I no longer like sports,because of salaries,are you like me?Poll.

I never cared much for watching sports but I know how you feel. All this money and commercialization/merchandising take away the authenticity and ingenuity of the whole thing. It makes it hard to "affiliate" yourself with it and the people involved in it.

Doesn't that suck.

The NHL is a multi-billion dollar industry, how does it make sense for the players (i.e. the main sole attraction) to be paid the minimum wage?

I also wonder if he applies that logic to his own job (and given that he's 39, hopefully he has a job). For starters it's ridiculous to even expect the players to love their jobs, and secondly it's ridiculous to suggest that loving one's job means being willing to do it on minimum wage.

Which is?

No. I don't often give even a passing thought to how much money somebody else makes.

Yeah they get overpaid but that's not the reason why I dislike watching sports, I dislike them because they bore me to death. I would rather play a sport than watch it any day.

lots of overpaid people out there, might as well not even turn on the TV

No I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate this idea

I am happy to support the machine

Can't stress enough how I hate this idea

dont care for your average so called sports either way but does piss me off that these guys makes millions yet some how the people of cities still got to fork over money to keep the lights on in these stadiums.. and fucking nfl is a nom taxable company who pays shit in taxes yet they make b billions

Ok, so lets keep going with your example. Player X, which would be making $5,000,000, now makes $999,999. The owner now keeps that extra $4,000,001. Does that suit you better?

Dumb thread. Do you have any idea how much money athletes generate? Where would all this revenue go to? I much prefer that athletes get paid high wages rather than some faceless CEO exploiting them.

I should clarify that it's fine if you feel it ruins the game, but hate hate hate hate hate the idea that they shouldn't be paid that much and should be given the bare minimum or not partake in the machine's gains

Thats why I only care about BOXING

Salaries are based entirely on the money that a specific employee can bring to the overall company. In the case of sports, the players are responsible for bringing in billions of dollars in profit. If you divide that between the number of players there are you get huge number per player. This is why they are paid so much because they make the sport profitable. If you contribute more the overall success of a given company or you are one of a few individuals capable of performing a given action for an organization then you deserve a higher pay. Otherwise the profits all go to a few people sitting behind desks rather then the actual people out playing the sport.

umm? http://www.celebritynetworth.com/list/top-50-richest-boxers/

Playing video games is my leading reason of not following sports. Baseball, football, auto racing and all that is just boring to watch thought out the season. The only game I watched all season for football was the Super Bowl.

The only team I kind of follow is the Trail Blazers.

The OP gave me a thought I wanted to reply too.

I remember watching ESPN during the time when the NHL players were on strike. A caller called up and asked to a hockey player who gets paid millions on why he is on strike. The caller have to work two jobs to make ends meet just couldnt think of the sense of someone making so much more then he does and plays a sport would have fight to get paid more money.

The average inflation rate is about 2%. When sport players get a salary increase 8-10%, there is something wrong with the economics of paying people more money at a faster rate then inflation.

Football is the only sport I really like and I like college more than pro. Ohio State is my favorite college team and the 49ers is my favorite pro team. What they make is irrelevant to me.

If the players didn't get the money, then who will? The players are the main reason people watch the games.

I don't watch sports, but I've never heard anyone use such absurdly shitty logic as "being above minimum wage to do your job means you're not enthusiastic about it".

Just because an athlete "loves" his job doesn't make it unreasonable for him to ask for a few million bucks outside of all the hours, effort and risk-taking put into their incredibly intense levels of exercise and training. What the **** are they supposed to do after they retire, handle garbage for a living?

Also, only a small portion of athletes and other entertainers make it that big anyway. 95% of musicians, actors, sportsmen, .etc are probably going to be "doing something they love" at shitty wages, low chances of success and crappy working conditions just as the TC wants them.

Yeah, I dunno about other people but I want my most beloved entertainers comfortable and well-compensated for their talent instead of being forced to take on second jobs to survive.

What the hell is this? Wages should ideally outpace inflation by as much as possible, that's how people increase their real purchasing power. Do you want the population to have stagnant real incomes and be stuck in a perpetual state of never becoming more affluent?

I don't care about sports because I find it to be a boring pass time, don't realfky care what the players make though.

Can't you find a normal reason like I do? For example, how the teams that I cheer for never win.

When I cheer for the favourite, there is an upset.

When I cheer for the underdog, there are no surprises.

I never understood watching sports on TV, why not go play for real?

The millions and millions of revenue that the sport business generates has to go somewhere. The executives would earn the biggest slice of that pie, but the players deserve what they earn.

Boo fucking hoo. The athlete (the TOP athletes, I realize that most are far from wealthy) is worth millions of dollars, the cop isn't. That's because athletes bring in billions of freaking dollars, and it's a lot harder to replace them. I'm not saying that any jackass can become a cop, but they're generally a lot more replaceable than top athletes, that's why they don't get paid as much. If they don't think the job is worth the pay, it's a lot freaking easier to find someone else who can do the same job for lower pay. This isn't the case for the top athletes. People who can play at that level are EXTREMELY rare, and they generate a shitload of money. So you fucking pay them well enough for them to continue generating a shitload of money.

And as mentioned above, many athletes ruin their bodies or run serious health risks in order to get to that level. And their careers tend to be pretty fucking short, professional sports are a young man's occupation. That means that they need a damn good incentive to put themselves through that kind of abuse only to retire at the age of 35. What the hell are they supposed to do next, wash dishes for a living? How the hell are they supposed to pay for many of the health problems that come with top level professional sports when they're only making minimum wage and then having to retire from sports before they hit 35?

And stop with that "give it to the astronauts" bullshit. How much of YOUR paycheck do you give to astronauts? That's called CHARITY. And there's nothing wrong with charity, in fact MANY wealthy people donate a shitload of money to charity. But you're taking it too far. You're acting as if they are morally OBLIGATED to take the money that THEY fucking earned and give it to someone who didn't earn it. Why? Why the **** is an athlete who makes $5 million a year morally obligated to give away 90% of his income (that he rightfully earned) to astronauts or firefighters? Can you please explain to me why the hell those astronauts and firefighters are entitled to the athlete's money? And while we're on the topic of charity, how much fucking money do YOU take out of your paycheck in order to give to athletes and firefighters? I mean, you wouldn't want to look like a dirty hypocrite here...so are YOU keeping only the bare minimum that you need to get by and then donating everything else to other people?

yes I think they make too much money.

@ferrari2001:

What he said. They deserve their salaries. $40 million a year is minimal when you consider some teams make $1.5 billion a year.

Envy is bad.

They do make too much money, but I still love football (or soccer to you Americans) and boxing!

LeBron James is underpaid.

First off,I don't make minimum wage now,I'm on disability,but I was making a little bit more then minimum wage when I was working.Second,the player from most sports don't have to play at minimum wage salaries,I'll bet they won't even play for a six figure salary{most of them anyway}.To be honest,I don't have any kids and I'm single,but for a parent{s}taking a couple of their children to see a Habs game,the tickets,coke,hot dogs,fries,souvenirs,transportation,maybe a beer or two,etc....That's Fvcking expensive night out.And for most with family's,can't afford it at all.Meanwhile these sport guy's are driving rich mans cars and living the high life off of peoples hard earned money.I can just puke.....P.S....It has nothing to do with jelousy.

I never cared for sports anyway, but I do think players are ridiculously over payed.

What other people make has no impact on my enjoyment of things.

Millionaire athletes pay taxes, dude. They pay more taxes than you. In addition to that, many of them donate a shitload of extra money in pure charity.

Now, how much fucking money are you giving to those heroes who save lives? Athletes don't need $4 million more a year to stay happy, but think about all the superfluous shit that average people spend money on in a given year. If you buy one new game a month, that's over $600 a year. Do you need that to be happy? Add up all the times you went out to dinner and a movie with your girlfriend. Did you need that to be happy? Why treat yourself to a nice sweater when you've already got old clothes that are perfectly wearable? And hobbies? **** that. All the money that you spent on photography or painting supplies? You didn't need that shit to be happy. I absolutely guarantee you that you could take a lot more of YOUR budget and give it away to charity and still be happy, but you'd also be giving up your standard of living, so you say "**** that."

And yeah, dude...even a high paid athlete may very well have to give up his standard of living if 90% of his income is being given away to someone who didn't earn it. If it's okay for average people like you and me to keep more money than we need in order to preserve our standard of living, then why the hell would you tell a high paid athlete that he needs to give up his standard of living and simply make do with what he needs? Don't be a hypocrite. Before telling other people to do shit, you need to man up and do it yourself.

I agree sports figures should be paid good money.They work at what they do for most of their lives to take them where they are today,but $5 million,$10 million or more,fvck no.Nobody deserves that much money to play sports or to act in a movie and among other multimillion dollar jobs/activities etc...You get one small group of guys/woman making millions and millions and 90% of the planet starving.But again,that's going much further then just a topic on sports salaries.We/anyone can talk forever on that subject.

I take it you are not a big fan of capitalism then? As for the original question, what a private organisation decides to pay its employees does not hamper my enjoyment of watching professional sports.

I don't like sports because I suck at them and they're boring to watch, but the fact that athletes get paid by the truckloads to kick and throw balls around does add to my dislike of them.