Last modified on March 27, 2023. players. Schools would also have to cut unprofitable sports including gymnastics, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling. For years, another major difference in compensation came in the form of revenue sharing. TakeScottie Pippen, who, despite being a vital asset that lifted both Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, played most of the 1990s under what is consideredone of the worst contractsin NBA history. The compensation for professional athletes differs from traditional pay because, Matheson said, fans have limited choices compared to other industries - a phenomenon known as "superstar. And this stark disparity has hardly budged for more than a decade: the pay gap between men and women has sat at 80%-83% since 2004. Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. [46], The University of North Carolina became the first school to organize group licensing deals for student athletes in July 2021. This is about a six-foot-nine superstar taking a red-eye cross-country and having to sit in an economy seat instead of an exit row. The current deal with the league ends in October. How should the NCAA (or another governing body) balance college athletes sport, educational, and financial interests? But the long fight that set key members of the womens team against their bosses at U.S. Soccer ended on Tuesday just as abruptly as it had begun, with a settlement that included a multimillion-dollar payment to the players and a promise by their federation to equalize pay between the mens and womens national teams. Lets take a closer look at the professional athlete salary statistics for three sports that have made headlines when it comes to the gap in professional pay: basketball, soccer and tennis. SSI is devoted to the development of a better understanding of the role of amateur and professional sports in the economy and . Why do athletes deserve high salaries? [27], About 25% of Division I athletes reported food poverty in the past year and almost 14% reported being homeless in the past year. Men earn 20 percent more than women on average, a difference that would require a female to work 10 more years to make up. player was $4.1million. I am an editorial consumer intern reporting on sports and b-schools. The National Basketball Association (N.B.A. U.S. Soccer appears to have gotten the message, and the two sides will pursue mediation after the World Cup to resolve the gender-discrimination lawsuit instead of going to a courtroom. This leads to more wins and, in turn, more viewers, more merchandise sold and increased brand worth. And sport marketers can attract more fans to a league or player, increasing revenue and support. do professional athletes deserve their inflated salaries? Professional athletes put in years ofhard workand deserve every penny they earn. The odds are even lower for womens basketball at 0.6%. The NBA requires players to be at least 19 and a year out of high school, while the NFL requires players to be three years out of high school. 2021, the NCAA was composed of [n]early half a million college athletes [who] make up the 19,886 teams that send more than 57,661 participants to compete each year in the NCAAs 90 championships in 24 sports across 3 divisions. [1] [2], The NCAA is seemingly the final authority to decide whether college athletes should be paid to play college sports. And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The starkest gap remains at the very top. For much of the decade, the US Womens National Team and the U.S. Soccer Federation have clashed over equal pay. In 2019, the teams in the FIFA Womens World Cup shared a $30 million prize pool. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Again, the. What puzzles me even more, is how after holding out for weeks, and sometimes months, the owners give in and pay them what they don't deserve. But as recent lawsuits and even Twitter battles show, we still have a ways to go. One of the main reasons the league may just get away with that is that it's the off-season right now, meaning franchises aren't missing out on lucrative games. Some of it comes from fans who shell out big bucks for costly game tickets and hugely overpriced snacks at stadiums and arenas, and for hoodies and hats with their favorite teams logo. In 2018, NCAA president Mark Emmert was paid more than $2.7 million. Since then, the womens team has won four FIFA Womens World Cup titles. The large amounts of money invested in professional sports in recent years has the potential to drain the true meaning from sports. Two sportswriters weigh in. They make their teammates better, thereby improving the whole team (thinkTom Brady Kevin Durant, and, of course,Michael Jordan, etc.). Feb. 25, 2022 This week, the United States Soccer Federation pledged to equalize pay for its men's and women's national teams as part of a settlement that included a $24 million payment to a group. Source: Forbes (men 2010, 2019; women 2010, 2019). Explain your answer. Both mens and womens basketball used the unusual circumstances to play with online options and enhance the at-home fan experience, and the WNBA saw its highest draft viewership in 16 years during the 2020 virtual draft. These infamous players must grow up, and prove to America that they can be positive role models for kids on and off the field. @Aussie7s champs at Sao Paulo, awesome signs on #RoadToRio. "Paying College Athletes Top 3 Pros and Cons." Plus, making it to the pros takes years of hard work. However, in 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Fair Play Act that allows college athletes to hire agents, sign endorsement deals, and be paid for the use of their likeness. Sports betting is now legal in the majority of US states. 19, 2021, Adam Liptak and Alicia Parlapiano, "What the Public Thinks about Major Supreme Court Cases This Term," nytimes.com, June 1, 2021, Business of College Sports, "Tracker: Name, Image and Likeness Legislation by State," businessofcollegesports.com, June 10, 2021, Adam Liptak, "Supreme Court Backs Payments to Student-Athletes," nytimes.com, July 21, 2021, Alan Blinder, "College Players May Make Money Off Their Fame, Powerful N.C.A.A. [34], The NCAA noted, [p]rofessional opportunities are extremely limited and the likelihood of a high school or even college athlete becoming a professional athlete is very low. The NCAA is seemingly the final authority to decide whether college athletes should be paid to play college sports. Professional athletes competing for money rather than for excellence will take the soul and magic out of sports, ruining it in the long run for athletes and for fans. And ever since that 1984 decision, courts have been relying on that language to try to interpret antitrust law applies to all NCAA restrictions, including player compensation. [15], On June 21, 2021, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the NCAA cannot ban certain payments to student athletes under the premise of maintaining amateurism. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Perhaps more notable is U.S. Soccers pledge to equalize pay between the mens and womens national teams in all competitions, including the World Cup, in the teams next collective bargaining agreements. In U.S. [40], Paying players would also limit the literal and figurative playing fields to elite universities with large budgets. 3. The suit is still ongoing. With a new decade ahead, we are taking a look back at how athlete compensation changed over the past ten years, and the obvious trends of wage equality in sports. Maybe highly paid athletes (along with team owners) should have to pay a special tax that would help fund better salaries for firefighters, teachers, nurses, and other people who work for the greater public good. In 2009, the WNBA started to allow sponsorship on jerseys in order to boost revenue, a move that the NBA repeated in 2017. An NHL Blackhawks player earned over 124 million dollars in 13 years.Why should athletes get paid so much to play a game? In 2019, the average annual income for a US household was $96,955while the average income of a professional baseball player in the major leagues was around $4.7 million. In 2019, FIFA proposed doubling the womens prize pool to $60 million in the 2023 World Cup, and announced that they would spend $1 billion on womens soccer over a period of four years. Aside from federal, state and city taxes and pension, which everyone pays, players also need to pay agent fees, a $10,000 union due, and aJock Taxfor each of their away games, among others. The women have asked for $67 million . The gender pay gap spans almost every industry, and sports is no different. But between particular sports, there are vast discrepancies in pay for men and women, ranging from tennis, where pay is comparable, to basketball, where players are in entirely different zip codes. But far more comes from the multibillion-dollar deals made with cable and TV networks to broadcast games. So if you think pro athletes make too much money, maybe you should stop watching them. Major League Soccer played their first game in 1996, after the United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/learning/what-should-be-done-about-the-gender-pay-gap-in-sports.html. The EEOC never publishes a response, but the players received a 30% raise among other benefits in 2017. In fiscal year 2019, the collective expenses of the 65 Power Five schoolsthe largest and richest Division I schools in the NCAAexceeded revenue by $7 million. However, the men still come out ahead internationally. But now in the 21st century, the NCAA is a billion dollar company. For instance, during each season of any professional sport, there are away games that keep players from their families. The Bottom Line: While it seems like theres no way to stop such inflated salaries of professional athletes, the repercussions could cause long-term damage to professional sports. According to the NCAA, the organization provides more than $3.6 billion in athletic scholarships annually to more than 180,000 student-athletes. Divided equitably, each student would receive about $20,000 per year. Quality superstars, orfranchise players, are the face of the team. are the three biggest sports organizations in the U.S. Sports teams know that to stay profitable they need to win, which is why they sign the best players available. It is clear that professional athletes do not get paid enough, because they get paid the same amount as actors and they don't do anything physical. More than half the people in the United States make less than $62,000 a year. This change in purpose has a negative impact on athletes ambition to play. [21], Azmatullah Hussaini, MD, President of the New York/New Jersey chapter of the American Muslim Health Professionals, and Jules Lipoff, MD, Assistant Professor of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, offered additional context: especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, [g]iven that athletes are disproportionately Black in the biggest revenue-generating sports football and basketball this dynamic also evokes Americas horrific history of unpaid slave labor. For example, fair market value for a University of Texas football player was $513,922. The main problem is the huge amount of money involved in professional sports. 81 other head football coaches made more than $1 million annually and another 29 more than $500,000. This pay gap creates unnecessary tensions within sport teams and is unfair to teammates who sacrifice just as much but for less money. But one of the biggest moves was the WNBAs 2020 community bargaining agreement. In any other job, if you don't perform to your expectations, you're fired. The billionaire owners of the N.F.L., M.L.B., andN.B.A. Is MMA any more dangerous than boxing or other contact sports? Wouldn't it be great to make nearly $111 million a year simply to play a game? 23, 2023. Professional athletes sacrifice important aspects of their lives, especially their health and family. This month . Professional sports revenues are rapidly increasing because of the seemingly insatiable appetites for unique TV programs. entertainment, news presenter | 4.8K views, 28 likes, 13 loves, 80 comments, 2 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from GBN Grenada Broadcasting Network: GBN News 28th April 2023 Anchor: Kenroy Baptiste. We compare average salaries of male players vs female players across sports like basketball, soccer and tennis, and highlight some of the major steps forward in the pursuit for equal pay. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Male athletes receive more money through endorsements and personal branding initiatives, further widening the sports pay gap. This is just one of the ways that professional sports are working to improve pay inequality. [48], A 2019 Seton Hall Sports Poll found that 60% of those surveyed agreed that college athletes should be allowed compensation for their name, image, and/or likeness, while 32% disagreed, and 8% were unsure. What Should Be Done About the Gender Pay Gap in Sports? Among the 10 highest-paid female athletes in 2018, nine were tennis players. 1. Only a tiny fraction actually make it to the big time. This reason is why the athletes should get high salaries, because they travel far, leave their families and risk their life. Professional athletesare making too much money in a society where salaries and wages are traditionally based on the value of one's work. If you are interested in equalizing athlete pay, or if you want to push for better compensation for players overall, consider a career in sport management. Their hope is that by moving closer to a 50-50 split, common in other pro sports, they can increase salaries for all players, male and female. However, the male athletes serving the national team are disproportionally paid more, according to lawyers representing the group of female players. If it is closed by the federation in negotiations with both teams, the change could funnel millions of dollars to a new generation of womens national team players. TakeAlbert Haynesworthof the Washington Redskins. 1. The WNBA generates roughly $25 million. Sorry, an error occurred and your vote could not be processed. Was this the outcome you expected? Up until 2020, the WNBA received 20% of their leagues revenues. After all, athletes earn more money than teachers, first responders, and members of the military. Given athletes large salaries, more youngsters want to become professional athletes but for the big money, not for the love of the game. 1, 2021), Dan Murphy and Adam Rittenberg, NCAA Delays Vote to Change College Athlete Compensation Rules, espn.com, Jan. 11, 2021, Sarah Polus, NCAA Tables Name, Image and Likeness Vote after DOJ Warns of Potential Antitrust Violations, thehill.com, Jan. 12, 2021, Adam Liptak, Supreme Court to Rule on N.C.A.A.

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why should professional athletes be paid less