It’s no secret that professional athletes make a lot of money. According to comparably.com, the average professional athlete makes just under 100,000 dollars a year. However, being a professional athlete doesn’t mean you’re in the National Basketball Association (NBA) or the National Football League (NFL), it just means you get paid to play a sport. Therefore, the average salary includes all minor league teams and any team paying their players, no matter the size of the league.
Because of these high prices, running a professional sports team takes a lot of funds. Smaller league teams may bring in these necessary funds through merchandise and ticket sales. As for major teams, much of the same is true. Bigger teams can also bring in money from TV broadcasting, sponsorships and concessions as well. With these additional outlets, more popular teams are bringing in more cash. Being more popular doesn’t necessarily mean better performance, either. Teams based in large cities with loyal fan bases will still make millions despite a losing record. On the other hand, very talented teams that win a lot of games can end up not making as much because of their small fan bases.
Take the Major League Baseball (MLB) program, for example. Last year the three highest-paid teams were the New York Mets, New York Yankees and the San Diego Padres. Of these three teams, none of them made the playoffs; however, the second-to-last paid team, the Baltimore Orioles, made it to the postseason.
This trend continues into the NBA, where the Indiana Pacers currently have the lowest salary cap in the NBA, but currently hold a playoff spot. Whereas, the Golden State Warriors have the highest salary cap and currently have a losing season and no playoff spot.
Without fail, this same pattern shows up in the NFL. The Cincinnati Bengals have one of the highest salary caps in football, but they missed the playoffs this season. This might have been due to major injuries, but the same pattern continues with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have the third-highest active payroll, and they also missed the playoffs. Can not blame that one on injuries!
This whole situation boils down to whether or not teams are overpaying for mediocre players. Teams like the Phoenix Suns put a lot of money into building a really strong core of players, or so it seemed, just for them to have a one-game over .500 season at the time of writing. Similarly, the Golden State Warriors are paying Chris Paul almost $30 million a year just for him to average nine points a game. Not to mention they also pay Draymond Green $25 million a year, despite him playing in only about a third of games this season. Outside of basketball, Austin Ekeler of the Los Angeles Chargers gets paid $6 million a year, according to spotrac.com. Meanwhile, Ekeler puts up about 30 receiving yards a night. The league average is almost double Ekeler’s 30 yards per outing.
With all the money that professional teams rake in, it’s hard not to spend it all in one place. It may be a good idea for teams to start saving up for some players who will really help their teams rather than blowing it on players who will put up below-average numbers for above-average prices. Sometimes, teams don’t always get what they pay for.