General Forum

"The minimum salary rises from $507,500 to $535,000 next year, then to $545,000 in 2018 and $555,000 in 2019, with cost-of-living increases the following two years"                 I guess the cost of cards will continue to soar as well.     The thing that amazes me is that  these guys need a cost of living adjustment every year after hitting the poverty level of $555,000.            Oh, and they get meal money to boot.

Wow! I should have worked harder at hanging in there on curve balls, or switched to throwing left-handed.

Yes, I still think teachers and laborers should be making the bucks, not atheletes. As much as I enjoy sports, those huge salaries turn me off.

LOL I thought this was going to be a hockey thread, forgot that the MLB and union agreed. How about the NHL trying to blackmail the union by offering Olympic participation for three(?) year extension of their CBA. Ridiculous, let the boys play for thier country. The World Cup SUCKS!!! Just sayin. =)

Most athletes have short careers. The average NBA career is only 8 years, they have to try and make enough money to last them the rest of their lives in most cases before they hit thirty. I don't have a problem with them getting a lot of money because they have such a short window. I don't know the average length of career for baseball, football and hockey, but it's probably not all that much different I would guess.

I wish they would share some of it with me though...we can't even afford to get our Jeep fixed, it hasn't moved since October 2015.

  I hear a few years back  that the average NFL career was around 3.9 years.   But as in all sports, this includes the guy who came up for a cup of coffee and really didn't have what we would call a "career".   But also  they have pension plans, baseball has the best.   Of course you have to put some years to get a pension but still better than a regular has a chance for.

Um, average baseball career is 5.6 years. At half a million per year, that's 28 years at a salary of $100,000 per year. Or, of course, 56 years at a salary of $50,000. My sympathies are limited. 

But im glad they've worked it out. 

I wonder what year parking will hit $100 for the first time. I'm surprised stadium restrooms are still free. Do mascots have a union?

I was going to put in that NFL is about 4 years and MLB is about 6 years, but that's been posted already. I have no idea about NHL, but I'd put it closer to NFL careers due to increased contact. NBA is longer b/c the main health problem that cuts careers short are the knees. What people miss about MLB is how many players spend a decade in the minors making less than $10K per season. In ANY sport at ANY level, it's mostly about how much teams can bring in with tickets, concessions and memorabilia that decides how much they can pay everyone involved with the team and stadium.

I worked for my local MiLB team for one season several years ago and everyone that isn't on the field or in the dugout gets paid minimum wage. No adult could live off that money alone b/c you never get 40 hours per week and might not work at all for over a week when there is a long road-trip. Plus, the season is only 3.5 months long. I did it just for the experience b/c I did have another job that paid the bills. It was a fun job to do, especially when I was an Usher. You tell people where their seats are before and during the early part of the game and then you watch the game like everyone else (except that you are standing the whole time). Selling goods at a ballpark sucks b/c you can't see the game and if you are working with cooked food, it gets REALLY hot - especially in the middle of summer! It also sucks if you are in the ticket booth. You only work for about 2 hours that day/night and then you go home or stay for the game off-the-clock. At major league venues, I'm sure the pay is much better though.

With the salaries of athletes today, I really wish I'd spent more time on fields and in weight-rooms when I was in middle/high school. I wouldn't have made the money they make now b/c I would definitely be retired by now, but I would have had a nice career (barring serious injury) and a lot more money! :)

Yes, I do thnk that the salaries pro-sports players make is ridiculous when you consider all those who can't earn enough to live comfortably.  But its the same in all entertainment fields.  How much do actors make for one movie?  But for as long as we (the fans) are willing ot pay the prices of tickets and merchandise, we should not be complaining.  If no one went to movies or games for a couple of months, things would begin to reverse direction.

Having said that, I do not envy them for their lives.  A ball player begins his season in Florida (or Arizona/New Mexico) in mid-February and then is on the road till end of September (or longer).  Even if he moves his family to his team's city, he is still gone half of the time.  They don't have 5-day work weeks and playing ball is not just showing up at the diamond 30 minutes before the start of the game and then going home after a couple of beers with the guys.  Worse for the family life, they often get no warning that they are having to move, possibly from one end of the continent to the other because they have been traded.

I think we could go on and on about the pros and cons of pro-sports lives; yes the money is great but I really think that most of us would hate the constant traveling life, living out of a suitcase in a hotel room, and talking ott he kids on the phone so that they know you exist.  For as much as most love playing the game, Ryne Sandberg really revealed the love-hate relationship to the game when he left the game no where near the end of his playing ability because he wanted to know his kids when they were growing up.  He came back to the game after a couple of years because he loved playing but also knew the true cost.