 1/3 are average, 1/3 are really good and 1/3 are transcendent athletes. those top tier guys deserve those 40MM-50MM contracts.
unfortunately, it is much much much much easier to find people to be nurses, teachers, cops etc. so they don't get paid nearly as much.
same with singers, actors, great painters, fashion designers etc.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
As much as they can
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I was reading about two police officers in Baltimore about a month ago, they got ambushed in their patrol car and both were killed, one was a mother of five. I'll never be convinced that a guy who throws a egg shaped ball for a living deserves more money than a police officer.
No doubt they are under paid as well as teachers.
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
It is sickening how under paid they are, teachers as well.
They are worth what the franchise owners are willing to pay for their services. It's a free enterprise system so I say good for them getting as big a piece of the pie they can get so to speak. Their window to cash in for most guys are usually not too big so good for them when they can. But I do agree with DD that some professions are grossly underpaid such as teachers and ALL first responders.
Not a sports star but seeing Tigers Jupiter Island digs made me think about Celine Dion's former place down the street from Tiger complete with a water park!
Well, it is a lot of money, but, a top tier NFL quarterback is worth that to the franchise. Management makes a profit on it, they know that or they wouldn't pay the big bucks.......it's all about the bottom line.
The average playing career of an NFL player is I think about 3 1/2 years.(?) The player comes into the league at 22 years old and is finished at 25/26? How would YOU like it if your chosen career that you worked for since you where a kid, WITH NO PAY!.. was over at 26 years old? I don't think you would like it. Especially if you had to get the physical CRAP beat out of you for those 3 years on the job to earn your paycheck? Those guys deserve every penny they make.....and more!
You're right, they couldn't survive off of just $10 million a year.
The very, very best athletes are all underpaid relative to the value they generate. Patrick Mahomes generates waaaaaaaay more than $40m a year. Tom Brady generated billions of dollars of revenue and value during his career but saw only a fraction of that. The lower-end of the scale are probably a bit overpaid - middle relievers and the like.
Having said that, I don't care what athletes make. Every owner in every one of the four major leagues makes a profit. And the risk is incredibly low. They can pretty much always sell their team for a gigantic profit should they choose to do so. Look at the Denver Broncos - asking price is $4B and they're not even close to the most valuable team in the NFL. Jerry Jones could probably get 3x that much for the Cowboys.
All of that is a long way of saying I'd rather the athletes make more than the owners pocket more. If there was a tight limit on salaries, I'd want to see an accompanying gigantic reduction in ticket prices and concession prices.
It's not about survival...... It's about getting paid what they are worth to the franchise..... If instead of a Dallas Cowboy making $10,000,000 a year.....he only made $1,000,000. Who do you think walks off with the extra $9,000,000?.......Answer....MUSTACHE JERRY JONES that's who!......the guy that has total control of your life.......HELLO!!!!!!
"Don't say it or you will be banned".............................."Go ahead and say what you really think"
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
One example: I know a young man who is now 39 years old who signed a contract with a MLB team right out of high school...first or second overall pick in the draft. 18 years old. $2,000,000. (?) His father had died during his senior year in high school. At that point his mother and sister relied on him for "survival." When he signed the contract he got some good advice....... and that was that a stipulation of signing was that the team he signed with would pay for his college education when and if ever he went to college. Well, he made it to the majors. 20 years old?.......and blew out his arm. He told the management that he was hurt......they didn't care....GO PITCH kid, that's what you're paid to do!...Washed up at 20 years old? $2,000,000, BIG WHOP!...Then he used the stipulation in the singing contract to go to college... All expenses paid....he is now a successful lawyer in San Diego. Happily married with kids........Hey, it's DOG EAT DOG out there. The players are totally expendable as far as management is concerned. Always another batch coming up.......The ballplayers earn and DESERVE every cent they make. End of story.
P.S. The guy who signed the kid is a HOF third baseman who takes a lot of heat on this forum for being undeserving, etc....let me tell you.....forget baseball..... that third baseman is a HELL OF A MAN!.....Good guy.....and he was right about the "PINE TAR INCIDENT!" A real fighter!
I am going to do another post on this thread. Not now. Because I think I would be banned if I did it now. I'm like a dog with a bone on this one. I'm not going to let it go. Just ask yourself one question:.... How would you like it if you were at work in your office or on the shop floor and some 190 lb. guy came running at you full speed and blindsided you with a hit to the head? While everyone else stood around drinking beer and screaming their heads off liking it????...And the Big Boss Man was sitting up in his luxury office looking down with a smile on his face? There is no amount of money that YOU would put up with that for!.....Oh, yea, maybe $40,000,000???.....NFL players do that...for your enjoyment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Think about it.
back in the 80s my hometown had a PGA tour stop for 8 years. i looked up the total purse for the tournament that took place in 1982, or exactly 4 decades ago. it was $350,000. this week's tournament is the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am out in Cali. the purse? $8.7 million. can you say an almost 25-fold increase in prize money in 40 years?
what is this gargantuan leap in money attributed to? it's not a what, it's a who.
ask any guy on the PGA tour to shine Tiger Woods' shoes and they'd ask where they are. why? because he has single-handedly bettered their lives from a financial standpoint beyond anything they could have ever imagined. the guy's mere presence prints money, and that's why he has been paid 7 figures to simply play in overseas tournaments. you read that correctly -- Tiger's bank account regularly swells by at least a million before he ever strikes a ball.
if anyone reading this thinks that's absurd, take a step back and think about it from a business perspective. if Tiger Woods is not in your tournament's field, the amount of revenue generated will pale in comparison to what it would be if he was actually there. so if paying him $1 mil in appearance fees guarantees profitability of the very lucrative nature, would it not be a financially prudent decision to fork it over? would that not be a sound investment? it would and it would. and that's why it happens. it's his worth, and everyone benefits as a result.
this article delves into it a little deeper:
https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2020/01/11/tiger-woods-changed-landscape-promotional-fees-around-world/
you'll never be able to outrun a bad diet
Eventually, a critical mass will be achieved and the golden goose will no longer lay golden eggs.
That, too, is simple economics.
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Galaxy....great post ^^^^ . You nailed it.
I think they're all grossly overpaid for what they do.
IF I were one of them, I'd probably be as greedy as I could be and get it while I could.
Forget about the player's salaries...... How much money do you think the guy who owns the pizza company makes because 30-40 million hungry people are watching a playoff game and watching PIZZA COMMERCIALS at the same time? MR. PIZZA makes more money on that game than all those players on the field put together are making for that game.......Hummm......🤔
3-fiddy
The NBA's ratings crashed the year after Jordan retired in 98. Like Tiger he set the bar stupid high. Some people are suggesting the NFL will take a dip with TB12's retirement.
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
H> @Hydrant said:
AH! No excuses.............people are just plain lazy! With the internet and a bazillion recipes at a fingers touch..........amazing!
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
I’ve said it before in many conversations that they should be paid on stats.
Make up charts for different positions and pay structured around your position based on stats in relation to said chart.
You want to play the “Day to day” game? Sure but it will cost you some money
"I’ve said it before in many conversations that they should be paid on stats."
That's a no-brainer, perkdog -- and I would argue that it's done that way now. In their own minds, the decision makers of each organization do (in essence) almost exactly as you described above. I would further argue that the decision makers of most businesses/companies also have a process similar to that which you described. It's simple economics -- it's supply & demand -- it's "you get what you pay for" -- it's business, it's not personal.
Well I would argue that it’s not because they are paying these guys in advance.
I should have been more clear that they should be paid year to year, meaning one year deals.
perkdog said: "Well I would argue that it’s not because they are paying these guys in advance.
I should have been more clear that they should be paid year to year, meaning one year deals."
Well, if you think about it, most businesses/companies pay their employees "in advance" -- employees get "a promotion" (based on past performance) in hopes that they'll perform competently "at at next-higher level". It's kinda the only way to run a business (or the employee will move on to greener pastures).
Every time I re ante my contract I ask and receive a retention bonus. I was actually ready to pack it in next year but they dragged me back in until 2024 with my option until 2026. I work in a field where there are less of us then there are jobs to fill. Same dynamics as sports to a degree
m
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Point counter point. I see your side of this as well
There are myriad issues with this. How do you pay guys for "stuff that doesn't show up in the scorebook"? Final week of the season and you're 18 games out of first - does the starting 1B get sat down and miss out on chances to increase his pay for the year even though he's done nothing wrong? What about players being asked to do things that might help with winning but hurt their stats? Do quarterbacks get punished for Hail Mary interceptions at the end of a half on throws that have a 0.00001% chance of success?
And so on.
Is this a real question???? Sports are entertainment, NOT real life. Movie stars, Sports stars generate a ton of revenue, thus they get a lot of money.
What a teacher or police officer earns has nothing to do with the salary of Aaron Rodgers. NOTHING.
Me think same.....
It's a joke, Rob Gronkowski gets a $500,000 bonus a few weeks ago for one catch, our US soldiers don't even make that in a year, it's a slap in the face to people with jobs that actually matter. It's a complete joke.
Again...........one has NOTHING to do with the other. Should teachers, police officers, soldiers etc. earn more and are more important to society.........sure. But AGAIN, one has nothing to do with the other.
Starting QBs get 100 millions of dollars each year. Only 32 people share this pay. Teachers get Billions upon billions in pay each year. Problem is it is shared by millions upon millions.
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Ralph
Yep, good points