Final Project Proposal

The Economics of Professional Sports

Professional sports are one the biggest events [forces? pro sports is a lot of different events] in the country. Most people follow at least one team no matter the sport. But behind the scenes[,] there is a different story, a story that most people do not care about or choose to ignore. The fact is that most of the athletes in any given sport are way overpaid for what they do. They get paid millions of dollars to do what they supposedly love to do. Why shouldn’t they play just to play and make what other people do [what do you mean here?]? A lot of people are stuck in jobs they hate just so they can make money. Professional athletes get to do what they love and get paid. Undoubtedly there are people who love there job and get well paid to do it but the fact is they are not making millions to do it. [This argument is confusing. I think I see where your argument is going, but I'm not sure you are making it clearly here.]

Professional athletes should not be the ones complaining that they are not paid enough. They are some of the most highly paid people in the world. Why would Terrell Owens (of the Philadelphia Eagles) complain about making forty nine million dollars in seven years? If you gave the average person on the street that much money, or even a portion of that amount, they could live on it the rest of their lives. The same goes for the National Hockey League’s (NHL) lockout. The players were already making more than most people. They argued they needed it to support their families and, compared to the other professional sports, they were not making near as much as athletes in other sports. I will show this by showing how much the average person makes and their style of living from the time they begin working to the time they retire and eventually die. I will also discuss how detrimental it is to a team and the sport for a player to openly complain about contracts and salaries. I will draw on previous events, such as the NHL lockouts, to emphasize these points.

Caps are set in place to control athlete earnings yet players consistently make seven figures. One hundred million dollars over five years (Shaquelle O’Neil’s contract) is too excessive for anyone. One quarter of that is excessive. Most people will never see one million dollars let alone twenty-five. Granted, they are in the entertainment business, which pays excessive amounts to its stars. Doctors only make an average of two hundred thousand and are more vital than any athlete could possibly be. I will compare and contrast how much various people in different occupations’ earnings compare to professional athletes.

Players’ high salaries effect more than you would think. They determine ticket cost, merchandise costs, television costs, and much more. Teams need to raise their prices to make the money necessary to pay these high salaries. These costs are passed to the consumer. For example, television has to pay an increasingly large amount to show games on television [Is this true?]. In turn the broadcasting company charges more to advertise on their station. The companies advertising have to charge more for their product to make up for this cost. Hence, the consumer pays for the large salary. I will show how the players’ salaries effect these and many other economic areas. [If you can make this argument ... wow! That will be a fascinating project. I worry that this will be a difficult causal argument to make. Make sure to do a lot of research. You are going to need a lot of statistics to support this argument.]

[Okay, so this is a well structured proposal. The main thing I worry about with this project is that the argument isn't all that interesting. I would like you to think about mentioning the points you raise in your last paragraph earlier in the project (just mention it in the introduction). I think you should perhaps consider changing your thesis from "players make too much money" to "players making so much money cause all kinds of problems." By articulating the problems (discord in the Eagles, NHL lockout, Baseball strikes, and your ultimate argument about advertising costs), I think you will have a project that does a lot more than just complain about the high salaries in pro sports. Also, think about some counterarguments. I think it could be interesting to consider the role high salaries in creating a goal for younger atheletes to short for as the enter sports, for instance.]

WORKS CITED

Bryant, Adam. “Forget the Money. Show Us You Care.” New York Times. Feb 1, 1998

Gottesman, Andrew. “Huge Salaries Show NBA Stars Have Big Overall Impact.” St. Louis Post .Aug 25, 1996

Scherer, Ron. “Sports Salaries Soar, Impact On Fans Grows From the cost of tickets to
what children expect.” Christian Science Monitor. Nov 13, 1998

“The money's great--and I'm worth it.” New York Times Magazine. Oct 18, 1998

Wilson-Smith, Chris. “Big Bucks In The Big Leagues.”Owl. Jun 2005