If you’re like the rest of us, then surely you’ve had to sit back and scream at some point, stop overpaying athletes once and for all! Just how is it that these athletes can make so much money, more than most of us can truly even imagine, all because they are physically gifted to play a sport at the highest level?
It’s actually ridiculous how much money some of these athletes make, not just over the course of their careers but in the course of a single year. In a good year, Tiger Woods has been known to rake in over $100 million when you include his tournament winnings with his endorsements. That’s more than the revenues for many entire large businesses.
What about the rest of us? Doctors, lawyers, CEOs, we can all end up making some good money. If we graduate in the top of our class and dedicate 60 or 80 hour weeks to our job, we can make a few hundred thousand dollars per year. Of course, we’ll also be paying off our student loans in the process. While Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods and other professional athletes just get to sit back and rake in the millions.
You might think that it’s different because the American public had to bail out many of these major corporations. But isn’t that what we do with our favorite sports teams? We buy season tickets, and pay for TV programming and buy jerseys and food at the concession stands and more. We shell out tons of money for our sports teams, and all so the players can make ridiculous amounts of money they hardly deserve.
Is it the athletes’ fault that they are making so much money? No of course it’s not, if it’s anybody’s fault it’s actually our own. If we were in their position of course we would accept our huge contracts and enormous salaries. The problem lies when we pay for crazy overpriced tickets, parking, concessions, jerseys, hats, TV packages and more. By doing so, we make these extravagant salaries possible, even as the rest of us are in fear of losing our jobs and our homes and are just trying to provide ends meet for our families.
The minimum salaries in most of the sporting leagues in this country run the range from $200,000 upwards to $1,000,000 per year depending on the sport and the person’s status. Those are truly incredible figures and it means that no matter how bad a player may be, or how inconsequential, they may still be making more than we ever make in a year, or several years.
Athletes like this earn all of this money without ever having to really work for it. Sure, they honed their athletic and physical gifts into a career. But they didn’t have to pay for college, if they went to college at all. They didn’t have to take out student loans or work hard to finish at the top of their class so they could find a job.
I’ve certainly had my full share of hearing about Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods and everyone else and their hundreds of millions of dollars. I say that we stop overpaying athletes once and for all, and the hardworking Americans, spending long weeks in marketing, sales and all other departments reap the dividends.
Tags: Alex Rodriguez and Tiger Woods, baseball and golf, crazy incomes, Finance, highest salaries, Overpaid salaries, Stop Overpaying Athletes Once And For All, top incomes, top paid athletes