Essay #1 Revision

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 and receive less criticism than pro athletes. Although many media critics believe that pro athletes are grossly overpaid; they are not justified in their reasoning because of the multi billion dollar TV contracts, endorsements and sponsorships, and 24 hour media coverage that feel otherwise.
Sponsorships and endorsements are a large reason for high paychecks for athletes. It helps individual sport athletes more than it does athletes on team sports. For the individual players, endorsements are the bulk of their income. Tiger Woods for example, made $12 million in winnings, and another $75 million in endorsements. Other sports like tennis and auto racing also rely on sponsorships because these athletes don’t know when their next winners check will come; there revenue flow is not as stable as team-sport athletes with guaranteed contracts. If an individual athlete consistently finishes in the lower half of the field in his or her event, they are not going to survive in the industry very long. Sponsorships that can be seen on cars, or what type of clothes any athlete wear can keep them in the game for an extended period of time. These sponsorships and endorsements are not set in stone, and are not life time guaranteed. If the sponsoring company feels the athlete is underperforming, or not representing the company the right way, the company has the authority to pull the athlete from the sponsorship. A prime example recently is Michael Vick, a NFL superstar quarterback who was recently arrested and convicted of running a dog fighting ring. After this horrible news hit the public and his various sponsorships, he lost endorsements with Nike, Rawlings, Sprite, and many others. Vick quickly lost millions of dollars overnight.
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 or Entertainment Sports Programming Network started the 24 hour sports boom. ESPN was the first all sports network; and now there are quite a few all sport channels. It covers the widest variety of sports, which helps smaller sports come to the national forefront; such as the poker phenomenon recently. A person can be caught up with the day in sports by watching an ESPN type channel 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. Profit sharing is a common practice in the pro sports world. All the teams in a given league, pool together all the money made on TV contracts, ticket revenue, etc., and then a percentage of that revenue is divided among all the other members of the league. It is a way to keep pro sports competitive, and still allow teams make good money. This allows the owners and general managers to pay players a higher amount of money, than if the team was on its own to make money.
Professional athletes should get paid the amount they do because as long as people are willing to support for it, there should be no reason to stop it. 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. Many factors have contributed to this phenomenon; endorsements and sponsorships, 24 media coverage, and billion dollar TV contracts. There is the old adage, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” This phrase wrings true in the case of pro sports contracts. Despite what critics might say, pro athletes provide a form of entertainment, that millions of people watch, and should therefore be paid accordingly.