Today society is split in two when discussing professional athletes salaries. There are many who believe athletes are far overpaid while others feel as though athletes deserve the enormous amount of money they receive. There are many deciding factors to whichever side people decide to take, but before people can jump to conclusions perhaps they should first collect all the facts in which take account. .
When salaries first began to rise in American sports, the initial surge was paid largely from television rights money, which was a new and growing source of revenue. But salaries have risen so high and so rapidly that the TV money has been spent. Ticket prices have soared, accompanied by luxury boxes, club seating, and the Personal Seat Licenses that help pay for them. All to help the athletes receive their full sum of money. Although the big money in sports has turned everybody a little crazy, as for instance, with the flood of college freshman and sophomores and even high school players declaring themselves for the NBA draft eater to cash in right now. This year, 42 non-seniors declared, even though only 58 players will be picked in the two-round NBA draft. Too many very young men are getting huge sums of money before they have the faintest idea of how to handle it. If there is one thing we've learned in this big-money era in sports it's that making money isn't the same as keeping it. .
In the earlier eras, athletes used their playing careers as springboards for business success: Y.A. Tittle is still funning the Palo Alto insurance business that he started while playing for the 49ers in the late "50s. That kept athletes well grounded in their communities and its no coincidence that so many former 49ers are actively involved in an NFL Alumni group that does so much charity work. Now, the big money sets athletes apart from their fans and their communities and seduces them into thinking they are immune from societal restriction and problems, despite the too frequent examples of athletes who are bankrupt, in drug/alcohol rehabilitation programs or even in jail.
