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Michael Denha
Adrienne Jankens
English 1020
14 December 2015
Do Professional Athletes Get Paid Too Much?
The question many sport’s fans around the world asks is “do athletes get paid too much?” Athletes do get paid a lot of money; the question is if they are worth it. James B.
Hays of Teenink.com says, “
Professional athletes are extremely overpaid for the ‘jobs’ that they do. They only entertain for a living and get paid millions of dollars, in some cases, to do so” (Hays 1).
The issue at hand is that people don’t realize how much money circulates in the sports industry. Athletes are paid what they are paid for a reason. The reason I chose to revise this project is because I thought the first time I did it, I was on the right track, but I was missing a few things. I am revising it because I believe I knew what
I was doing, but didn’t get everything I needed in the paper.
I started to think about how I was going to start my revision on this project. I decided that I needed to go back to the three key learning windows, which are writing, reading, and research. I started with research. I went back to all of my previous sources that I had used the first time I did this project. I re-read all of my sources and studied them. If I researched and read my sources again, that would lead to me re-writing the paper. I went back to sbnation.com and re-read and article by Mike Prada. It talked about the NBA’s new television deal worth $24 billion over 9 years. This new deal lead me into a great idea for my paragraph regarding the NBA and how much NBA players make. It’s

Denha 2 a three-step process for doing a paper like this. First is research, followed by reading, and lastly, writing.
When I was doing my research, I thought that I had a lot of good information, so I decided that I wanted to stick with my sources. My information was from credible sources, and they gave me great facts to use for this revision. I just thought I needed to put my information in the right places, and use it the right way. As far as reading, I skimmed through all of my sources again, and I realized that I did miss a few things in my research, all I had to do was go back and re-read. I found some new things I could put into my revision in this paper. I am continuing to write more efficiently this time around.
Like I did it last time, I thought I would organize my paper by league.. I thought the most credible source for valuing how much money the leagues make would be forbes.com, considering they are known for valuing people, homes, and especially sports teams. Not only did I use forbes.com, but a bunch of other great sources. I started with the National Basketball Association, or as many people refer to it, the NBA. The average
NBA team is worth $1.1 billion dollars as of 2015 (forbes.com). The highest paid player in the NBA this year is Kobe Bryant, who is making $25 million dollars this year. In
2013, forbes.com did a report on all 30 NBA teams’ revenues, profits, and operating costs. In 2013, the New York Knicks made $96 million dollars after paying all of their players, coaching staff, employees, operating costs, etc…I thought it would be relevant to know how much money their highest paid player was making, so I decided to put it into
Google. Not only did spotrac.com give me useful information, but also it gave me a great site to use for the rest of my paper. Carmelo Anthony, who is the highest paid player on the team, was paid nearly $23 million dollars (spotrac.com). $96 million dollars is a lot of

Denha 3 money to profit each year. The NBA has something called a salary cap, which means that each team has a certain amount of money they can spend on players. That salary cap is based on how much the league and the teams are making. If people are mad about how much money NBA players make, then they’re going to be furious next year the NBA’s new TV deal kicks in. I didn’t know the exact figure to the new NBA TV deal so I decided to also search for the figures, which I found using Google. The TV deal that the
NBA signed last year is for 9 years and will pay the league $24 billion dollars over the life of the deal (Prada 1). This is going to make the salary cap go much higher than it already is. According to usatoday.com, the salary cap for the 2015-16 season is roughly
$67 million dollars. In 2017-18, the salary cap is projected to be roughly $108 million.
The league is making money. If the NBA didn’t raise the salary cap, then all the money from the new TV deal would go right to the owners.
I then moved on to the National Football League, otherwise known as the NFL.
With the NFL, I started with using Forbes.com because I was very satisfied with the information that I got with the NBA, but I also went deeper then that and found a lot of other sources. The average NFL team is worth roughly $2 billion dollars, and the team that’s worth the most is the Dallas Cowboys worth, which is worth roughly $4 billion dollars (forbes.com). The Cowboys made roughly $270 million dollars after payroll and operating costs. Once again, with the ridiculous amount of money the Cowboys make, I thought it would be relevant to see how much their highest paid player was making. I already had a credible source in spotrac.com, so I decided to use the same site. Tony
Romo, who is the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, makes roughly $18 million dollars annually under his current deal, which is for 6 years and $108 million

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(spotrac.com). Jerry Jones makes a ton of money every year. Jones is making $270 million dollars before taxes. Jerry Jones markets Tony Romo (quarterback), Dez Bryant
(wide receiver), and the rest of the team. Some who believe athletes are paid what they deserve might argue that the players are on the field; they are the ones who the fans pay to see. Most of the money goes into Jones’s pocket. They are professionals, and they are the best in the world at what they do.
I then moved on to the National Hockey League, which is also referred to as the
NHL. Once again, I started with forbes.com because of the credibility and the vast amount of information there is on the topic. With forbes.com, I wanted to start by seeing how much the average NHL team was worth. The average NHL team is not worth nearly as much as the average team in any of the 3 other major sports in the US. The average team is worth $490 million dollars (forbes.com). If the average team is worth that much, I wanted to know which team was valued highest by Forbes.com. The highest valued team in the NHL is the Toronto Maple Leafs, valued at roughly $1.3 billion dollars
(forbes.com). With the Maple Leafs being valued that high, it made me want to know how much their highest paid player was making. So I went back to my trusted source for players’ salaries, spotrac.com. The highest paid player on the team is Dion Phaneuf
(defensemen). He makes only $7 million dollars a year (spotrac.com). The operating income for the team is $70.6 million dollars (forbes.com). Dion Phaneuf is whom the fans come to see, along with other players on the team. Phaneuf is marketable. He is one of the best in the world at what he does. The NHL is getting bigger in terms of viewers every year, which means there is more income for the teams. If the team’s profits are going up, then some might argue that the players’ salaries should too. If you go to a

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Toronto Maple Leafs game, I’m sure you’ll see half the stadium with jerseys that have the last name “Phaneuf” on the back of the jersey. Just to get an idea of why the players get paid what they get paid, I decided to go to shop.nhl.com to find out how much
Phaneuf’s jersey was selling for. As of November 5, 2015, a Dion Phaneuf jersey on shop.nhl.com is priced at $169.99 (shop.nhl.com). Let me just say that this is a shirt we’re talking about. The owner is making a fortune off of selling his jersey! It is not just
Phaneuf, I just use him as an example because he is arguably the most marketable player on the team. Owners are making money left and right selling tickets, appearal, food, etc… These reasons are why owners can afford to pay players what they do.
Finally, I moved on to the MLB, which is also known as Major League Baseball.
It should come as no surprise; I started with forbes.com, and moved on to other sources as I went on with my research. I wanted to see how much the average MLB team was worth so I went to my trusted source for valuing sports franchises, forbes.com. As of
March 25, 2015, the average MLB team is worth $1.2 billion dollars, and 15 of the 30 teams in the league are worth over $1 billion dollars (forbes.com). With that information,
I wanted to see which team was valued highest, so I went right back to forbes.com. The highest valued franchise in the league is the New York Yankees, who are valued at $3.2 billion dollars (forbes.com). According to forbes.com, the Yankees operating income was only $8.1 million dollars. With that number being so low, I wanted to see how much money the Yankees were putting into their baseball team, so I went right back spotrac.com to see how much money was on the payroll for the Yankees. The only reason that their income was so low was because their payroll was roughly $220 million dollars
(spotrac.com). The Yankees highest paid player is CC Sabathia. He makes $23 million

Denha 6 dollars a year (spotrac.com). Does he deserve it? Probably not, his stats are not worth that kind of money. But when the Yankees signed Sabathia, he was worth that kind of money.
The only reason Sabathia is overpaid is because of his decline, not because a baseball player doesn’t deserve that kind of money. The Yankees brought in $500 million dollars in revenue (forbes.com). If they chose to cut payroll down then their profits would be much higher, but the Yankees and the Dodgers choose to have payrolls over $200 million dollars. I already had previous knowledge on why they can have payrolls this high as opposed to other leagues. The reason that the Yankees can have this kind of payroll is because there isn’t a salary cap in the MLB. I didn’t know the exact figures for salary caps in other leagues so I decided to go ahead and research that on Google, and I came across si.com, bleacherreport.com, and sbnation.com, which all gave me the information
I was looking for. In the NBA the salary cap in 2015 is $63 million (si.com). The NHL’s salary cap in 2015 is $69 million (bleacherreport.com). The NFL’s salary cap in 2015, was roughly $143 million (sbnation.com). The MLB can pay their players whatever they want. The only restriction there is on a Major League Baseball team is the luxury tax. The luxury tax threshold in 2015 was $189 million dollars. As soon as a team passes $189 million they must pay the league $1 for every dollar they’re over the luxury tax. For example, let’s say I was a General Manager of an MLB Team. Let’s say my payroll was at exactly $189 million dollars, and I wanted to go and sign John Doe in free agency. If I signed John Doe for $10 million dollars and 1 year, I would pay John Doe $10 million dollars, but I would pay the MLB an additional $10 million dollars for going over the luxury tax. Since the league has no salary cap, MLB players are paid higher than players in the other 3 major US sports. The owners of Major League Baseball teams are making a

Denha 7 fortune. When I go to Tigers games at Comerica Park, I can’t help but notice that beer is
$9, and that nachos are $7. Not to mention that I’m usually paying at least $30 for my ticket. There is a reason that Miguel Cabrera signed the largest deal in Major League
Baseball history a couple years ago ($292 million/10 years). It is because Mike Ilitch
(owner of the Detroit Tigers) can afford to pay that kind of contract. Fans wouldn’t spend
$7 on a hot dog or $6 for a soda or $30 a ticket if they didn’t get to see Miguel Cabrera
(1 st baseman) or Justin Verlander (pitcher). Players are used to draw fans to come to the ballpark. Big Macs are used to draw customers to McDonalds, just as players are used to draw fans to the ballpark.
Players do take a lot of risks. Players train day in and day out. Sports are physical, especially football. Many football players are retiring early because of concussion problems. A concussion could mean possible brain damage. There isn’t a cure for brain damage, if a concussion got that bad. They are risking their health every single day for their job. Not only do they risk their health, but when they are on the road, they aren’t with their families. Players are on the road for half of their seasons. It isn’t just as simple as going into a game and playing baseball. There is a lot of sacrifice to get the point that they are at. Players trained since they were kids, they risk injury every time they go out there, and they sacrifice family team, sometimes for weeks! Those three factors are not in most peoples’ job descriptions, so the players really do earn their paychecks.
In conclusion, based on how much money is in the sports industry, players only make a fraction of what owners make. I learned a lot about research through this project.
You can never have enough sources. The methods I used were finding a good source for each new piece of information. For example, I used forbes.com to see how much the

Denha 8 leagues/teams were worth, and I used spotrac.com to find out information about players’ contracts. In this project I learned how to go back and revise statements to make them more applicable to the paper, I learned to read thoroughly. I learned to take information that I found through my sources, and combine that information with what I already know about the topic in question. After finishing this project, I claim that professional athletes are not overpaid.

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Works Cited
Ator, Paul. "6 Reasons Why Pro Athletes Are Not Overpaid." WhatCulturecom 6
Reasons Why Pro Athletes Are Not Overpaid Comments . N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
Forbes.com. "NBA Team Values 2014." Forbes . Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 05 Nov.
2015.
Golliver, Ben. "Chart: NBA's 2015-16 Salary Cap Rises past Projections." SI.com
. N.p., 8
July 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
Ozanian, Mike. "The Most Valuable Teams In The NFL." Forbes . Forbes Magazine, 14
Sept. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
Ozanian, Mike. "The Most Valuable Teams In The NHL." Forbes . Forbes Magazine, 25
Nov. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
Ozanian, Mike. "MLB Worth $36 Billion As Team Values Hit Record $1.2 Billion
Average." Forbes . Forbes Magazine, 25 Mar. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
Prada, Mike. "NBA to Announce 9-year, $24 Billion TV Deal with ESPN, Turner."
Sbnation.com
. © 2015 Vox Media, Inc., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
Richardson, Lyle. "NHL Teams with the Worst Salary-Cap Issues." Bleacher Report .
2015 Bleacher Report, Inc., 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
Smith, Chris. "Most and Least Profitable Teams in NBA." Forbes . Forbes Magazine, n.d.
Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
"Tony Romo." Spotrac.com
. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
"Toronto Maple Leafs Contracts." Spotrac.com
. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
"Toronto Maple Leafs Jerseys." Toronto Maple Leafs Jerseys
. NHL Enterprises, L.P. ©
NHL 2015, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.
Zillgitt, Jeff. "NBA Salary Cap Will Soar When New TV Money Kicks in."
Usatoday.com
. N.p., 18 Apr. 2015. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.

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