Tanner Johnson English 1010 Annotated Bibliography Athletes Pay: Should there be a salary cap on professional athletes?

With sports continuously being one of the largest grossing companies each year there is constant increase on athletes pay. Yet teams with a larger fan base increasingly get more and more money in revenue every year. This leads these select teams to be able to spend more and more money on big name players. But is this fair to the teams who have a smaller fan base and nowhere near the money of larger teams? The situation is the big teams can afford the big name players who produce season after season and the teams with less revenue cant afford them. Is it fair for the big teams? Or should the game continue on the path its been for over a hundred years? ProQuest Staff. "At Issue: Athletes' Pay." ProQuest LLC. 2013: n.pag. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Nov 2013. Professional sports bring in huge revenues which lead to athletes salaries being called outrageous by many critics. For instance Alex Rodriguez a third baseman for the New York Yankees signed a contract for 275 million dollars over a period of ten years. Many athletes who play professional sports sign contracts for over 100 million dollars. Due to the fact that smaller teams couldnt compete with larger teams because they arent attractive enough due the money not being there. This being said some professional sports have emplaced salary caps so there can
Tanner Johnson Page 1

be more competition among leagues. A salary cap is a certain salary amount that has to be distributed over the team. In other words no more players will be making hundreds of millions of dollars. This will help create more competitive leagues throughout a professional sport instead of the same teams making it to the championship year after year. Many critics do not like this idea because owners of the team would pocket more money and less money would be given to the athletes who risk themselves each and every day. This has a great argument because it talks about both sides and the fairness of a salary cap to not only players but the owners as well. The source states that players who risk themselves everyday should be making the big money instead of it just being pocketed by the owners. It also doesnt say players dont deserve the money who receives a big check but rather it is unfair to the smaller teams. This article is very good and the arguments solid. The article states that players are receiving criticism for making the big money as if they havent earned it. But is it fair for the owners to pocket all of that money that the athletes have worked all of their lives for? It also states that in order to make more competitive leagues there must be a salary cap but it might not be fair to the big name players. Beck, Howard. "N.B.A. Eyes Drastic Cut In Payouts To Players." New York Times. 22 Oct 2010: B.15. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Nov 2013. Howard Beck writes about how the NBA wants to cut players salaries by over 750 million dollars every year. He continues on to say how this could trigger a lockout next summer. NBA owners continuously talk about a collective bargaining agreement that would lead to a salary cap and restrictions on players contracts. A reduction of 800 million dollars would decrease the players salary by about 38 percent. The players combined make around 2.1 billion
Tanner Johnson Page 2

dollars a year in salary and benefits. Under the current labor deal players make about 57 percent of the NBAs revenue which the owner of the league says will no longer work. Due to these cuts teams on average lost about 380 million dollars in one season and are on track to lose another 350 million dollars next season. The NBA has not had a lockout since the 98-99 season which reduced the season to 50 games and it seems there is going to be another one brewing here pretty soon. This article produces a well thought out representation of the NBA and where they stand. They do not want to come up with a resolution and are okay with having a lockout. This puts pressure on the players union to come up with terms so that the season can start on time or else the players will be losing money anyways. The article is solid and is a good representation of the NBA. The NBA is known for large fan bases and being watched internationally on television. They make great amounts of money every year from merchandise sales as well as ticket sales. The NBA is trying to talk about making salary caps but is always a hard bargain with players and the union. With this being such a large issue players and the owners of the NBA need to come up with a resolution or nobody will be making money. Blum, Ronald. "Alex Rodriguez's Salary: Astros Combined Payroll Less Than Yankee..." Newsday. 29 Mar 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher.Web. 10 Nov 2013. Ronald Blum talks about the unfairness of athletes who are paid more in one year than an entire teams salary for that year. In this instance he is talking about Alex Rodriguez who gets paid 29 million dollars a year for the next ten years. His salary alone this year will be more than the entire Houston Astros salary. The Yankees total salary is ten time that of the Astros whose
Tanner Johnson Page 3

cut their spending to about 25 million this last year. To some people this may be called unfair but at the same time this is a disadvantage to the team who is giving out 29 million dollars a year. For instance the big name players who get hurt and end up on the DL (Disabled List) are still promised all the money they signed there contract for. This means if a player were to have a career ending injury the team has a duty to fulfill the total amount of the contract. The team can either write one huge check to buy out the contract or pay the salary amount. The big price tags are also a security to the teams who own them because the smaller teams dont have the money to buy out contracts of these players if they wanted to trade. Three of the six top paid players will start the season on the DL (Disabled List). This is a tie up of money for these huge teams because the athletes are promised there money anyways. The analysis of this article proves it is viable. The many facts proven in this article says that there are both benefits and downsides to having a huge payroll. The benefits are you can maintain a large big name roster which equals a huge fan base. And the fan base equals big money. But if you were to have all those big money players put on the DL (Disabled List) it would lead to a huge tie up of money. This article gives insight to the many ups and downs of having no salary cap. Baseball having some of the largest salaries often gets the biggest criticism because it is unfair for them to receive so much money. But they worked for so many years to get where they are at now so is it fair? As well is it fair for the big name teams to have so much money it is hard for smaller teams to compete with them. Zimmerman, Jonathan. "LeBron James: Where's the Outrage About His Salary?." Christian Science Monitor. 09 Jul 2010: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Nov 2013.

Tanner Johnson

Page 4

Jonathan Zimmerman writes about how there are over 15 million Americans out of work yet LeBron James is still making over 15 million dollars a year. He cries, Wheres the outrage? In 1930 the infamous Babe Ruth was being paid an upwards 80,000 dollars yet when asked if he deserved to make more money than the president of the U.S.. He replied saying, Why not I have had a much better year. Jonathan continues to say who needs to take home 15 to 20 million dollars a year? Nobody he says. He goes on to say that Ruths 80,000 today would convert to about 1 million dollars today which is chump change in professional baseball today. The average baseball player makes around 3 million dollars. He is trying to get across there has to be a better way to place the money that professional athletes make because no one really needs 15+ million dollars a year. The analysis of this article is very positive. He does not just talk about professional athletes but talks about all of the people who are out of work. One argument I do like is that who really needs all of that money anyways when there are people out of work all over the U.S.. He does not like how there is not more of an outrage over the athletes pay and how outrageously high it has gotten. This article is about the unfairness of professional athletes salary compared to the normal citizen. The unemployment rate is very high and that athletes are still making millions of dollars. There is a line that must be drawn to help the distribution of wealth in the U.S.. He goes on to talk about how professional athletes are treated as kings when in reality they just play a game. But this isnt really fair because these athletes have worked so hard to get where they are at today.

Tanner Johnson

Page 5

Pelissero, Tom. "NFL Middle Class Shrinking." USA TODAY. 05 Sep 2013: C.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Nov 2013. Tom Pelissero goes on to talk about how the NFL puts so much money into large quarterback deals and signing a bunch of fresh players out of college for little money that signing large free agent deals are a thing of the past. Teams would rather sign a bunch of fresh kids to build a team rather than spend a bunch of money to sign a veteran who is only one person. The NFL makes over 3 billion dollars in television endorsements. So the issue is the teams who acquire all this money cannot do anything to better themselves because of the salary cap. In other word the good teams stay good and the bad teams stay bad. This is a let down to the fans who are always hoping for a championship and if there team does not achieve it they lose their fan which in turn lowers revenue making bad teams even worse. This is something that owners and players must discuss so teams and leagues can be more competitive in the long run. Analyzing this argument you discover it uncovers how the salary cap can also hinder a teams ability to get better. And if all the money is dumped into a single player where does this leave the athletes who sign because they cant do anything else because they are basically living on a week to week basis. All athletes are supposed to be treated equally but with this situation the salary cap gives even less money to the players who arent quarterbacks. This article is a great representation of what the negatives are of a salary cap. It gives big players most of the money leaving the rest with small paychecks that arent even guaranteed. And it gives teams more and more young players who sign for nothing leaving big veterans with nowhere to go. The salary cap has its ups and downs so there is no clear answer. The salary cap has opportunities to help teams but hurt the players.

Tanner Johnson

Page 6

Tanner Johnson

Page 7