The issue of professional athletes’ salaries has been discussed for many years now. Are they being overpaid or not? Arguments show that their wage is indeed higher than a wage of a common citizen in the US. Nevertheless, this paper aims to demonstrate that not all athletes receive multibillion or long-term contracts, the athletes’ wage is bound to their age and team, and their wage depends not only on their performance but also on fans and media.
Age plays an important role in the world of professional sports. Studies show that younger players are usually rather underpaid than overpaid: “older players are either overvalued or fairly valued, while younger players are undervalued” (Pearce 13). The reason behind it is the younger players’ inability to take part in free agency or active negotiating the contracts, Pearce notices (13). Younger players are also underpaid because of the risk they bring. It is unknown if they are going to perform well in this particular team. That is the reason why “hitters within their first three seasons are grossly underpaid, while hitters in the later years of their contracts are overpaid on a whole” (Pearce 22). As compared to veterans or superstars, younger players sign short-term contracts since they have not yet acquired a reliable reputation: they are both underpaid and at risk of not signing the next contract. Young players normally do not possess rare skills, so “star players receive long-term contracts while mediocre players tend to receive short-term contracts” (Scott 8). However, veteran players who are getting closer to the end of their career, although more experienced, have to compete with the ‘young blood’, and this competition does not always end successfully for them (Scott, 10). Both young and old athletes have their own struggles that they must overcome to be paid fairly. The results show that professional athletes (if they are not superstars) are usually underpaid, especially if they have just started their careers.
Team success and players’ performance have an impact on the salary. The first goal every of every team is to win as many games as possible. This can help the team to engage in big championships and promote it to fans and in media. A player can perform well in all of the games; however, if the teammates were not as good and the team lost the game, this will influence the salary of all players with no exceptions. Unique skills, although helpful, are not the basis of successful teamwork: “an NFL team will acquire a group of athletes who improve each others’ performance and result in a higher winning percentage, rather than a few athletes who create high individual statistics” (Scott 12). In order to maintain a high winning percentage, such teams must pay attention to all players’ salaries, but, at the same time, they cannot overpay the players “so the franchise is able to keep under the salary cap” (Scott 12). Another important aspect of the problem is the team’s popularity and budget that allows them to sign beneficial contracts. If the team’s presence in the media has been ongoing for many years, it is very likely that the fan base is also funding the team (e.g. when the fans spend their money on any team products that are able to produce a profit). Famous teams mostly have higher salaries: “teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers have an extremely high revenue and use that revenue to overpay for the majority of their players” (Pearce 23). Less famous teams must consider their budget, and since the money of the team must be spent not only on players, this results in their lower salaries. The problem examined demonstrates that it is the superstars that are being overpaid, other players, however, must face undervaluation.
That being said, one must consider another point of view. Schweiger stresses out that there is no reason behind such extreme overvaluation of the superstars’ abilities: “It is not necessary to ask whether these incomes are merited or not, because it can be shown that they are in conflict with other ethical values” (15). Since humanity has not yet overcome global poverty and hunger, it must work on equal income for every human, thus creating an “unethical richness line”, when “no one gets more than he (or she) deserves” (Schweiger 16). It is a good point, and, although the star players indeed bring more to the entertainment industry than to society, one cannot simply decide who deserves a bigger or a lower wage. Behind every star player is a long path of hard work and pain. Some of them probably earn much more than they should, but this does not mean that every professional athlete must experience wage cuts. As it was proven above, most of them are being underpaid and must sign short-term contracts. However, professional players should consider their privilege and reach out to help those in need.
Although some of the players are indeed paid more than they should, most of the professional athletes have to experience undervaluation not only at the beginning of their career but also at its end. Their contracts are often short-term, and they are not always able to negotiate or change the contracts’ clauses. The age gap in professional sports leads to the underpayment of younger aspiring athletes.
References
Pearce, Jocelyn R. 2016, “A Financial Analysis of Professional Baseball Player Worth”. Bachelor dissertation, Otterbein Univ., 2016. Web.
Schweiger, Gottfried. “Achieving Income Justice in Professional Sports: Limitation, Taxation, or Donation.” The Journal of Josef Pilsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw and International Society for the Social Sciences of Sport 56.1 (2012): 12-22. Print.
Scott, Jason 2012, “Are NFL Athletes Receiving Over-Valued Contracts?”. Bachelor dissertation, Bryant Univ., 2012. Web.