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.