I’d like to open up the following for debate – Athletes and coaches are paid too much money.
It’s being reported that Nick Saban’s contract will pay him roughly $7 million per year until 2020. That same article says Bill Belichick makes $7.5 million a year. Athletes can make more than $10 million per year, plus endorsements.
Have you ever noticed that sports, along with Hollywood, never takes a hit when the economy is in a recession or downturn? Most of us don’t get an annual raise, yet someone like Saban gets a roughly $2 million raise in just over a year? In 2007, he was being paid $4 million …. to coach a football team. In six years, he’s nearly doubled his pay.
Look, I love sports as much as the next guy – well, unless that guy is painting his face and wearing a jersey to the game – but since I’ve lived in Charlotte (for the last eight years), I’ve been to one Panthers game. Why? I can’t afford the tickets. A decent seat goes for roughly $70 – and you’ll likely be sitting two rows from God. Alabama’s average ticket price this season was $178 – and those athletes don’t even get paid! (I’m only using Alabama as a recent example because of Saban’s raise, not because Auburn beat them in the Iron Bowl… War Eagle!)
If salaries weren’t so high, ticket prices wouldn’t be so high. But yet as salaries go up, so does the cost to put your ass in the seat. Clearly it’s not a problem for everyone because the Panthers’ stadium is packed on a weekly basis.
How did these numbers get to be so out of control? Some people say it’s because the average “shelf-life” for an athlete is short, but I’d argue that if they got a college degree and didn’t bail out early, they’d have a career to fall back on.
Are athletes and coaches really worth $7 million, $10 million or more per year?
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2013.
The coaches and athletes are paid what the market bears. It’s easy to say that Saban’s 7 million dollar salary is a prime example of our society’s misplaced values, but in their business, there are very few Sabans. Its not like Alabama could bring in some offensive coordinator from Podunk U.,pay him a hundred grand a year, and expect to grind out eleven or twelve wins a season and compete for the national championship.