Consider the pro position of the National College Players Association that paying college athletes is a civil rights issue. As professional sporting brings in a ridiculous amount of money in general, we should find a way to invest more in our female athletes and pay them the same as their male counterparts. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. 7, 2018, Steve Berkowitz, NCAA President Mark Emmert Credited with $2.7 Million in Total Pay for 2018 Calendar Year, usatoday.com, June 2, 2020, USA Today, NCAA Salaries, usatoday.com, Nov. 17, 2020, Ian McMahan, Athletes Are Paying the Physical Price of Playing College Sports, si.com, Oct. 31, 2017, Azmatullah Hussaini and Jules Lipoff, Op-Ed: COVID-19 Is Making the NCAAs Exploitation of Student-Athletes Even More Obvious, latimes.com, June 23, 2020, Meghan Walsh, 'I Trusted 'Em': When NCAA Schools Abandon Their Injured Athletes, theatlantic.com, May 1, 2013, Jon Solomon, The History Behind the Debate over Paying NCAA Athletes, aspeninstitute.org, Apr. But as recent lawsuits and even Twitter battles show, we still have a ways to go. player was $4.1million. They shouldn't have to become Maxim models to prove their worth. The whole system that allows professional athletes to just swim around in money is simply ridiculous, and it needs to stop. While I do understand that making it into the pros is not an easy thing to do, and thatit takes a tremendous number of hours of hard work and dedication every day to earn a job in professional sports, these people do nothing more than entertain the general public. @Aussie7s champs at Sao Paulo, awesome signs on #RoadToRio. The U.S. womens soccer teams games havegenerated more revenuethan the mens team over the past three years, according to a review by theWall Street Journal. (HISTORIC) See how different sides see the same key events in ongoing conflicts. [24], B. David Ridpath, EdD, Associate Professor of Sports Administration at Ohio University, noted, The only amateur quality about college athletics is that colleges refuse to pay their players. Ridpath explained, The United States is the only country in the world that has a significant portion of elite athletic development and commercialized sport embedded within its education systems. This supports the notion that some athletes get too caught up with how much they are earning and might begin to lose focus of why they wanted to play in the first place. World's top-ranked female tennis player Simona Halep's off-court earnings came in at $1.5m last year, dwarfed by Roger Federer, currently men's number two, who pocketed $58m. We'll have to wait and see what. A sergeant with six years of experience made $32,814. You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Being put through the kind. Considering athletes spend time commuting to training and competition, female athletes are at 200 per cent greater risk of injuring their neck if even a minor car accident happens. THAT'S IT! Those who need reminding that women generally get paid less than men for doing the same work got it on Tuesday. 2017 Perspective-Media LTD. All Rights Reserved, THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY. Plus, making it to the pros takes years of hard work. Top U.S. mens player: Andy Roddick, $2,187,719, Top U.S. mens player: John Isner, $411,414, Average of U.S. women in top 100: $1,484,559, Top U.S. womens player: Serena Williams, $4,266,011, Average of U.S. women in top 100: $307,343, Top U.S. womens player: Sofia Kenin, $3,012,043. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Does it make any sense that someone who throws a football for a living is paid more than 700 times as much as someone who helps save peoples lives, or that swinging a bat gets you nearly 650 times as much as educating kids? Men's sports receive vastly more media coverage, television licenses, and sponsorship deals, which contribute to higher revenue. Athletes are paid huge sums of money to play sports. That changed with a new community bargaining agreement, reached in January of 2020, which agreed to a 50-50 split and brought WNBA players in line with their male counterparts. However, the men still come out ahead internationally. In today's society, one should be paid according to the jobs economic importance and their value to society. Men earn 20 percent more than women on average, a difference that would require a female to work 10 more years to make up. *Does not include designated players or targeted allocation money. Push for the position and policies you support by writing US national senators and representatives. Firefighters are the next contributor to society. 1. 8, 2020, Steve Goldstein, Nine out of 10 New Jobs Are Going to Those with a College Degree, marketwatch.com, June 5, 2018, Gallup, A Study of NCAA Student-Athletes: Undergraduate Experiences and Post-College Outcomes, gallup.com, 2020, Greta Anderson, Study: College Athletes Have Better Academic, Life Outcomes, insiderhighered.com, June 24, 2020, Griffin Connolly, Wealth distribution is bad except when it comes to college athletes' money, top Republican senator suggests, theindependent.co.uk, Sep. 15, 2020, B. David Ridpath, A Path Forward for Reforming College Sports, jamesgmartin.center, Jan. 15, 2020, Molly Hensley-Clancy, NCAA Vows to Improve Conditions at Womens Basketball Tournament, as Outcry Continues, washingtonpost.com, Mar. When the WNBA players' union opted out of its collective bargaining agreement in November, Los Angeles Sparks star Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the union, wrote for The Players' Tribune: This is not purely about salaries. Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. are thriving at the highest levels, all higher percentages than their non-athlete peers. The rest of it gets spread out to the coach, who makes $8 million a year, to the assistant coaches, who make as much as a half-million dollars a year. Gender equity in tennis has been in the spotlight for decades, stretching back beyond Billie Jean Kings threat to boycott the 1973 U.S. Open. ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. The truth is, some professional athletes make huge salaries because millions of people are happy to pay money to see those players make the amazing catchesand breathtaking plays we love to watch. Men's sports generate higher revenue, so male athletes are paid higher salaries. If youre interested in learning more, you can visit Adelphis sport management info page and download a free brochure, or call 888.252.4110 to talk with one of their enrollment counselors. Both mens and womens basketball used the unusual circumstances to play with online options and enhance the at-home fan experience, and the WNBA saw its highest draft viewership in 16 years during the 2020 virtual draft. Therefore, they deserve to earn more. 4. do professional athletes deserve their inflated salaries? UNC athletes will be able to earn money for NIL marketing including UNC trademarks and logos in groups of three or more athletes. Is MMA any more dangerous than boxing or other contact sports? 1, 2021), Colin Dwyer, California Governor Signs Bill Allowing College Athletes to Profit from Endorsements, npr.org, Sep. 30, 2019, Rudy Hill and Jonatha D. Wohlwend, Florida Law Will Allow College Athletes to Profit from Name, Image, and Likeness Starting Summer 2021, June, 25, 2020, Ben Pickman, Colorado Governor Signs Bills Allowing NCAA Athletes to Profit Off Name, Likeness, si.com, Mar. And, as John I. Jenkins and Jack Swarbrick, President and Athletics Director of Notre Dame University argue, We have been vocal in our conviction that student-athletes should be allowed to profit from their celebrity for one simple reason: Other students are allowed to. While 2020 brought unexpected changes to both the NBA and the WNBA, with both leagues seasons affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CBA still remains. What do you think of U.S. Soccers pledge to equalize pay between its mens and womens national teams? More TV exposure for the players will lead to more visibility, and more visibility could lead to major deals with endorsers in the future. And athletes should as far as possible have the opportunities other students enjoy. [49], Governor of California Gavin Newsom, stated, Collegiate student athletes put everything on the line their physical health, future career prospects and years of their lives to compete. Take, What The Hell Are They Thinking? From these statistics, many would believe that women and men athletes should be equally paid because of an almost identical stat line that shows equivalent performance. Physical injury can leave professional athletes handicapped or disabled for the rest of their lives; NFL players who experiencemultiple concussionscansuffer from progressive degenerative diseasethat causes dementia and depression. At both the start and end of the decade, the top female player in the United States made more than the top male player. Thus, professional athletes salaries are a fair compensation for the countless time and energy they put into training and the huge health risksthey take, especially considering that their careers typically end around the age of 35. These players are apart from their families and have to stay in hotels and eat out at many places. Is this for the better? Tiger Woods, along with many other professional athletes, certainly think so. This leads to more wins and, in turn, more viewers, more merchandise sold and increased brand worth. [36], Amy Perko, CEO of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, said of the Gallup findings, Its a positive report for the educational benefits for college sports, and it reinforces the point that weve tried to make over the years. Sixty percent of those polled said that salaries should be paid to all athletes, and 38% said salaries should only be paid to athletes playing sports that bring in revenue. Lets take a closer look at the professional athlete salary statistics for three sports that have made headlines when it comes to the gap in professional pay: basketball, soccer and tennis. TM & 2021 Scholastic Inc. All Rights Reserved. Top athletes can do things that mere mortals can't. Most have paid a heavy personal cost to get there. We compare average salaries of male players vs female players across sports like basketball, soccer and tennis, and highlight some of the major steps forward in the pursuit for equal pay. A second-year All-Star can be paid just above minimum salary. ", ProCon.org. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 The most important thing here is that we are moving forward, and we are moving forward together.. [47], By Jan. 2022, without a clear NIL structure from the NCAA, some schools were questioning how to navigate deals for players or whole teams without violating NCAA policy. And ever since that 1984 decision, courts have been relying on that language to try to interpret antitrust law applies to all NCAA restrictions, including player compensation. [15], On June 21, 2021, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the NCAA cannot ban certain payments to student athletes under the premise of maintaining amateurism. Which of these groups do you think played a role in pushing U.S. Soccer to equalize pay? ], ProCon.org, "Paying College Athletes Top 3 Pros and Cons,", ProCon.org, "Paying College Athletes Top 3 Pros and Cons. In simpler terms, that means that despite currently being recognized as one of the biggest busts of all time, and even if he were to get injured tomorrow and never play again, he will still have $31 million in the bank. The WNBA generates roughly $25 million. And pros in less popular sports make even less than that. [20], College athletes, arguably the stars of the show who earn millions year after year for the well-paid NCAA executives, coaches, and staff, were forbidden by the NCAA from not only being paid for their work-, but from seeking other related compensation such as endorsement deals. While President Obama is hard at work reviving the economy, the unproven rookie in the MLB is earning way over that figure. Limits on Paying College Athletes, nytimes.com, Dec. 16, 2020, Dennis Dodd, Breaking Down the NCAA's Forthcoming Supreme Court Battle with Its Big Brother Status and Amateurism at Stake, cbssports.com, Feb. 3, 2021, NCAA, 2021 March Madness: Complete Schedule, Dates, ncaa.org (accessed Mar. Adelphi Universitys MS in Sport Management empowers students to pursue their unique passions and better support the sports they love. College athletes may also play a second sport professionally and be compensated, such as Clemson quarterback Kyle Parker who earned a $1.4 million baseball signing bonus from the Colorado Rockies in 2010 while still playing football for the Tigers. 3, 2021), National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Facts: Tuition Costs of Colleges and Universities, nces.gov, 2019, NCAA, Finances of Intercollegiate Athletics, ncaa.org (accessed Mar. Another argument is that women's national teams for sports like soccer have far more success than the men's national team. An NHL Blackhawks player earned over 124 million dollars in 13 years.Why should athletes get paid so much to play a game? The existence of world tournaments and professional leagues highlight the reason why female athletes should be paid less than their male counterparts. Managers, owners and other administrators can have direct input in how much players get paid. As women and girls continue to fight for equal opportunity in the workplace, the fields, arenas and courts have been, and will continue to be, no exception. The phenomenal Portuguese Ronaldo or the one-team man Lionel Messi? But the long fight that set key members of the womens team against their bosses at U.S. Soccer ended on Tuesday just as abruptly as it had begun, with a settlement that included a multimillion-dollar payment to the players and a promise by their federation to equalize pay between the mens and womens national teams. Their top-ranked masters is offered online and on campus, and its flexible curriculum allows students to take a general track or choose from specializations in sport marketing or collegiate athletic administration. The large amounts of money invested in professional sports in recent years has the potential to drain the true meaning from sports. 69 other head mens basketball coaches were paid more than $1 million annually, and another three more than $500,000. 81 other head football coaches made more than $1 million annually and another 29 more than $500,000. In 2019, FIFA proposed doubling the womens prize pool to $60 million in the 2023 World Cup, and announced that they would spend $1 billion on womens soccer over a period of four years. In my mind, absolutely not. Its hard to ignore the racist undertones when the financial benefit to these institutions is based on the unpaid work of young Black men. [22], The NCAA requires players to have health insurance but does not pay for that insurance and can refuse to pay medical expenses for sports injuries, some of which can have life-long consequences for the players bodies and career opportunities. Managing Editor [11], Additionally, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case (National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Shawne Alston, et al.) No Division II or III schools revenue exceeded expenses. Formula 1 favors global competition and advanced technology; NASCAR is all about personalities and fan accessibility. The bulk of that figure is back pay, a tacit admission that compensation for the mens and womens teams had been unequal for years. For the first time, the average salary reached six figures. This trend holds a significant effect on players salaries: It helps some athletes get oversized contracts (what doPatrick Mahomes teammates think about his $503M contract?) Access this article and hundreds more like it with a subscription to The New York TImes Upfrontmagazine. 31, 2021 as the NCAA March Madness tournament heads into Final Four games just days later on Apr. Major League Soccer played their first game in 1996, after the United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup. A second-year All-Star can be paid just above minimum salary. Obviously, what these individuals must not be aware of is the most important man in our nation, the president, who makes critical decisions that affect the entire world every day, only makes $400,000 a year. In 2019, little had changed: soccer star Lionel Messi made 125% more than tennis star Serena Williams. Sport Management Blog: Olivia Franks 4 Tips for Success, Male vs Female Professional Sports Salary Comparison, 2010 Mens World Cup: $420 million, $30 million winners share, 2011 Womens World Cup: $5.8 million, $1 millions winners share, 2018 Mens World Cup: $400 million, $38 million, 2019 Womens World Cup: $30 million, $4 million winners share. Women were. 3, 2021), John Thelin, Paying College Athletes, insidehighered.com, Feb. 12, 2018, NCAA, Estimated Probability of Competing in Professional Athletics, ncaa.org, Apr. That gap is narrowing slightly, however. However, in 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Fair Play Act that allows college athletes to hire agents, sign endorsement deals, and be paid for the use of their likeness. If so, how? But do these athletes really deserve all that money? There is still quite a ways to go to close this gap, but the NWSL is making changes to offer more competitive compensation. College athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympic Games and be financially compensated, such as Joseph Schooling, a University of Texas swimmer, who earned a $740,000 bonus for winning Singapores first gold medal ever at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games for the 100m butterfly. Perhaps more notable is U.S. Soccers pledge to equalize pay between the mens and womens national teams in all competitions, including the World Cup, in the teams next collective bargaining agreements. Lower salaries wouldnt necessarily lead to lower ticket and hot dog prices for fans who go to the games. That adds up to about $400,000 a year. Considering other scholarships and aid are widely available and not all college athletes require financial aid, the NCAA scholarships are generous. The National Basketball Association (N.B.A. Rent-Sharing in Modern College Sports, nber.org, Oct. 2020, Tommy Beer, NCAA Athletes Could Make $2 Million A Year If Paid Equitably, Study Suggests, forbes.com, Sep. 1, 2020, NCPA, Study: "The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sport" - 9/13/2011, ncpanow.org, Sep. 13, 2011, Mary Kate McCoy, Survey: Nearly a Quarter of Division I Athletes Face Food Insecurity, wpr.org, May 6, 2020, NCAA, Scholarships, ncaa.org (accessed Mar. of footballs highest-paid players, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, just signed a four-year contract for $134 million. Each league and sports organization has its own structure of compensation and benefits. Furthermore, police officers, firefighters, and doctors save lives while risking their own for a fraction of what sports stars make. U.S. Soccer and Womens Players Agree to Settle Equal Pay Lawsuit, ice hockey Olympic gold medalists, Canadian soccer pros and W.N.B.A. 3. Stacy Revere/Getty Images (Aaron Rodgers); Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images (Mike Trout); Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images (Stephen Curry), Big earners: Aaron Rodgers, Mike Trout, and Stephen Curry. Some of it comes from fans who shell out big bucks for costly game tickets and hugely overpriced snacks at stadiums and arenas, and for hoodies and hats with their favorite teams logo. The lowest-paid N.F.L., M.L.B., and N.B.A. Besides, not all athletes make millions of dollars. Should the college athletics system be revised in another way to compensate amateur athletes? To learn more about Adelphi Universitys Online Programs download a brochure, fill out the fields below or call us at 888.252.4110 to talk with one of our enrollment counselors. Opponents to equal pay for women cite a variety of reasons why male athletes are paid more than women, including viewership, play style, strength, revenue and more. What puzzles me even more, is how after holding out for weeks, and sometimes months, the owners give in and pay them what they don't deserve. NBA players receive about 50% of the leagues revenues. Up until 2020, the WNBA received 20% of their leagues revenues. As of June 10, 2021, 18 states have passed NIL laws; five more states have passed bills that were awaiting the governors signature to become law; 14 states have introduced NIL bills; and one state has a bill passed by the Senate and awaiting a House vote, according to the Business of College Sports. This pay gap creates unnecessary tensions within sport teams and is unfair to teammates who sacrifice just as much but for less money. In 2010, golfer Tiger Woods made 124% more than tennis player Maria Sharapova. Since then, the womens team has won four FIFA Womens World Cup titles. Feldman explained, That was a shape-shifting decision that in many ways fundamentally changed economics of college football and college football television. 2018: Twenty-eight USWNT players joined a wage-discrimiation class-action suit against U.S. Soccer. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: What is your reaction to the settlement? In 2019, the average annual income for a US household was $96,955while the average income of a professional baseball player in the major leagues was around $4.7 million. Why do athletes deserve high salaries? The odds are even lower for womens basketball at 0.6%. The Bottom Line: While it seems like theres no way to stop such inflated salaries of professional athletes, the repercussions could cause long-term damage to professional sports. FRED BOWEN Washington Post sportswriter and author Bloomberg News recently touted soccer as the future of sports in America, and soccer fandom has clearly grown within the United States. Of the 73,712 NCAA football players, about 16,380 are draft-eligible and 254 will be drafted, meaning about 1.2% of college football players will go pro. Next, some MLB players will earn more in one game than the average American household makes in 10 years. Outside the majors, the average earnings of U.S. women ranked by the Womens Tennis Association were higher than the U.S. men in the Association of Tennis Professionals. Think about Jamarcus Russel, the former No. By far the most ubiquitous solution is paying college athletes. Soccer is the most popular sport everywhere but in the US. But one of the biggest moves was the WNBAs 2020 community bargaining agreement. Women athletes work just as hard as men. Last spring the Sports and Society Initiative (SSI) at the Ohio State University (OSU) held a popular panel discussion on pay-to-play in college sports. So let's take a look at the reasons why professional female athletes don't deserve equal pay. Do you feel that female athletes in your community are treated equally to male athletes? The pay disparity in professional soccer exists at an international level as well. [25] [26], If college players earned about 50% of their teams revenues like the NFL and NBA players do, the average football players yearly salary would be $360,000 and the average basketball players yearly salary would be $500,000. Group licensing deals in theory can allow lesser-known players to reap the benefits of appearing alongside a well-known player. Athletes are paid huge sums of money to play sports. Was this the outcome you expected? The NCAA also does not prohibit schools from canceling injured athletes scholarships, leaving athletes without a sport or education. Of the 18,816 male basketball players, 4,181 are draft-eligible and 60 will be drafted, but only 52 will go pro, or a 1.2% chance a college basketball player will play professionally.