Does Any Athlete Deserve the Multimillion Dollar Contracts they receive year after year?

Question

are the economics that screwed up? why, is it because they can play a game better than we did when we were children?

Answer 1

They don't work as long as other careers. Imagine if you play for 5 years with just a basic 100-200K salary and then get injured and can't play again. Then have nothing to fall back on. But yes, some players, make that a lot, make way too much.

Answer 2

You pay 50 bucks for a ticket, the average family of 4 usually spends 350–400 on tickets, parking, food, and souvenirs. Think only the owners deserve all that money.

Answer 3

Greed.  And the owners just raise the prices to pay them.

Answer 4

I think the media and marketing people make the players better than they really are. They believe they have to have superstars or their sport wont do well. I think the only way someone would deserve that kind of money they get is if they can hit everyball thrown at them within reason, make any shot or be absolutely perfect. So far I havent seen not one person that could do that. Even 100k a year is too much.  

Answer 5

To quote Former New York Knick Patrick Ewing: "We might make a lot of money but, we also spend a lot of money."

Answer 6

no. its like what tommie harris said something like "we don't deserve the money we get paid to play a game we've been playing since we were children." thats not the exact quote, but it was something like that.

Answer 7

I hear ya but then again, these guys can play for what 3 years avg and 15-20 years if they're VERY lucky.  After that, they may not have an education to fall back on.  Or say they get seriously injured and are unable to do anything after the game.  But I do agree that free agency has diluted things quite a bit and the money is a bit over the top.

Answer 8

That question should be applied to entertainers generally.  Does Tom Cruise deserve the millions he gets to make bad movies?  Nobody deserves that much money.  Nor do most corporate executives, guys who lead the companies into the ground and leave with millions of dollars in bonuses.  So it's fine to indict the allocation of money in this society, but I wouldn't single out the athletes who are at least performing a job that takes a significant physical toll over everybody else that is highly paid.

Answer 9

I say yes and no. They work hard to be good at what they do. Plus they are our entertainment, but they are just playing games so its kind of a hard question. I think they should still get paid well but not as much as they do now because some of their salaries are just crazy.