Why do athletes get paid so much?
117790
who do you think should get the money??? (from all the tickets and merchandise??) The Owners?? Of course they deserve quite a bit. This is their life. THey entertain us all and sometimes risk their careers. They've dedicated their whole life to sports. What happends when they get hurt ??? They need the money to last them their lifetime. Hell you know how much it costs to insure a lambergini!!!!!!!?
1134113
Over here they get paid anything from nothing at all to hundreds of thousands of dollars (before perks.)  I don't know off-hand of anyone with a million-dollar salary (maybe Eddie Maguire, but then he is in a different role now).  It is definately less than what you would get in a country like the USA where they have a much bigger population base, more competition etc.
757892
YES!! Not just football either. professional athletes get paid an obscene amt of money...oh, are they saving lives and changing the world?  Doctors earn their salaries.  Nurses,policemen, and all civil employees need a bump up.  No family of an American soldier should have to be on PUBLIC ASSISTANCE in order to care for their families.  Something is egregiously off center here.\n\nlike I said...obscene.
139065
I think everyone of them is way overpaid. this country would survive if sports stopped. but if all the hard working americans said to hell with it and stopped working nothing would get made no money would be made and the sports players wouldn't get paid at all.
727681
It has got faster, more players are becoming more technically skilful, players are much fitter. But players are not as consistent as they used to be perhaps because they earn such huge salaries.
157234
Well in football they have revenue sharing so all teams make a profit. Some teams are much more aggressive than others when it comes to advertising and marketing. The more aggressive ones have more profit to spend. So the NFL has a salary cap so all teams are on a level playing field as opposed to MLB which has a handful of big spenders and a bunch of small market teams. The salary cap is set according to a certain percentage of revenues taken in each year. Every year each team has to be under a certain limit, set by their Collective Bargaining Agreement, by the end of training camp. The way the owners circumvent the cap each year is to pay rather large signing bonus money up-front which is pro-rated over the course of the contract to spread the cap hit evenly. If a player is cut before the end of their contract the remaining pro-rated signing bonus is all lumped onto that last year which usually means a huge cap hit for that team. Alot of players sign huge contracts knowing full well they will never see the back-loaded contracts to their end, and they end up restructuring their contracts to accommodate the team if they really want to stay. So somewhere down the line difficult player cuts have to be made. Hence why you see teams letting older players go and keeping younger players , it all leads back to salary. Now they have what they call veteran minimums on contracts for older players, if you can convince a player with say 5 years experience to sign for a  veteran minimum the cap hit is not the complete total of the contract yet the player still makes a decent salary and the team gets to keep an experienced player for a lesser salary cap hit. This is the NFL's way of taking care of veterans yet while still considering the owners costs. Of course some owners don't manage their books correctly and end up sending their teams into a tailspin. They have all the signing bonuses and big contracts end up hurting them in the long run and have some down years. Now some teams don't even approach the salary cap spending limit which really bugs the owners who market aggressively and have more revenues. But this also keeps things even because it would just lead to the problems seen in MLB, the haves and the have-nots. Most teams have what they call a salary cap guru to keep things under control. Some are successful, some aren't. It all boils down to fiscal responsibilty and due diligence. I hope this helps you understand what can be a difficult thing to follow.
478386
they pay for player the whole year even if he is injured or a substitute. they pay for him every week unless he make another contract to another team. and about the transfer the player get his weekly salary and the owners team get the money for the transfer.
418727
A case of supply and demand - a limited number of people have the talent and dedication to play to a high level, and millions are prepared to pay to watch them do so. As a knock-on affect, advertisers in their turn are happy to pay millions to advertise products at games.
727112
NBA players have the highest average salary of all professional sports in the United States. As of last year, NBA players averaged $4.9 million. Coming in second are MLB players, who averaged $2.49 million. NHL players averaged $1.79 million in 2002-03, the latest season in which their union has figures available. And NFL players averaged $1.26 million last year. \n\nAs mentioned earlier, this is due to a combination of factors, including sport marketability, number of regular season games played (82 for NBA players, 16 for NFL players), and number of players on each roster (About 14 for NBA teams, versus 53 for NFL teams).
544405
Yes, they definitely get paid too much.  There are other professions that deserve more, while sports deserve less.  The military definitely warrants better pay, because they fight for our freedom to enjoy those spectator sports.  Teachers deserve more because without them, society would lack the knowledge necessary to thrive.  Professional athletes are able to demand those high salaries because people allow them to.  If they weren't supported, they wouldn't make the money.
376321
-Injuries\n-Unfair amount of money... [Some sports stars get paid more than world leaders. People in third world countries are working so hard for less than a dollar a day.]\n-Social Status [People who excel at sports are more popular than those who aren't for the most part.]\n-No equal opportunity [Not everyone can play sports well depending on the shape of their body.]\n-Scandals [Steroids, lawsuits, cork-filled bats,etc.]\n-Not fair for students of the fine arts. [Schools are having to eliminate their music programs, but keep their sports programs.]
680347
Yes, they are overpaid...BUT, who pays these guys?  The owners.  Why do they pay them so high?  Because they can!  The owners, especially in Baseball because there is no salary cap, make so much money from the revenue they get from T.V deals, marketing, ticket sales, parking, etc. etc.  Yes it's not fair that military, police, teachers, are not even in a baseball players galaxy in compensation, but the owners pay them.  If your boss was a multi-multi billionaire at your company, and you were at the top level of your craft, wouldn't you think you would be compensated well.  As long as WE THE FAN continue to go to the games and pay enormous prices for everything, that money that we earn, that we in turn give to these teams, will go to the owners checkbooks, which will be deposited into players bank accounts.  It's unfair to us, but that's the world we live in when in comes to professional sports.
537954
NBA players make a lot more than NFL players.  Plus the money is guaranteed while no one in the NFL has guaranteed contracts.
1105704
they are paid for how the game turns out like if they won they get paid more if lose than they get paid reguler.  and plus how the players play like kobe when he made those 81 points he scored alot of money because his outcome and dwyane in the play offs he help the team win 4 wins all the way to the championships and he got like raise for his accomplishment and thats it
1045992
Well, here's the thing.  If you think players are making ridiculous amounts of money (and I agree), what about the owners?  The owners are the ones that can afford to pay them this money.  On the one hand, I'd rather see the players make more money than the owners; however, I do think they are overpaid considering they are only playing a game.  \n\nRemember in Field of Dreams when Shoeless Joe says, "Man, I did love this game. I'd have played for food money. It was the game... The sounds, the smells. Did you ever hold a ball or a glove to your face? ..... It was the crowd, rising to their feet when the ball was hit deep. Shoot, I'd play for nothing!"  That's the kind of love for the game that has been missing in recent years.  It became about contract years and free agency, not just pure, simple love of the game.\n\nShould they get paid?  Yeah, it's their job.  Should they be paid millions of dollars?  I don't think so.  My job can be just as dangerous.  I have just as much chance getting injured as a player.  Do I matter less because I'm not in the limelight?  I'm having trouble walking right now because I got banged up at a softball game Wednesday night, but I'm still going to be heading to work in about an hour and a half, getting paid $10/hr to help people shop.  I don't expect to sit down and still get paid today.\n\nThe good thing is that a lot of players do not blow all their money on themselves.  Many of them have set up foundations and charities to help the underpriviledged.  I don't mind those players making a ton of money.  In fact, I'd rather see those players make more than anybody else for the simple fact that they have more to give away.
498319
Well, the NFL is the best organized league in the world, and as the most organized league it is the most profitable. If teams and owners were not earninjg big amount of money, they wouldn´t be paying big salaries. Football players are incredible athletes that compete during 6 hard football season months! But a team woulnd´t be paying 100 million in salaries if they weren´t recieving much more. Tickets, merchandise (in and out of stadiums), TV contracts, sponsorship deals amount for such a profit that they can afford those big salaries. True, players go through a lot of pain during and after the season, but i guess rugby players do also, and they aren´t recieving the same salaries. Also, i believe salaries are way too high, but as long as the owners are making money, they will be going for better contracts to attract the best in the business.\n\nGolf ain´t that bad sport. Last Sunday someone won 1.3 million for 4 days of work at the course... not bad! Tiger has a 20 plus million contract with Nike. I believe he has made Nike win more than that or else he wouldn´t get a new contract!
118827
There are a couple professional players that make several hundred thousand a year.  The very best players can add to that a bit with the few endorsements reserved for the very top players.