Professional Athlete Salaries

My reply to another blog post about professional athlete salaries.

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My Thoughts -

Regarding any profession, who has the right to tell other people how much money they deserve to be making? The answer is no one.

Salaries for these players are dependant on how much the GM's and Owners wish to pay. These are business men we are talking about, some of the brightest around. They would not throw around millions of dollars without a purpose.

MLB revenues from stadiums, advertising, and television contracts are worth an astounding amount of money. That in turn increases each team’s budget for its product: the players.

If a doctor does a great job for 5 years he will end up making more money, because he has proven himself and has experience. His pay increase will be reflective of the number of patients or quality of work he does.

If a professional athlete does a great job for 5 years he will end up making a lot more money, because he has proven himself and has experience. His pay increase is reflective of his value to his owner and excellence above his competitors.

The difference is that doctors will never increase profits by any margin comparable to what a professional athlete can do to revenues. That is why you cannot compare professional athletes pay to any normal profession. I pointed out their contrasts.

Reading through comments, people have pointed out that there are more important jobs that get paid far less. I agree. There are doctors, military, police officers, and teachers that do very important things. The issue is that their value is often priceless and sometimes, to their employers, replaceable.

Everything an athlete does have a monetary value to his owner. The key word is monetary. People think sports are brainless, but the talent of the athletes has a real value.

In contrast, no matter how great a teacher is. It is tough to see how their employer will gain much increase in revenue from the teacher giving great lessons in class. Teachers have a great worldly importance, but in this world that is not where the money lies.

Sports are a huge industry and are here to stay. When salaries finally do deflate, it will be because of the laws of economics and not due to someone having the feeling that "They don't deserve it."