Salary Of Professional Athletes Essay, Research Paper

Today, professional athletes became the richest people in

this country. So much money is involved in contracts with

the athletes, and it does not seem to be a problem for the

clubs to pay them. Some people say that playing certain

sports for living is not worth millions of dollars of salary

and that the athletes are absolutely overpaid. Is it fair

that Michael Jordan used to make $30 million a year for

playing eighty-two basketball games? Yes, he did deserve to

get paid such a huge amount of money. Professional athletes

deserve what they earn.

It is very difficult to be a professional athlete. In

order to become professional, One has to be extremely

hardworking and dedicated to the certain sports to excel

other competitors. People who try to be professional

athletes sometimes have to give up one or more things to

achieve their goals. They do everything they can to improve

themselves although it might seem that they don t work hard.

The fact, that the number of professional athletes is very

limited, makes it almost impossible to become one. There

are not many people who get drafted by professional teams

each year. Therefore, it is totally wrong to assume that

professional athletes are just lucky ones without knowing

how difficult it is to become one.

Professional athletes generate a lot of money, so it is

reasonable for them to share the profits. The pro teams

make their money mostly out of two sources: tickets and

contracts for TV broadcasting. The athletes are the ones

who make people watch the games and TV commercials. So,

without professional athletes, not as many people would

spend hundreds of dollars to buy tickets, and advertisers

would not spend how much they spend now for TV commercials

between the games. It is interesting to compare

professional athletes to other entertainers, such as movie

stars. The movie stars make as much or even more money than

the athletes for considerably less work, but many people are

not aware of that.

What professional athletes earn is what they deserve.

Apparently, how much they make is way above average, but

they deserve it. The law of supply-and-demand proves that

the high salaries are fair. Supply is the number of seats

in a ballpark or in an arena, and demand is people who watch

the games. The owners figure the adequate prices of tickets

to make the games sell out with help of some economists and

accountants. The ticket prices are not based on the

player s salaries, but rather the player s salaries are

based on the ticket prices. So, how was Michael Jordan

worth more than $30 million a year? Well, he motivated so

many people to watch the games he played that the arenas

were always filled with people who were eager to see his

spectacular movements. People also bought magazines and

newspapers to read about him, and the Chicago Bulls made a

huge amount of money from TV broadcasting contracts.

What would happen if pro athletes are paid just about

the average? First of all, only the owners would make

millions of dollars. It is very important for the players

to demand what they deserve to balance the amount of money

going to the players and to the owners even if they have to

fight for it. Also, people would not try as hard to become

professional athletes if they are paid just like others.

It is a lot of money involved in salaries of

professional athletes. However, it is important to realize

how difficult it is, how hard they work to become one, and

how much money they generate in the nation, before

criticizing them for such high salaries. This world could

be very boring for some people without the athletes. If

people acknowledge the athletes passion, dedication, and

contribution to America s economy, it would be much easier

to understand that professional athletes are getting paid

what they deserve.