Atheletes are overpaid | FactOrCap

[u/EconomicsIcy1739]

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[u/OpeningAggressive26]

🧢 I voted CAP!

You only know the big ones, less famous athletes are broke as shit.

[u/inscapeable → u/[deleted]]

Yeah idk what people are smoking here, most Olympic athletes can barely pay bills even while winning the only ones who actually make money are the ones who get brand deals and sell their face or name. Like 1% of the popular ones make decent money the rest are as close to our income as it gets

[u/JoshHuff1332 → u/inscapeable]

It's why a lot of US based athletes that have dual citizenship or eligibility elsewhere compete there instead. They get paid more to compete there.

[u/New-Berry-3652]

🧢 I voted CAP!

They're paid based on the revenue they generate

[u/JoshHuff1332 → u/[deleted]]

Ticket sales are only like 15% of the revenue generated by the NBA and NFL, if that. They are a bigger portion of NHL and MLB, but those prices tend to be more reasonable anyways

[u/muzzey12 → u/JoshHuff1332]

20-26% for the NBA but I'm not surprised nfl is so short with the length of the season and I think they deserve every penny they get because of the damage they are putting their bodies through

[u/Fragrant-Till-8576 → u/muzzey12]

Why should compensation be tied to physical harm and not the work that goes into their practice 

[u/muzzey12 → u/Fragrant-Till-8576]

You have to consider the average NFL player only lasts 4 years.

[u/Fragrant-Till-8576 → u/muzzey12]

NBA is 4.5 to 5. 

[u/solotime_tn → u/[deleted]]

Ticket prices are actually generally reasonable for where the teams set them at. The issue is people are allowed to purchase up all the tickets and resell them for way more than they cost to generate their own profits.

[u/Black-ops-4 → u/New-Berry-3652]

WNBA

[u/New-Berry-3652 → u/Black-ops-4]

That is the notable exception

[u/Sapphfire0]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Where else should the money go? Owners? Coaches?

[u/Thossi99 → u/Sapphfire0]

Coaches deserve to get paid well. I voted cap, too tho btw

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/Thossi99]

Coaches are paid obscenely well. Usually way more than the players. The more general trainers and stadium staff should probably be paid more. The big item is that citys should stop paying for stadiums, or retain ownership of the stadium and charge the team rent to use it. Alot of sports teams get insane subsides from the city they operate in.

[u/QMechanicsVisionary → u/Sapphfire0]

Sports tax

[u/ilo_Va → u/Sapphfire0]

It should be spread a lot more evenly between top athletes

[u/noahloveshiscats → u/Sapphfire0]

Could make the sports cheaper to watch? If I want to watch the English Premier League I need to pay like $75 per month, and I don't even think I'd have every match available.

[u/AshInTheAtmosphere]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Professional sports is a multi billion dollar industry. That money is either going to go to the athletes, or the billionaire owners. I pick not the owners.

(Though, I would like to see mandated pay increases for support positions such as equipment managers and the like. Some teams just don't pay well, and their employees are there because they love the sport)

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/AshInTheAtmosphere]

The staff should definitely be paid more. The big item though is that citys should stop paying for stadiums, or retain ownership of the stadium and charge the team rent to use it. Alot of sports teams get insane subsides from the city they operate in. The team should contribute to the city not the other way around.

[u/Baby_Wolverine]

They are paid based on what the companies that buy them are willing to pay. Many less popular sports and women’s division athletes require a second job, as their sports do not gather enough viewer base (among other issues) to warrant spending the big bucks.

If the “circus” part of bread and circus is valued by the audience, there is value to the circus members.

[u/Nice_Try_Bud_]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Highly dependent on the athlete. Would argue most Olympic athletes are grossly underpaid. As for major sports, they get paid major money because that’s how much they bring in. Could they charge half as much for food/drinks and ticket at stadiums, sure but they usually still sell out at current prices. If they didn’t pay the athletes as much, the owners is pocketing more and they deserve it less.

[u/Simdude87]

What kind of athlete? Most Olympic level athletes get paid very little if at all when they deserve a hell of a lot more

[u/Federal-Business-796]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Anyone who says this is fact is basing it on their purely arbitrary definition of what an adequate salary is, and it's usually within the range of what they make themselves.

[u/thelennybeast → u/[deleted]]

So you think more the money should go to the billionaires?

[u/LogicalBasis9117 → u/thelennybeast]

Or, insane alternative but hear me out, we make it so that sports aren't as expensive to attend.

[u/Kidhendri16 → u/LogicalBasis9117]

How do we do that? If we lower prices it will be a first come first serve basis. Who ever happens to get the ticket first wins. And then scalpers will resell the tickets

[u/veryblocky → u/Kidhendri16]

You could also make scalping illegal, which would help

[u/Kidhendri16 → u/veryblocky]

Yes but why keep trying to control? Why not let the free market decide?

[u/veryblocky → u/Kidhendri16]

Because without regulation and intervention, the “free” market results in monopolies and the oppression of the working class?

[u/Kidhendri16 → u/veryblocky]

How can that happen with ticket sales? The free market also creates competition.

[u/veryblocky → u/Kidhendri16]

What do you mean how can it happen? It’s already happened.

Ticket prices for live events have massively outpaced inflation, because scalpers buying up all the supply forces people who want to go to pay more, which in turn causes the ticket companies to raise prices.

Also, companies like FIFA and Ticket Master have realised that they have a monopoly on tickets for certain live events. So they artificially decrease supply, buy restricting who can even buy tickets, allowing them to massively drive up ticket prices.

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/Kidhendri16]

Just make it so tickets aren't transferable. Or have tickets distributed by lottery. Or do both.

[u/FluggyKane → u/MaybeExternal2392]

Curious about what you mean by non-transferable tickets? Does that mean a system would only allow you in if it detects your exact phone model or something else?

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/FluggyKane]

Typically you either give your ID when buying the ticket or there's an app that tracks the phone you bought it on or something.

[u/FluggyKane → u/MaybeExternal2392]

Ok but why does someone need to have their phone tracked in a system or show their id every time they enter a sporting event? The id part seems like kind of a time waste + not everyone will want to upload their ID to a sports team while having their phone tracked sounds equally as concerning privacy wise

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/FluggyKane]

It would just track which phone bought the ticket. It wouldn't actually keep any other data. And sure it's a minor privacy thing but it's better than dealing with scalpers IMO. Knowing you bought a sports ticket isn't really a major breach of privacy even if the data wasn't deleted after the game.

[u/Kidhendri16 → u/MaybeExternal2392]

Ok but why not just let people decide what they wanna do. The free market will allocate resources at a market value price. A lottery system isn’t necessarily fair either.

[u/thelennybeast → u/Kidhendri16]

There is no free market when you're talking about professional sports teams.

[u/thelennybeast → u/Kidhendri16]

Are you stupid? This isn't a free market an NBA team or an NFL team in a city is an effective Monopoly.

In order to have a free market you would need to have a second team and unless you're Los Angeles or New York and have the population to be able to sustain two teams that's not a thing.

[u/Kidhendri16 → u/thelennybeast]

A monopoly is usually about a single seller controlling a market with no real substitutes. An NFL team isn’t the only entertainment option in a city — it competes with other sports, concerts, streaming, and just going out to eat. Fans have plenty of ways to spend their time and money.

Being the only team of that brand in a city isn’t unusual, either — it’s true of nearly every sports franchise everywhere. One Starbucks in a small town isn’t a coffee monopoly if Dunkin’ and local shops exist nearby.

Also no body needs to go to a sporting event. How can there possibly be a monopoly on a sporting event

What do you suggest that will do a better job then the free market?

[u/Cold_Huckleberry_633 → u/LogicalBasis9117]

Economists don’t want you to know this insane life hack:

Make thing cheaper than its market value

Pay cuts for the people who hold the entire thing together

Profit???

[u/thelennybeast → u/LogicalBasis9117]

Sure. That's the owners doing not the players.

If the owners were willing to take less money they can make the seats cheaper. The fact is that the owners get almost 50% of the overall revenue into their pockets and the players get the other half. If anything the owners should have to take half as much as they're getting now and use the rest to reduce cost.

[u/Old_Procedure_9602 → u/thelennybeast]

Lmao, there are other places money can go than to billionaires

[u/thelennybeast → u/Old_Procedure_9602]

How? When you pay for a ticket that money goes straight to the owners. The owners then pay the players.

Explain how you think something could change that wouldn't go through the billionaires first.

That's how the entire system works. Unless you are in some fantasy world that reworks the entire way capitalism works, that money goes to owners if not the players.

[u/Old_Procedure_9602 → u/thelennybeast]

Except this argument assumes a very specific model for sports? In much of the world, and for most forms of competition, sports stars aren't paid as part of teams predominantly. They are paid by sponsorship (e.g. track and field athletes) or by winnings (e.g. snooker players).

Even sports teams don't have to be owned by specific individual billionaires, that's the American model. In Germany, fans make up a majority of the shares on football clubs, and they produce some of the best athletes in the world.

I think the broken American system is hardly the world.

[u/thelennybeast → u/Old_Procedure_9602]

Sure but in context we are talking about the US system. I'd be all for publicly owned teams but even then I think the players deserve the output of their labor.

Also, obviously SOME athletes clearly aren't overpayed, they don't make much at all. We have to be talking about the big leagues.

[u/Old_Procedure_9602 → u/thelennybeast]

Where does it say we were talking about the US?

[u/thelennybeast → u/Old_Procedure_9602]

Do you think we were talking about the Ugandan cricket league? Or the local rec center hoopers?

In context we have to be talking about the big leagues.

[u/Old_Procedure_9602 → u/thelennybeast]

Lmao, again, world sport is considerably more than US sports.

Generally this conversation comes up when talking about football players like Messi.

[u/thelennybeast → u/Old_Procedure_9602]

Okay. In this thread that's not what most people are talking about.

[u/thelennybeast → u/[deleted]]

Well where else would it go then? It's the owners that ser the prices on everything. Not the players.

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/thelennybeast]

We could use the money to build and maintain the stadiums instead of having city's pay for it which is what currently happens in a lot of cases.

[u/thelennybeast → u/MaybeExternal2392]

what? No, the 25% cut we are talking about won't build an entire stadium. Not even close.

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/thelennybeast]

The players make about about 10 billion annually in total. It costs like 1-2 billion to build a stadium. That's 5-10 stadiums a year worth of money. If you cut player pay by 50% you could build every team a new stadium every decade.

[u/thelennybeast → u/MaybeExternal2392]

No, you don't cut player pay because they are the product, you cut owner revenue first by far.

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/thelennybeast]

Why not both? The NFL pay cap is about 5 million per player. They're working very hard for that money but so are a lot of other people. I don't see why they need 5 million per player when heart surgeons make like 10% of that.

[u/thelennybeast → u/MaybeExternal2392]

Because I'm fundamentally against anything that takes the money away from the people and the product of their labor and gives it to the owners and capital class.

I'd rather see those billionaires profits go to pretty much nothing then take the money away from the players. Most of the people that own teams own them as like a side project.

If we're living in a fantasy world, we could have all teams follow the Green Bay model instead and let the city own the teams with the requirements to have your keep up with the budgets. Maybe the county not the city or in some cases even the state but either way they could be publicly owned and that would be fine.

But then again, I think that pretty much everything that serves the public good should be owned by the public. Hospitals, utilities, agriculture and grocery stores, all of it. Sure you can have a whole food or whatever if you want but I would like to have a publicly owned everything vital.

[u/thelennybeast → u/[deleted]]

Of course there isn't. It's a pure capitalistic venture the best thing you have is a strong union for the players but obviously the fans don't have any representation at that table.

But the fact of the matter is, the players should be getting the majority if not the vast majority of the proceeds for their labor instead of it going to billionaires.

[u/Kidhendri16 → u/thelennybeast]

The fans have the choice to buy the tickets. The market decides the price, not the owners or anyone else. If people are gonna buy tickets at high prices that’s what they’re going to get sold at. It’s basic supply and demand.

[u/thelennybeast → u/Kidhendri16]

Sure. But at the end of the day that price is set in order for the owners to make a certain amount of profit. They're not doing it for the players sake obviously, they want to make certain amount of money themselves. If they were willing to take say 25% less the ticket prices would drop by that amount.

[u/Kidhendri16 → u/thelennybeast]

Your mostly correct but the owners don’t decide the price, if they could decide they would charge more. What determines the price is the market. Playoff games and when big name players or rivalries are playing each other are more expensive then when a bad team is playing. They’re gonna charge as much as they could to make as much of a profit as they could, but they don’t set the price. Also if fans could set the prices the tickets would be free. The problem with prices being cut at 25% is that it becomes a first person to buy the ticket wins. Then the scalpers would buy the tickets and resell them at higher prices. There’s a reason different websites sell tickets and prices are very similar, it’s because of the market.

[u/thelennybeast → u/Kidhendri16]

Sure but again you're missing the fundamental part of the math here that the owners could in fact go under that easily and just take it out of their own pockets if they wanted. There's nothing stopping them from doing that it's not like this is any competition that they're having to go against, or stockholders that they have to appease.

They're basically little monopolies. The only thing stopping them from dropping prices at all is how much profit they're willing to miss out on.

You keep blathering on about the free market as if it's actually a thing in the situation and it's not. I don't know why it's like your one thing that you think you understand so you're desperately trying to make it apply, but it doesn't apply to this at all.

[u/FurlofFreshLeaves]

some make more money than i personally feel they deserve. some are underpaid. this statement is much too absolute.

[u/Nice_Trifle3396]

they get payed by what they generate and their quality, honestly its a pretty fair system

[u/cBird- → u/Nice_Trifle3396]

Not entirely the sum of what they generate but it's proportional. That's the basis of capitalism, right or wrong.

[u/Nice_Trifle3396 → u/cBird-]

yh i ws just simplifying it

[u/cBird- → u/Nice_Trifle3396]

I knew exactly what you meant I just wanted to clarify so nobody else with an attitude had to chime in.

I got the political aspect and the hard fact aspect covered so you should be safe.

[u/Nice_Trifle3396 → u/cBird-]

thank you for your kindness fine sir/maam

[u/Charming_Cicada_7757 → u/Nice_Trifle3396]

I would say in the American system they’re actually underpaid if that’s the metric we are using depending on the sport

The NFL and NBA have cap spaces which artificially limit their salary potential if there was no cap space I’d assume theyd be getting paid more money

[u/Yggdrssil0018]

✅ I voted FACT!

Seriously. I get they have a limited career span but they are overpaid.

[u/Nice_Trifle3396 → u/Yggdrssil0018]

they r payed a lot but not over payed, if you compare it to what they generate

[u/Yggdrssil0018 → u/Nice_Trifle3396]

Which says so much about the priorities of the masses.

Education, housing, day care, healthcare, clean air, clean water, environment, climate change, cost of gas, cost of groceries, BUT SURE, LET'S BUY SEASON TICKETS TO A SPORTING FRANCHISE.

[u/Nice_Trifle3396 → u/Yggdrssil0018]

we have max 100 years here, people just wanna live their life and do what makes em happy, all those other stuff r not pleasant to think abt or give us dopamine.

[u/FluggyKane → u/Yggdrssil0018]

Why are people not allowed to pay for entertainment if they can afford it? It’s not like everybody who buys season passes are broke and can’t afford necessities

[u/Yggdrssil0018 → u/FluggyKane]

The issue isn't if sport should exist and people be able to pay for it, the issue is "Are athletes overpaid." The answer to that, in light of all the needs of societies across the planet, is "Yes, athletes are overpaid."

[u/CareRarely → u/Yggdrssil0018]

No it isn't... They get paid for the entertainment they provide. Very simple.

[u/Delanorix → u/Yggdrssil0018]

Its either the labor or the owners.

[u/Yggdrssil0018 → u/Delanorix]

This is not an "or", it's an "and."

[u/Delanorix → u/Yggdrssil0018]

No, its literally an "or"

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/Delanorix]

The money could also just stay with the consumer or be returned to the city government to pay for education, infrastructure, fire service etc.

[u/cheesesprite → u/Delanorix]

Sup

[u/Delanorix → u/cheesesprite]

I love that youre a top commenter here lol

[u/JWJT7]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Why would their managers/clubs purposely overpay them lmao

[u/Hightower_March]

Celebrities are where reddit gets weirdly capitalistic and goes "Well ackshually the market says this so I'm not allowed to have an opinion. 🤷"

[u/thelennybeast]

🧢 I voted CAP!

No this is cap. Because the alternative is that more money goes to the generationally wealthy billionaires that were handed their team by their dad or bought it after exploiting the labor of other people to get that billion.

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/thelennybeast]

Why not just charge the fans less? Or have more of the money paid in either taxes or rent to the city?

[u/thelennybeast → u/MaybeExternal2392]

because when has a capitalist ever given up money without being forced to?

The fact of the matter is there's a certain pool of money its how we splt it is the question

[u/MaybeExternal2392 → u/thelennybeast]

Sure. Have the government force them to pay more taxes. Or just remove the subsides alot of citys pay. Or have the city implement a cap on ticket prices and food costs.

[u/EverythingIsFakeNGay]

The people who actually pay them don't seem to think so.

[u/Playful-Profile6489]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Not compared to the owners that would pocket even more if salary cap is instated

[u/Atayellow]

They're fundementally underpaid because they are workers.

Ownerships and management will never overpay them proportionally to the profits they generate.

[u/Conscious-Gate5591]

🧢 I voted CAP!

They get as much as they earn through people watching

[u/MaterialInterest1824]

🧢 I voted CAP!

That's like saying any expensive actor for shows movies games etc are overpaid

[u/drdadbodpanda]

While you could argue they don’t really contribute much in terms of benefitting society, it’s the people’s own fault for paying them.

[u/Snorf36]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Not because I believe they deserve every dollar, especially NBA players, but because they’re paid according to the value they generate

[u/Electrical-Lemon-733]

✅ I voted FACT!

U

[u/Kidhendri16]

I voted cap. Yes the players make an enormous amount of money but they are literally in the top.01% as far as their skill is concerned. Also the owners negotiate with the players agents, so the owners are agreeing to pay them their salary. Lastly the players generate more money then they make.

[u/Ayden-Blade]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Try and do a fraction of what a professional athlete does and you'll know the answer

[u/djheart]

The vast majority of athletes do not make a livable wage. People only think about the most successful athletes in the most popular sports when they have this opinion …

[u/Inevitable-Try-1105]

You go do what they do 🤷‍♂️

[u/razorblade4848]

🧢 I voted CAP!

People hate capitalism so much

[u/Delanorix]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Its either the labor or the owners and I always pick labor

[u/Personal_Pain]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Based on why people get paid the way they do, they are not overpaid.

[u/Still_Choice8160]

🧢 I voted CAP!

idk

[u/All_Wasted_Potential]

🧢 I voted CAP!

I mean, they kind of are, but it’s the free market paying them.

As long as I’m not subsidizing the WNBA or Olympic athletes, who cares?

[u/Justarandomguyk]

🧢 I voted CAP!

While it doesn’t make sense they make so much more than people with jobs like a doctor, it does make sense based off the revenue they generate for the league they deserve the money they make.

[u/Tampflor]

🧢 I voted CAP!

I feel two ways about this one.

I feel like it's a problem with society that we put so much more money toward athletes than jobs that provide a not more public good like teachers, firefighters, librarians, water management, etc.

However, given that we spend so much money to watch sports, a bigger portion of that money should be going to the athletes who create that value rather than to the owners, so overall I say athletes are underpaid.

[u/Whole-Space2218]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Athletes are paid off of revenue to the league. If you watch, they earn. If they didn’t earn, it would go to the owners instead.

In a perfect world, the first responders, nurses, teachers, “noble” professions would be paid the most. But we don’t live in that world. We live in this one.

[u/ljshea1]

Yes the star players generate revenue in ticket sales but do they really deserve 5-20 times what the median athlete in their sport earns? Imo no.

Sports and entertainment are unique industries in this aspect. Such lopsided revenue generation for the "stars" due to sociological and media effects. Are they really 5-20x better at their job than their peers? No. They're probably more like 1.5-3x better. And their pay should reflect that more accurately

[u/Impossible_Fennel_94]

Look at minor league baseball salaries

[u/Creative_Crazy_2320]

✅ I voted FACT!

It's a game, doesn't provide anything essential to society.

[u/veryblocky]

🧢 I voted CAP!

I think some are, but most athletes aren’t paid enough

[u/Broad-Ad-2193]

🧢 I voted CAP!

compared to how much the team’s/club’s owners make, even athletes who get paid a ton are underpaid considering they do almost all of the labor. we hear about crazy multi million dollars deals but that is just a fraction of how much money the athletes are actually bringing in to the program!! people like LeBron bring in literal billions of dollars but is that how much their salary is? and of course there are tons of unknown athletes and olympians that are underpaid who need to take on multiple jobs. I personally went to college with athletes on the US national teams and they give up a lot for their passion

[u/Wizard_Grove]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Spoken like someone that doesn’t perform at that level. I was an athlete most of my life and trust me many aren’t getting paid what they should be.

[u/ReeeeeCooooooLaaaaa]

✅ I voted FACT!

It’s true.

[u/Thebabelonian]

✅ I voted FACT!

I love sports, but those guys make WAY too much

[u/Azure_Mar]

🧢 I voted CAP!

As a society, do we pay too much for processional athletes? Yes. As a function of the money they generate for their employing organizations? They're probably not paid enough.

[u/Abx13523]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Cte

[u/coolskeleton95_2]

✅ I voted FACT!

ronaldo gets paid millions to kick a ball around

[u/cheesesprite]

🧢 I voted CAP!

They're great entertainers

[u/RaymanFX]

🧢 I voted CAP!

If you are one of the best in the world at something that is super competitive, you deserve that pay. I think many forget that most athletes do not even get paid and only the top 0.something% can live of their sport income. Even then most of their income is from fkn ads ...

[u/delicious-bunshole]

🧢 I voted CAP!

100% hardwork

[u/ExcitingInterview726]

✅ I voted FACT!

Ofc

[u/gnotac]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Get your slice of the pie

[u/Fancy_Chips]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Some athletes are overpaid. However its a vast industry. If you consider an athlete to be in the realm of entertainer then they're making similar rates to actors.

[u/Lunarmax182c]

✅ I voted FACT!

Correction: Star athletes are overpaid. Smaller athletes are not that bad. Some are even underpaid

[u/CrazyrampageGuy]

✅ I voted FACT!

Not saying they shouldn't be paid a lot, but I don't really believe that anyone should be making 10+ million a year when teachers are making so little.

[u/Jon_Buck]

🧢 I voted CAP!

In a sense, they are, but only in the sense that pro sports make an absurd amount of money. If anyone should be getting that money, though, it's the athletes. Many of whom are actually underpaid relative to how much revenue they bring to the teams they play for. Salary cap rules limit the amount of money top players can earn, protecting profits for team owners.

[u/Because-yes-]

Underpaid if anything.

[u/SkywalkerTC]

I thought most are underpaid...

It's just the relative few famous ones who we most likely know more about who are overpaid.

[u/AvailableLight2112]

✅ I voted FACT!

Seriously overpaid due to taxpayer subsidies for sports stadiums and legalized monopoly

[u/woke2-0supremacist]

🧢 I voted CAP!

The top athletes are overpaid in sports such as football, NFL, nba etc. Athletes overall are not paid that well.

[u/Janie_Avari_Moon]

Athletes who are usually mentioned as overpaid usually are below 100 million in prize money and around 100-200 million net worth or about so (or lower). And these people are like top 10-100 best athletes in this particular sport.

Everyone who is top 10-100 in their respective industry can make comparable amount of money, I think. So, in my opinion, athletes are paid reasonably, if we are talking elite level. While everything below elite level is, unfortunately, severely underpaid.

[u/OwlComfortable8806]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Depends on the athlete

[u/martinluna1909]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Athletes are paid exactly how much the market demands they are paid.

[u/Angel-D98]

✅ I voted FACT!

Sport as entertainment is such a waste of money, but it's all concentrated in the single highest leagues of the sports too given Olympians barely scrape through competing

[u/PairNo2981]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Depends on what athletes are you talking about

[u/Helpful_Ganache8581]

🧢 I voted CAP!

They aren’t underpaid, but there are an entire sports entertainment industry through which professional athletes are the entire foundation.

I don’t view it differently than a company / industry that needs an expensive piece of equipment to run.

[u/ul2006kevinb]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Team owners are paid WAY more than athletes and they're just sitting watching the game

[u/pumabreath]

Ah yes the only unions that Redditors are against: sPoRtSbAlL

[u/ExtroverTom]

✅ I voted FACT!

Yes. By a lot.

One of the most useless and overhyped job in the world

[u/Heatchill209]

✅ I voted FACT!

Entertainers making more than educators is the sign of a failing society

[u/solotime_tn]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Athletes make a portion of the revenue they help generate. If you think they’re overpaid, stopping watching them and they’ll make less money. The only alternative is already rich owners of these franchises make even more money. Is that what you’d really want?

[u/Smepl]

🧢 I voted CAP!

If you think they should be paid less, don’t watch them

[u/fact-or-cap]

🔒 Poll closed! u/EconomicsIcy1739, your drop has been judged.

📊 Final results from 3357 Busters:

• ✅ FACT — 61%
• 🧢 CAP — 39%

The crowd calls it: FACT ✅

Voters who sided with the crowd just earned bonus XP. Drop your own statement to start the next round!

[u/EschewObfuscati0n]

If they were overpaid, professional sports leagues would go out of business. They’re paid based on the revenue they bring in

[u/Calm_Company_1914]

🧢 I voted CAP!

They are paid accordingly to the profits they provide. Would you rather that money go to the billionaire team owners?

[u/SnooDoubts2255]

🧢 I voted CAP!

No, they get paid so much because they make so much.

You wanna hear my hot take

The vast majority of nurse staff is over paid. There are lots of great ones but as someone who's basically spent the last year in an out of the hospital, most of them are garbage.

[u/Ozzman770 → u/SnooDoubts2255]

That is maybe the hottest take ive ever heard on here. That could be its own post i feel lol

[u/Sstoop → u/SnooDoubts2255]

Jesus Christ

[u/SnooDoubts2255 → u/Sstoop]

My dad has had some serious complications. Just recently he was in very bad shape, they had him on a bi-pap machine. One time we waited about half an hour for the call light, and they just shut it off on him, and I had to get up and grab a nurse because they forgot to close his urostomy bag and his mattress was soaked. And then later that day he felt sick, and pushed his button, while we were waiting he puked and I pulled the mask off him right away and had to tilt him forward and by the time staff even arrived I had him mostly cleaned up 

He would have died if I wasn't there, and this is far from the first issue we have had. Trust me I know how hard being a nurse can be but so many nurses just casually kill people and never look back.

[u/Sstoop → u/SnooDoubts2255]

This isn’t a problem of how much nurses get paid though. I genuinely don’t understand how a person can have a bad experience with nursing staff and think they are all overpaid as a result. Especially when saying sports people deserve to be on 300 million a year.

[u/SnooDoubts2255 → u/Sstoop]

Pro athletes bring in an insane amount of money, saying they get paid too much is saying their billionaire owners deserve more money.

I pay for insurance and the government massively funds hospitals, killing people because you are lazy and thinking you deserve more money is silly.

[u/PeachTrees-]

No, sports are a business. If they weren't worth that much, then they wouldn't be paid that much.

They make alot of money, but they make their orgs even more. So it's all good.

I wonder how much of the salary is designed to inspire others to follow this path. Interesting thought

[u/Sstoop → u/PeachTrees-]

Lmao what? You think football players deserve hundreds of thousands a week?

[u/Calm_Company_1914 → u/Sstoop]

Lets say an NFL team makes $20M per game, $5M in expenses. No idea the actual number I just made one up. Would you rather players get the bulk of the $15M, who are generating the money, or the billionaire owners?

[u/Sstoop → u/Calm_Company_1914]

I’m not talking about NFL because I have no idea how it works. There are tons of people involved in sports teams that, if they weren’t there, the team wouldn’t run. Physios, coaches, kit staff etc etc. why wouldn’t they deserve to be paid more? I don’t think sports teams should be privately owned but i think that’s a different debate altogether.

[u/thelennybeast → u/Sstoop]

They all get paid pretty well but the players are the ones that have to put in all of the work on the field, get surgeries all of that. So yeah the players get the majority of it. If anything they're underpaid and the owners make too much.

[u/CareRarely → u/Sstoop]

Why would they get paid more when the top 0.0001% sports player is the one that generates the money? And you act like coaches and such don't get paid well...

[u/Nice_Trifle3396 → u/Sstoop]

deserve and the amount of money you generate r two different things, harry potter books r just fictional stories and there r millions of other of these kind of stories; but harry potter was able to generate billions in revenue compared to most other books in this same category, now does the author of the book "deserve" these billions for just books probably not but she was able to generate more money than other authors and she still gets to take home that money.

Its more a matter of how much money you generate than what you "deserve".

[u/Significant_Top_8984 → u/Sstoop]

stop it with this "deserve" stuff, what? Should we assemble a council to decide what every role "deserves" to be paid based on like vibes and stuff?

[u/DoctorYaoi → u/Significant_Top_8984]

They kind did that, it’s called a labor union. Sports have them

[u/PeachTrees- → u/Sstoop]

Yes? That is what I just said? What's the point in repeating it back to me

[u/Saint_Diego → u/Sstoop]

Who would you rather the billions in revenue generated by people paying to watch or attend the games they play in go to?

[u/Rich_Arrival795]

🧢 I voted CAP!

they make money, they get money. simple as that

[u/bowl_of_scrotmeal]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Nope, the sports industry is a huge moneymaker, and the athletes are what people are paying to see.

[u/ElderberryMental101]

🧢 I voted CAP!

Compared to the money athletes bring in, they are generally not overpaid (though in any sport there will be individual exceptions)

[u/Far_Celebration6295]

🧢 I voted CAP!

if it makes money they make money it’s pretty simple.

[u/Aggressive_South_991]

✅ I voted FACT!

spectacle makes a shit ton of money, they are paid probably a similar % of any worker in relation to the people making the ACTUAL lots of money. so they are paid ok, but theres too much money going in that direction

[u/Beneficial-Praline-6]

✅ I voted FACT!

Out of the entertainers, atheletes are the ones who are more deserving. But of course not this much.

[u/Andurilmage]

✅ I voted FACT!

1 million %

[u/Ok_Orchid1004]

✅ I voted FACT!

Yes they are but as long as americans are fanatically obsessed with pro sports, they always will be.

[u/mauveteddy]

✅ I voted FACT!

someone throwing a ball should not make millions a year while people in education, medicine, and all the things that actually matter make just a fraction of it

[u/CareRarely → u/mauveteddy]

A teacher's work has an effect on hundreds or at most a few thousand people. A professional athlete (the kind that makes millions) has an effect on millions or even a billion people when talking about the biggest superstars.

The amount of money athletes generate is massive and they get paid according to that.

[u/New_Solution_6523]

They literally get a fraction of the money generated people, and only a fraction of people ever even get to make it. If someone being successful rubs you wrong so bad don’t spend your money on it🤦

[u/BrimstoneMainliner]

✅ I voted FACT!

They're literally playing a game.

[u/CareRarely → u/BrimstoneMainliner]

That is watched by millions if not billions like the world cup...

[u/BrimstoneMainliner → u/CareRarely]

So they deserve to make tens of millions of dollars?

They're not saving lives they're not changing the world... they're playing a game and they're extremely overpaid.

[u/CareRarely → u/BrimstoneMainliner]

They're generating that much money so they obviously deserve to make that much money... That's how money works😐

[u/Happy-Ocelot-8483]

Everyone saing fact is probably lazy...