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I have been a sports fan for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid I memorized all sorts of statistics about professional athletes. Baseball is my favorite sport so I could easily recite batting averages, home runs, and earned run averages.
I was a kid in Atlanta when the Braves came to town in 1966. I would listen to baseball games on my transistor radio and keep my own score book. Of course, I knew all of the player names. It was such a treat to go to a game on “Bat Day” and get a free replica baseball bat.
The Braves were never very good when I was a kid, but I always followed them when my family moved across the country. I remember watching Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974 when we lived in Los Angeles. Ironically, he broke the record against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Hank is the true home run king in my book.
Unfortunately, I am growing increasingly disillusioned with sports including baseball. The player salaries these days are absurd in my opinion. For example, Juan Soto who plays outfield recently signed a 15 year contract with the New York Mets for $765,000,000. This included a $75,000,000 signing bonus, $765,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $51,000,000.
The argument from professional athletes always used to be that they only had a limited number of years to maximize earnings due to injury risk. Today the average National Football League career is 3.3 years and the average salary in 2024 was $3.2 million.
The 2024 average Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association salaries were $4.66 million and $11.9 million, respectively.
By comparison, the average salary in the U.S. is $63,795. Therefore, a person making this average salary without any raises would earn a little over $1.9 million after 30 years. The average NFL player makes $10,560,000 after 3.3 years.
This “money grab” has been a part of the college athletics landscape as well. In my part of the country, head football coaches in the Southeastern Conference average $8.1 million per year. This amount does not include bonuses or endorsement income.
In 2021, the NCAA passed its first version of NIL (name, image, and likeness) legislation. This allows student-athletes to profit from endorsements and other opportunities. Some student-athletes are making seven figures. I don’t know how I would have handled making seven figures when I was 20 years old.
The professional and college sports leagues expect the average sports fan to bankroll their exorbitant salaries. It seems that anything to do with sports is a money grab these days. I keep wondering when the fans will finally say enough is enough.
Another problem for many sports fans is that gambling has increasingly become a part of the sports scene since 2018. Not surprisingly, this has led to an all time high of gambling disorder. I lost count of how many commercials for sportsbooks were shown during the recent Super Bowl game.
It is estimated that “approximately 2.5 million adults in the U.S. are severely addicted to gambling and another 4 to 6 million people have mild to moderate gambling problems.” In October 2024, the Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling made the recommendation to treat gambling as a public health issue similar to alcohol and tobacco.
It has been well documented that “47% of parents with grown children provide them with some form of financial support.” The average monthly amount of support is $1,384. Sadly, I am confident that in some cases the proliferation of sports betting has added more stress to these family dynamics.
I used to live and breathe football. Used to. I kept up with every Braves win-loss. Used to. I was a die hard college basketball fan. Was. Too many reasons to even list for my disdain of sports these days. The transfer portal in college has destroyed my last bastion of love for the games.
Pee Wee football anyone?
Do I think athletes are overpaid? Yes.
But does it really hurt anything compared to a
Criminal Evil Overpaid CEO? No.
Scummy CEOs murder their workers with impunity, run brutal sweatshops, fire massive amounts of workers even when their companies are massively profitable just to grab even more $billions —
and then when they do a lousy job walk off with a massive Golden Parachute.
It would be comical if CEOs weren’t so immoral that people whine so much about athletes’ salaries, while ignore CEOs much large looting.
Just a tad exaggeration don’t you think? How many CEOs that run sweat shops.
Sports fans (and indeed all citizens) eventually pay for those salaries. Where? Not just in ticket prices, but also in prices for the products of the advertisers, field concession items like food and souvenirs, the expensive cable TV and other broadcasting licenses, game day parking, taxes to pay for that new stadium, license fees for memorabilia (from game shirts and other clothing to decals and bumper stickers), and lots of other costs down the consumer purchasing chain.
Shohei Ohtani earned $70 million in 2024. The Dodgers probably got a big chunk of that back in year 1 from all the additional streams of money that were triggered for the franchise. Meanwhile, Ohtani earned more than $400,000 per game – that is, if he played almost all of the 162 game season and playoffs. Otherwise, it would be higher.
This is a little like the situation for movie stars, recording personalities, top lawyers and doctors, and even scientists and academics. The ones at the very top can almost name their price, while everyone else works at compensation levels far, far down the ladder.
I grew up as a fan of my NFL football team. We weren’t any good, but there was a pride in the team and the city it represented. Today, the player turnover is high as well as their injuries. The coordinators get poached at the first sign of success. The continuity is not there. I lament that my interest in my team has waned. I’ve been watching the WNBA as of late.
I can relate to the article myself as a sports addict in perpetual recovery. My answer: Minor league baseball. $20 for a ticket, players that are not overpaid and really trying, (mostly) good quality ball and minimal traffic to and from the game.
Rob – That’s true. I live 20-some miles away from where the Durham Bulls play (remember the movie Bull Durham?), a AAA minor league team. $25 for a really good seat behind home plate, a great fan base, and plenty of fun between innings. Many of the players are “that close” to making it into the big leagues, so the quality of play is quite high.
I grew up a Detroit Tigers fan. Al Kaline was my favorite. In the late 60s, Jim Campell, our GM, offered Kaline a $100,000 contract; a first for the organization. Kaline turned it down, suggesting his performance the previous season didn’t merit $100K. A class act on and off the field.
I’m reading this thread from a different perspective. These teams can afford (and do pay) these exorbitant salaries because of the lucrative broadcasting deals they are signing with the many competing Sports and Network TV services that value this content. $8 million for a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl? That type of pricing clout doesn’t come for free and ultimately the market will determine the value of these sporting events.
Is it (or they, the athletes) worth it? From my perspective and it seems like many others here, it is worth it as the entertainment value of major sports has grown tremendously over these decades. That’s due to the skills and performances of the top athletes and coaches (yes, we have to give them some credit too) who put this much more exciting product on the field and on our Media outlets (this weeks yawn of a Super Bowl notwithstanding).
Aren’t these salaries what the market will bear?
I know that it’s difficult to compare this wealth of riches to the general population but that’s not really a valid comparison.
Hey, if people are willing to pay hundreds, thousands of dollars to sit in crowded stands and watch millionaires run around and bump into each other while dressing like a cartoon and screaming their heads off I don’t care who earns what?
I also don’t care if those players making mega millions retire and are totally broke two years later.
My first career was as a television sportscaster, and I can tell you that much of this column could have been written 40 years ago with similar plaints. I remember the stunned expression on the weatherman’s face the night I reported that NBA star Moses Malone had signed a contract for the unimaginable salary of almost $2 million a year.
I happen to believe that these athletes deserve whatever they can get. When you have trained your entire life to be among the best .001% in the world at what you do, and you generate hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues for an employer who doesn’t care whether he makes money or not, you have your share coming.
However, what was truly unimaginable when I was a sports professional was the overwhelming domination by today’s gambling industry. In 1980 I could have been fired for even mentioning a point spread in the newsroom, let alone on the air. Now we have sports “journalists” doing TV commercials for large-scale betting operations.
Sports betting is an $11 billion annual business in the US, and it’s only just getting started here. Worldwide, thanks to the proliferation of betting pools on soccer, it’s $100 billion.
There is no reversing that tide. It’s permanent and landscape-altering.
Babe Ruth’s response in 1932 when he signed a new contract was challenged about the fact that he would be making more than President Hoover, Ruth replied, “I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.”
BTW I believe they only signed one year contracts back then, so they had to prove their worth each season.
Shohei Ohtani, who is considered the modern Babe Ruth (he pitches and plays in the field) signed a 10 year contract, which only pays 2 million per year until, the balance paid out over after the contract expires. What a delayed “annuity”. PS don’t know if it has an inflation rider 😂.
I’m with you Mike. The players deserve what they get. Their careers are short and they are the reason we watch. The owners not so much. Our taxes usually support their stadiums and arenas and even if their teams are lousy and their management poor they see their investments soar. (I’m looking at you former Oakland A’s.) The caving of the major sports in the US regarding sports gambling was about owners’ greed and nothing more. The integrity of the sport didn’t matter anymore when compared with the riches they can make with advertising, sponsorships, etc.
Don, the betting takeover was a bit more complicated than that. I worked for a company whose geolocation software was deployed for online gambling, and this revolution was driven by governments and politicians, not team owners. The changes in betting regulations enabled by the 2018 Supreme Court decision legalizing sports betting markets were all about states and countries wanting to tap into business streams and tax revenues.
I would also argue that the integrity of the games has, counterintuitively, actually been enhanced by the amount of money at stake. Online betting analysis has become so sophisticated that strange betting patterns, performance patterns and even officiating patterns indicating possible “fixes” are easier to detect than ever. And athletes making millions are virtually immune to bribery from gamblers. There are exceptions, of course — the NBA’s Jontay Porter and Otani’s interpretor are two recent prominent ones — but I believe we will never again have a Tulane or a Black Sox or a corrupted NBA ref because it’s impossible to hide at this point.
My favorite story about sports gambling scandals involves Alex Karras, who was suspended from the NFL for a year. When he returned and was named Detroit Lions captain, he cheerfully declined to call the coin toss before kickoff!
I totally agree about the gambling promotions. IMO, gambling advertisements should be outlawed, including those for the lottery. It is a well established fact that gambling is addictive to some people. The constant advertising is fanning the flames of this addiction.
It is only a question of time before we have a major gambling scandal in sports.
I enjoy sports, but it has lost its luster to mean due to the ridiculous high salaries and the spoiled behavior of so many athletes. It has almost become cost prohibitive for a family of 4 to go to a MLB or NFL game.
My response to high salary complaints for years is if someone offered you 10 million dollars to work for them, but others in your profession were only getting paid one million would you turn them down? My complaint about professional athletes is when they sign a long term, top of the market contract years later complain that their contract is below market and sit out, or ask to be traded hoping for a new deal. You signed a contact, honor it, and if your still good when it expires ask for the world and see what your market value is then.
My bigger beef is when a billionaire team owners ask for taxpayer money to build new stadiums.
Jerry,
I agree 100%!
Gambling can be very addictive to some people. And now, add in Mobile Phone addiction, and you have a recipe for some horrible outcomes.
———
p. s. – I don’t follow Professional Baseball. I’m a Chicago Cubs fan. 🤪
I think you meant the WSox?
Ha, Winston, me too. Go Cubbies.
I was never a big sports fan, and have never gambled, other than one trip to a horse race; I calculated how many hours I worked to cover the total cost. Not worth it! Now, when I watch games and concerts, I ask “how much credit card debt did they incur, and how many years will they be making payments?” Sad.
Scott,
My father, born in 1933, growing up in Saugus, Mass was a Braves, not a Red Sox fan.
PS Being a sports nut and growing up sharing a bedroom with my now deceased twin we would “debate” sports topics for hours a bedtime until my father…
I wrote a seven point counter point to many of your topics, but the page refreshed before I was able to save it. Don’t know if others have this same problem. It must of been Jonathan’s editing saying enough is enough. Just kidding.
David – I’ve also had that happen. For a long response, I typically use a text editor to create the response. Then I cut/paste it into HD.
P.S. We’re on vacation in South America and watched the first half of the Super Bowl on a Brazilian sports station. It was awesome. Minimal commercials, and no sighting of either Trump or Taylor Swift. The announcer was very enthusiastic—you don’t need to know Portuguese when he yells, “TOUCHDOWN!” It was a breath of fresh air. Just about the game.
I’m still a huge baseball fan. To me, the Super Bowl means that pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training next week, so it’s almost time for baseball! I write a weekly column for a fan site focused on the San Francisco Giants, which is where my “DrLefty” handle comes from.
The player salaries in baseball are one side of the story. The owners are billionaires, and their investments grow astronomically whether their teams win or not and whether they spend money to win or not, so many just rake in TV money and revenue-sharing funds and don’t care much about the fans. I don’t really have an issue with the players, who are the reason for the sport, earning their fair share of the riches, but I do wish there was a salary cap and floor so that there was more parity among teams.
Now, college football is a mess. Again, I don’t have an issue with these players, who until recently made obscene amounts of money for their schools with minimal compensation, getting paid. But the NIL thing is causing players to ping-pong from one school to another every year—to whomever is offering the biggest payout—and you never know who is on your team. This year, my alma mater lost like 14 players between the last conference game and the bowl game, because of players transferring for NIL money or sitting it out because they didn’t want to get hurt before the NFL draft. We won our bowl game, but I barely knew who was playing for my own school. As I said, I think it’s fair for the players, who are risking serious injuries and only a small fraction of whom will ever play in the NFL, to get compensated. But this out-of-control transfer portal thing is making a mockery out of college sports.
Thanks for the article Scott. Our love affairs with sports and baseball mirror one another except I grew up in San Francisco so my team was the Giants and my hero was Willie Mays. I too have grown more and more disillusioned with sports and the greed that has taken over. The proliferation of sports betting is not only slowly destroying the integrity of the games, it is ruining lives. Financially and spiritually. As a recovering compulsive gambler of almost 45 years, I know up close and personal the realities of the addiction and I see how more and more lives, especially young people’s, are being affected. Can you imagine society and government actively and eagerly promoting drugs and alcohol as widely we do gambling? The economic impact of compulsive gambling is enormous and yet it still is often a more invisible disease than other addictions. Sports was an escape and sometimes even a savior in my life but now, because of its promotion and lust for more money through gambling, they will help lead to the destruction, and sometimes ending, of too many lives.
Nice article, Scott. I resonate with a lot of your themes. Baseball was my favorite sport as a kid and like you, I loved memorizing all kinds of players’ statistics. After the 1994 MLB strike, I became disillusioned with all the fat cats (both sides) and never again followed major league baseball. I do enjoy watching live baseball games at the minor league stadium in my home town. College football became my main sports interest, but as you point out, it has become just another money-making machine.
As noted in a post of mine above I had a comment regarding your point.
What I am most disgusted about college sports is the portal. It has made all the best athletes mercenaries. Some take the money from one school, go into the portal to see if they can get more elsewhere. I believe Ohio State’s quarterback was in the portal last year. There is no allegiance to the school, only to themselves. They are no longer student athletes, but athletic students. Colleges have become minor leagues for professional sports. I think colleges should get back to focusing on academics, drop inter scholastic sports and only have amateur sports competing against other local colleges.
PS this is coming from a retired Certified Athletic Trainer who has loved sports all his life
PSS and dont get me started on sports betting
David, I agree with your comments about the portal. I think one small change might slow it down. If players had to be in good academic standing and on track for their academic year to graduate, there would be a lot fewer transfers and many would take their academics a lot more seriously.
Excellent idea
Ken, having been a TV sportscaster in my early life, I can tell you that college football has always been a moneymaking machine. The difference now is the amount of TV money at stake and the fact that the athletes, around whom the machine was built and on whose backs it was operated, are now sharing in the revenue.
Ken
I no longer follow the Red Sox as the owner is isn’t willing to pay the money to field a team with major league talent despite charging the highest ticket prices in baseball.
I have however gone to some games the past few years because my brother in law knows the VP for ticket sales. When I went to games I used to watch intensely and score them but now it’s just a free social event with the best seats in the house.
I have friends that can’t enjoy a game if they don’t bet on it. A friend and co-worker stole money and lost his job due to sports betting. I was his union rep and there was nothing I could do for him.
I used to enjoy going to Vegas to play some blackjack and bet on a few games. It was a vacation destination and I set a strict loss limit. Now that betting is available everywhere I no longer partake.
Scott, thanks for an interesting article. It’s timely because my beloved Eagles won the Super Bowl last night. I did not place a bet, but I won $100 in a charity pool by having the correct score after the 1st quarter (my score was randomly chosen). The pool was run by a niece who is an elementary school teacher in southern NJ. Half the proceeds went to helping to fund a school trip for lower income students.
I wrote an article almost exactly 5 years ago that addressed some of the themes you discuss. In my article, I quoted a MarketWatch story that estimated that online sports betting would be a $7 to $8 Billion business by 2025. I tried to look up the actual value and found numbers like $12 B in 2023. I’ve attended several holiday parties in the last few months at which I felt like I was the only who didn’t have a bet on that weekend’s games.
The worst part of winning $100 is my wife asked me if was taxable income! I think I will donate to a good cause.
Rick,
As a Patriots fan I was rooting for the Eagles. I can’t believe I’m confessing to this in a public forum.
Thanks David. I haver lots of cousins in the Boston area and I had to suffer many years of them lording Patriots SB wins over us
Thanks Rick! Congratulations to your Eagles and your winnings. I would not be surprised if online sports betting wasn’t more than $12 billion today. I used to do “pick em” online for NFL game winners for no money years ago and I rarely was correct 50% of the time. I break out in a cold sweat and get nauseous whenever I walk into a casino which isn’t very often. I worked too hard for my money to just throw it away.
I know it’s a pipedream, but I wish all collegiate athletic programs would dump all the television money & ad revenue and revert to intramural competition. If baseball, basketball, and football need a player development program, let them create it and fund it themselves.