Where players under valued in the old days? and do players earn too little or too much these days?

Question

Whether it be 15 or 50 years ago, compared to what players earn, do you think they were undervalued or are players just over valued these days, or compared to other sportsmen, do they even earn enough these days?

Answer 1

It's funny how the game and the economy has progressed.  Players get paid more, because wages and costs will all rise.  We all want more.

If I were a CEO and both Jonathon Thurston and Peter Sterling were on the market, and they are playing in the same era for argument's sake, Sterling would be the highest paid player in the game.

Thurston maybe the best halfback playing today, but he's not a patch on Sterling.

Peter Sterling was the best halfback ever.  Therefore worth more than Thurston (or Johns, Langer, Stuart, etc in their prime)

Answer 2

Players definitely earn more than they used too look at SBW for example on a $3mil contract at the dogs. The money however on offer over seas in the super league is much more as they dont have a salary cap.

Look at the sterlings and the Vautins did they get payed copious amounts of money to play? NO they played for the love of the game and worked during the week. So there are two sides to every argument

Answer 3

For starters, not long ago, say 10-20 years ago, players were working a job as well as playing rugby league, along time ago they were never paid or paid hardly anything. It's only of recent that these whopping contracts are being paid.

Players are overpaid, yet they go through alot to get on that field every week, alot that normal people don't know about nor understand.

Answer 4

Its a hard question. In the 80's the players were on about $200 - $300 a week and now SBW is on 3 million bucks over so many years. But compared to other sports such as Premier League Soccer, NFL or Baseball, the players, for how much talent they have, are not payed that much. Last season the New York Yankees spent 250 million dollars in player wages compared to the NRL Salary cap of 3.8 million