"Making fun of leaf fans is like booing at the special olympics"
Phoenix, AZ • United States • 43 Years Old • Male
Player Salaries- Greed vs. Worth
Posted 12:17 AM ET | Comments 5
In todays NHL, it is sometimes questionable if players are being greatley overpaid. I surely hope I'm not alone in beliving that any player is worth the money they are making. For example, Tomas Vanek's salary incresed by an astonishing 1061%, from $942,400 to a vastly inflated $10,000,000.
This seasons top paid players will be- D.Briere($10 mil.)
T.Vanek($10 mil.)
S.Gomez($10 mil.)
S.Crosby($8.7 mil)
K.Timonen($8 mil.)
(a total of 16 players are being paid more than $7 mil,34 over $6 mil.,and 58 over 5 mil.)
Consider the fact that $3.6 million a year is more than enough to support themselves and their families, with more than enough for personal enjoyment. By this logic, 101 players are being over paid.
The other side of the argument is that players have to be well represented, and will not sell themselves short. If these players were to acept the "proper" salary I outlined, than team like Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit would be stacked, and smaller, less desirerable markets such as anaheim, atlanta, and tampa would be unable to compete. therefore, it is benifitial to accept these grossly inflated salaries.
another argument is that if ALL players where to accept these salaries, more revenue would go towards the league and teams, the salarie cap could be greatly reduced, and again, the league as a whole would benifit.
So, are the players greedy, charitable, or is this an uncontrollable situation?
This seasons top paid players will be- D.Briere($10 mil.)
T.Vanek($10 mil.)
S.Gomez($10 mil.)
S.Crosby($8.7 mil)
K.Timonen($8 mil.)
(a total of 16 players are being paid more than $7 mil,34 over $6 mil.,and 58 over 5 mil.)
Consider the fact that $3.6 million a year is more than enough to support themselves and their families, with more than enough for personal enjoyment. By this logic, 101 players are being over paid.
The other side of the argument is that players have to be well represented, and will not sell themselves short. If these players were to acept the "proper" salary I outlined, than team like Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit would be stacked, and smaller, less desirerable markets such as anaheim, atlanta, and tampa would be unable to compete. therefore, it is benifitial to accept these grossly inflated salaries.
another argument is that if ALL players where to accept these salaries, more revenue would go towards the league and teams, the salarie cap could be greatly reduced, and again, the league as a whole would benifit.
So, are the players greedy, charitable, or is this an uncontrollable situation?
I dont think its the players' fault that the salaries have gone so high. More of the blame would have to fall on the agents, and the business side of things. Remember, Vanek would have signed for less, but his agent was adamant to go for the big one. Also, it isn't just a hockey problem....just look at other pro sports. they are just as out of line.so it's not the players being greedy, i'm sure they'd play for less, it's just the nature of the beast. and with so much money going around, it's going to be tough to ever reverse.
i dont really think anyone is to blame...now. before the lockout anyone could pay anything they could afford. now its different. the big spenders can lay out for huge contracts, but they may pay a price in depth. cheaper teams are required to pay at least the minimum so they cant totally tank a team. in the end the teams that can scout and develop talent have an advantage. and besides wouldnt we all take that 1000% plus raise.
Regardless of who is to blame...the players, the agents, the owners, the media...the only group allowing salaries to escalate are the fans. While the league and the teams make some money from TV and advertising, if fans weren't willing to continue paying more every year for tickets, the teams couldn't afford to keep increasing salaries. Until fans in every professional sport get fed up with athletes making ungodly sums of money, and stop paying for the tickets, there's no end in sight. (And just so no one thinks I'm being hypocritical, I have baseball and hockey season tickets. I'm not advocating for it, just pointing it out.)
It has nothing to do with hockey. This is common in pro sports and it has everything to do with insuring themselves for life in case of careers that get cut short by job-induced injuries. Athletes MAY only work/play for a few seasons. So if they only play for 450k for a few years and get hurt, they really have very few transferable skills to another profession to earn anything close to their NHL salary. This happens all the time. When a player can get a 4 year, $10M deal, they jump at it. That would be the equavalent of being a doctor that makes $300k per year and works for 30 years. A hockey player may work some odd jobs or attend some memorabilia shows to get the bills paid, but very few go back to school and start all over again and retrain into another profession. Some do and have great 2nd careers. And RC is right. The marketplace sets the salary. If nobody bought merchandise and nobody bought tickets, the teams and NHL woudl have decreasing salaries and the CBA would have a lower cap. As long as we keep paying the price (supply vs demand), the salaries, ticket prices, TV pay packages, merchandise, and venue food and drink will go up. You want to change it, watch the game on TV and don't buy anything else NHL related. I would prefer you do this first to all other sports before you cut hockey cold turkey though. IMO.
I despise agents. They are useless and solely operate from self interest. I understand that sports are a business, but it's just shameful.