Friday, October 12, 2007

Position Essay

Professional Sports Contracts:
Pro sports today are a growing form of entertainment, and therefore the athletes should get paid accordingly, just like Hollywood movie stars. Movies stars also provide a form of entertainment, and get paid quite well for it. Although many media critics believe that pro athletes make to much money, they are not justified in their reasoning because of the multi billion dollar TV contracts, endorsements and sponsorships, and 24 hour media coverage.
Sponsorships and endorsements are a large reason for high paychecks for athletes. It helps individual sport athletes more than athletes on team sports. For the individual players, the endorsements are the bulk of their income. Tiger Woods for example made $12 million in winnings and $75 million in endorsements. Other sports like tennis and auto racing also rely on sponsorships because they don’t know when their next payday is going to come. If you consistently finish in the lower half of the field, you are not going to survive in the industry very long. Sponsorships that can be seen on cars or what type of clothes you where can keep you in the game for an extended period of time.
The expanding media coverage of pro sports can be directly correlated with the rise in player salaries. The three major channels (NBC, CBS, ABC) have invested billions of dollars in various sports, ranging from golf to baseball to hockey. Cable TV is another big reason for the media coverage. ESPN is a huge reason why. ESPN was the first all sports network. It covers the widest variety of sports, which helps smaller sports come to the national forefront. A person can be caught up with the day in sports by watching it for as little as 5 minutes.
TV contracts tie in with pro sports contracts because the larger the TV contract, the more money and owner will receive from the league, using a system called profit sharing. This allows the owners and general managers to pay players a higher amount of money.
Professional athletes should get paid the amount they do because as long as people are willing to support for it, why not? The media gets on their case for making too much money; however if you turned it around and the media received the same amount there would be no complaints. Athletes are just another target of jealous citizens who instead of doing something constructive; complain about the successful. Some people just seem to have enough time on their hands to attack anything they don’t like, and that is quite saddening.
Overall, pro contracts are on the rise. Despite what the critics think, they will probably continue to do so, because of both the hardcore fans support thru attendance and also the unknowingly supportive fan who might not attend the games, but support pro sports by purchasing advertised items and watching TV on a daily basis.

1 comment:

M said...

WORKSHOP

Thesis:

1. Restate the thesis in your own words. If the thesis is a question and not an assertion, make it an assertion. Make sure the words “although” and "because" are in it.

Although critics argue that professional athletes make too much money, athletes earn a lot of money because of the media from endorsements, sponsorships, and twenty-four hour media coverage.

I am sorry if my restated thesis is wrong but I had a very hard time understanding the thesis and how it ties into the overall point this essay.

2. Does the thesis argue a link between a cause(s) and effect(s)? Is it at the end of the first paragraph?

The only cause and effect relationships that I found were that since professional athletes make so much money this causes people in the media to criticize them and think they get paid too much.
Or another relationship could be that since professional athletes are under twenty-four hour media attention this causes them to get endorsements and sponsorships, therefore causing them to earn a large salary.
The cause and effect relationship was not very clear.

3. List the cause(s).

Members of the media believe that professional athletes make too much money.
Professional athletics is under twenty-four hour media coverage on television.

4. List the effect(s).

Professional athletes make very large salaries from sponsorships and product endorsements

Audience:

Who is the author's audience? Will the audience already agree with the author, or is the author writing to the opposition? How can you tell? Give specific examples.

The author is writing to his opposition. In this essay he explains why professional athletes get paid as much as they do and goes on to argue that professional athletes deserve the pay that they receive. The opening sentence argues this point by saying, “Pro sports today are a growing form of entertainment, and therefore the athletes should get paid accordingly, just like Hollywood movie stars” In the third paragraph of this essay the author further explains this by arguing, “The media gets on their case for making too much money; however if you turned it around and the media received the same amount there would be no complaints. Athletes are just another target of jealous citizens who instead of doing something constructive; complain about the successful. Some people just seem to have enough time on their hands to attack anything they don’t like, and that is quite saddening.”


Counterargument:

List the counterarguments (arguments of the author’s oppositions) used in the paper (there should be at least three). Does the author adequately address these arguments? Do you think there are other arguments that could be addressed? Do you see any logical fallacies?

1. Professional athletes get paid too much money.



2. “Media Critics” are justified in believing that professional athletes make too much money.



3. . I am sorry but I have a hard time finding any other counter arguments because I do not fully understand the author’s arguments.



Title: Professional Sports Contracts

Does the paper have an interesting title? If not, help author come up with one.

If the reader is interested in sports and/or sport’s contracts they will find this title to be intriguing. If they reader is not interested in sports a title like, “Professional Athletics, Their Giant Paychecks, and the Media.” would be intriguing.


Introduction:

Is there a catchy lead sentence? What is it? If there isn't one, what would you suggest?

The lead sentence of this essay is, “Pro sports today are a growing form of entertainment, and therefore the athletes should get paid accordingly, just like Hollywood movie stars.”
I found the argument in this sentence interesting.


Conclusion:

How does the author conclude the paper? What do you think of it?

The author’s conclusion of this essay is that “pro contacts are on the rise. Despite what critics think”
I do not think the conclusion concludes what was being addressed in the first paragraph.

Flow/Transitions:

Does each paragraph expand upon the thesis? Do the paragraphs flow? Which paragraphs have bumpy transitions?

Generally the paragraphs flow together except for the fourth paragraph which does not transition smoothly.