Austin Cheda

Journalism 

Do professional athletes get paid too much money? If “no”, what justifies their sky high salaries? Should what sport they play determine how much money they get paid? Should their performance determine their earnings?

Some people think that athletes get paid too much money. They think that athletes should have a limit on how much they get paid. Some people believe that the money should go to something different and better, like a charity or something. Other people have said that they thought that teachers who work really hard at their jobs should be the ones that get paid more money. They help teach the next generations of Americans and work hard at their jobs. I think that athletes should get paid less money then they currently are getting paid. Some athletes have outrageous salaries for what sport they play. Others have high salaries that don’t help out their team to their full potential.  

            The interview that I did had various outcomes to the questions about athletes getting too much money. The answer to the questions were both pretty much the same with the answers. Their were more yes answers than no answers though. Some people didn't think that athletes are paid too much. But some people thought that they were and that they should have a lower salary. The people that said no thought that the sports with the bigger fan bases should get more pay. They also said that the amount of money they generate from jerseys and other merchandise should help justify their sky high salaries. People also said that their immense amount of skill’s and swag make them able to get paid a lot of money. Some other person also said that, if athletes get paid too much, then we would also have to say that musicians make too much money. The people that said yes had different solutions to athletes getting paid too much money. They said that athletes should get paid depending on how good their performance has been for the sport that they play. Some also said that the money that goes to athletes could help America with its debt. As well as helping to feed children that are facing poverty. Someone else also brought up that they thought athletes should just endorse in some shoe, or jersey company and make some money from that.

            I think that athletes should get paid less than they are currently getting paid. I think this because there are so many athletes that are really good, but have these really high paying salaries. I know that they work really hard to get were they are today and it’s not easy to get there. But I think that there should be a cap on how much money they can get. I think that having this cap would make it better and fairer for other players as well. There are a lot of athletes that get paid more than other ones do because they are more popular than others. I think that if every one was paid more fairly then there wouldn't be as many fights on what team has more money to buy that player. There would also be more money for teams to pay for other things besides their players. For example, if their stadium needs to have work done to it. They could pay for that without having to worry if they have enough money. They could also be able to redo parts of the stadium if they wanted to and make them more modern. Another way that sports organizations could spend some of their extra money on could be a charity or something. If they had a little extra money, they could donate to some charity and help out. There are many different ways that sports teams and organizations could benefit from paying their athletes less money.