Pro athletes make more money in one year than most will make in a lifetime. According to fool.com, players on minimum contracts in the NFL, NBA, and MLB make anywhere from $362,000-$680,000 per season. Meanwhile, the highest-paid players can take $20 million-$30 million home each season.
I’m not the biggest sports fan, so maybe I’m biased, but I don’t think pro athletes should make as much as they do. I get that the seasons are long, the practices are hours a day, and there’s a major commitment to being in a professional sports team, but there are people in other lines of work who are far more deserving of that much money.
Compare what the pro athletes make annually to the annual averages of first responders and doctors. First Responders, as stated by Talent.com, average $39,488 annually. Meanwhile, according to The White Coat Investor, doctors make an annual average of $363,000. The difference between the two fields, to say the least, is extremely eye-opening. People who put their lives on the line or work to save the lives of people they hardly know are getting paid less than people who participate in what can be considered entertainment or a seasonal pastime. Athletes can get injured during a sports game, there’s no doubt about that, but what they’re doing is much less risky than what first responders are brave enough to do.
Pro athletes being paid so much comes down to one fact: sports are a form of entertainment.
There are several sporting events featuring pro athletes that fans look forward to. Nationally, we Americans have the Super Bowl, and, internationally, there’s the World Series and Cup. The amount of fans that tune into these events on television is impossible to count. Additionally, some fans would willingly pay any price for a seat at the game, further adding to pro athletes’ revenue. With this high popularity, advertisements and sponsorships quickly pick up whatever teams they can, generating even more money.
America’s hyper-fixation on sports is partially to blame for the impressively large pay gap between pro athletes and everyone else. Sports are a part of culture, and that’s fine, but becoming a multimillionaire by playing a sport that even little kids play? Yeah, that has to stop.
