why should professional athletes be paid less

Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. However, with fans willing to paymore than 100% premiumson tickets to see individual players, likeLeBron James, franchise players have extra responsibility to live up to their star power. While President Obama is hard at work reviving the economy, the unproven rookie in the MLB is earning way over that figure. By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails and calls from a representative of Adelphi University, which may include the use of automated technology. They shouldn't have to become Maxim models to prove their worth. List two to three ways. Haven't signed into your Scholastic account before? Professional sports is a money-earning business. The WNBA generates roughly $25 million annually from its TV deal with ESPN; the NBA's TV revenue from ESPN and TNT is 100 times that. Next, some MLB players will earn more in one game than the average American household makes in 10 years. Considering other scholarships and aid are widely available and not all college athletes require financial aid, the NCAA scholarships are generous. They save peoples' lives every day, should have more recognition than they are given, and deserve better pay. Firefighters can abide in the fire station for up . Bloomberg News recently touted soccer as the future of sports in America, and soccer fandom has clearly grown within the United States. Is this for the better? Most players have no real amateur sport option and those who would rather not go to college have no other established feeder system to make it to a professional team. Excluding men's star Roger Federer, elite female tennis players compare very well with their male counterparts in terms of endorsement earnings. Theres an important role for college sports in higher education, and that role needs to be placed in the proper perspective as part of the educational mission, not apart from it. [37]. But paying athletes would distort the economics of college sports in a way that would hurt the broader community of student-athletes, universities, fans and alumni. Some of it comes from fans who shell out big bucks for costly game tickets and hugely overpriced snacks at stadiums and arenas, and for hoodies and hats with their favorite teams logo. Forbesreleased its annual look at the worldshighest-paid athletesthis month, and the top 100 exemplified the stark contrast in pay between professional male and female athletes. Erin McGeoy, a former water polo athlete at George Washington University, explained, a common occurrence was that we would run out of meal money halfway through the semester and thats when I started to run into troubles of food insecurity. She turned to boarding dogs in her no-dogs-allowed apartment in order to pay rent because housing costs increased each year but her housing allowance remained static. Professional athletes are incredibly talented in what they do. What Should Be Done About the Gender Pay Gap in Sports? And in 2019, CBS Sports made a deal to pay for additional games. ProCon.org. Take ice hockey as an example: there are both . In 2019, the average annual income for a US household was, The large amounts of money invested in professional sports in recent years has the potential to drain the true meaning from sports. players had reached out to the American soccer players and their union for help as they sought better pay and working conditions. Players salaries are simply their share of all the cash these hugely successful businesses bring in. Access this article and hundreds more like it with a subscription to The New York TImes Upfrontmagazine. Of the 36,011 college baseball players, only 8,002 are eligible to play professionally each year. In recent years, players, teams and even athletes in other sports ice hockey Olympic gold medalists, Canadian soccer pros and W.N.B.A. Feb. 25, 2022 This week, the United States Soccer Federation pledged to equalize pay for its men's and women's national teams as part of a settlement that included a $24 million payment to a group. ], [Editors Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries. It makes me sick to know that someone who is out fighting for our country gets paid significantly less than someone who simply plays a sport. More significant, though, is that players put their bodies in danger daily. Considering athletes spend time commuting to training and competition, female athletes are at 200 per cent greater risk of injuring their neck if even a minor car accident happens. People in the military leave their families at home to defend and protect the country knowing they may never return. Scores of college athletes are being used to generate money for NCAA sports in a pandemic without the NCAA enforcing any COVID standards. [17], The NCAA reported over $1.06 billion in revenue in 2017 (the most recent available numbers). [25] [26], The study found that [t]he player-level analysis reveals that the existing limits on player compensation effectively transfers resources away from students who are more likely to be black and more likely to come from poor neighborhoods towards students who are more likely to be white and come from higher-income neighborhoods. [25], College athletes are required to make up the difference between NCAA scholarships and the actual cost of living. The WNBA did recently add a multi-year partnership with CBS Sports Network to air 40 games next season, and the new pact is in addition to the leagues existing deal with ESPN. Managing Editor In contrast, the likelihood of an NCAA athlete earning a college degree is significantly greater; graduation success rates are 86% in Division I, 71% in Division II and 87% in Division III. [34]. Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. Tennis is one of the few sports where the United States women, on average, make more than men. The most important thing here is that we are moving forward, and we are moving forward together.. This change in purpose has a negative impact on athletes ambition to play. But California was quickly followed by more states. When the WNBA players' union opted out of its collective bargaining agreement in November, Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the union, wrote for The Players' Tribune: This is not purely about salaries. Until 2018, the mens team qualified for the World Cup every year since 1990, but has not won a championship. They reap billions of dollars every year from TV deals and merchandise and ticket sales. The NCAA is not above the law. [43] [44], On June 28, 2021, the NCAA Division I Council recommended to the NCAA Division I Board of Directors that student athletes be allowed to profit from their name, image, and likeness. That changed with a new community bargaining agreement, reached in January of 2020, which agreed to a 50-50 split and brought WNBA players in line with their male counterparts. The average American woman earns 81% of what an average American man earns, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. College athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympic Games and be financially compensated, such as Joseph Schooling, a University of Texas swimmer, who earned a $740,000 bonus for winning Singapores first gold medal ever at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games for the 100m butterfly. How much do you think the comparative revenue of mens and womens teams matters in determining pay? [16], In 2021, the National College Players Association (NCPA) Executive Director Ramogi Huma stated, [m]any of these athletes are Black and from low-income homes the NCAA treats them like disposable university property. [13] [14] [41], Gabe Feldman, JD, Professor of Sports Law, Director of the Sports Law Program and Associate Provost for NCAA compliance at Tulane University, noted that the last time the NCAA was at the Supreme Court was in 1984 (NCAA vs. the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma). Limits on Paying College Athletes, nytimes.com, Dec. 16, 2020, Dennis Dodd, Breaking Down the NCAA's Forthcoming Supreme Court Battle with Its Big Brother Status and Amateurism at Stake, cbssports.com, Feb. 3, 2021, NCAA, 2021 March Madness: Complete Schedule, Dates, ncaa.org (accessed Mar. Have you been following this story, which involves some of the countrys biggest soccer stars? More TV exposure for the players will lead to more visibility, and more visibility could lead to major deals with endorsers in the future. Of the 18,816 male basketball players, 4,181 are draft-eligible and 60 will be drafted, but only 52 will go pro, or a 1.2% chance a college basketball player will play professionally. With leagues and team owners making such massive sums, the athletes who put their bodies on the line for their sports deserve a large share of it. Someone who tosses a ball shouldntearn 700 times as much as someone who saves lives. While both mens and womens soccer players are seeing salary increases alongside the sports rise in popularity, men still far outearn women. It does not go to the players, what I call the unpaid workforce. [3], As of Nov. 17, 2020, the University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban was the highest paid NCAA college football coach, making $9.3 million per year. At first, it was a great place to watch athletes play sports while making sure the rules were being followed. The American League and now the National League both use designated hitters. None of the largest ones are NFL stadiums. [39]. Source: Forbes (men 2010, 2019; women 2010, 2019). When basketball player Stephen Curry signed a new contract with the Golden State Warriors in 2017,jaws dropped at his salary: a whopping $201million over five years. Given athletes large salaries, more youngsters want to become professional athletes but for the big money, not for the love of the game. In 2019, the teams in the FIFA Womens World Cup shared a $30 million prize pool. SSI is devoted to the development of a better understanding of the role of amateur and professional sports in the economy and . The result is an explosion in player salaries in the major men's sports leagues. (Photo by Damien MEYER). In today's society, one should be paid according to the jobs economic importance and their value to society. Photo Illustration by Vanessa Irena for Scholastic. And while that gap narrowed slightly at the start of the 2010s to 172%, it widened again by the end of the decade to 182%. Further confusing the issue, the NCAA does not have a consistent or fair definition of amateurism and allows some significant forms of financial compensation. Sports teams know that to stay profitable they need to win, which is why they sign the best players available. Why or why not? Additionally, while most teenagers or college-age students spend their free time studying, working or hanging out, student athletes aiming to qualify for the pros spend all of their free time training. What are sports like at your school? Plus, making it to the pros takes years of hard work. Is it all about defense or does winning have more to do with offense? Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. 4. do professional athletes deserve their inflated salaries? Finally, what really puzzles me, is how athletes get upset when athletes say that millions of dollars won't be able to support him and his family, and that they need more. But as recent lawsuits and even Twitter battles show, we still have a ways to go. Firefighters are the next contributor to society. This month . Panel Recommends," nytimes.com, June 28, 2021, Alan Blinder, "College Athletes May Earn Money from Their Fame, N.C.A.A. 23, 2018, Craig Garthwaite, Who Profits from Amateurism? While I do understand that making it into the pros is not an easy thing to do, and thatit takes a tremendous number of hours of hard work and dedication every day to earn a job in professional sports, these people do nothing more than entertain the general public. FRED BOWEN Washington Post sportswriter and author TakeScottie Pippen, who, despite being a vital asset that lifted both Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, played most of the 1990s under what is consideredone of the worst contractsin NBA history. As of June 10, 2021, 18 states have passed NIL laws; five more states have passed bills that were awaiting the governors signature to become law; 14 states have introduced NIL bills; and one state has a bill passed by the Senate and awaiting a House vote, according to the Business of College Sports. This is about a six-foot-nine superstar taking a red-eye cross-country and having to sit in an economy seat instead of an exit row. The current deal with the league ends in October. [25] [26], If college players earned about 50% of their teams revenues like the NFL and NBA players do, the average football players yearly salary would be $360,000 and the average basketball players yearly salary would be $500,000.

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