Professional Athletes Are Overpaid

I must disagree on what pro feels is my main point. I did make a point that there is a much smaller amount of athletes in MLB compared to teachers. However, the main point that I made is that MLB is generates billion dollars a year in revenue and the compensation that players earn is in direct correlation to that fact. MLB players earn as much as they do as there are a limited amount of people that are able to perform at a level that qualifies them as professional baseball players and the owners are more than willing to pay as the owners are profiting substantially. It is justified that pay athletes at the level they are compensated at as the owners have the money to pay them for their services. The owners have the money to spend on the services of the players as it is the fans that make it all possible. It is true that baseball and sports in general is for entertainment purposes but this is no different than the movie star who earns $20,000,000 per movie or amusement parks the generates $976,000,000 in revenue. (. http://investors.sixflags.com...=). Even if these players were paid $150,000 annually it would simply mean that the owners of the team and the league would make more money. Regardless of what the players are earning, the teams themselves would earn additional millions upon the millions of dollars per year that are currently being earned. The players earning what they do equates to large sums of tax dollars which can indeed can be used to find new energy sources of fund health care. However, the burden is not on baseball players but the government of the United States. The players are employees of private businesses not government officials. I never attacked nor refuted pro's definition of "overpaid" which he defined as "Making a certain amount of money which exceeds how much you need for basic living cost" i. e Food, shelter, and clothing, and minimal entertainment" as he never stated what the certain amount of money is. However, he did state that $750,000 per year is more than enough for 7 families to live off of. With that being said, it appears that my opponent's definition of overpaid averages to anyone who has a family that earns over $107,000 per year. According to the census bureau, 21.8% of families make over $100,000 per year. Does this mean that all of those families are overpaid or only those who worked in the entertainment industry? Alternates and bench players are integral parts of a team and do more than just sit on a bench. These players practice just as hard as the starters and stars and are often called on during key situations of a game. Additionally many of these players start when starting players are given a day off. These players are taxed just like any other worker and are contributing to the economy. It appears that my opponent has more issue with the owners of the teams than the players. My opponent made a comparison to teachers so I will do the same by showing how economics would affect the teaching profession if structured like MLB. There are 30 cities in which children may be educated. Each city consist of 25 teachers and there are anywhere between 35,000 to 55,000 open seats for each child in each city at a facility which is privately owned. Additionally, all teaching will be conducted over the course of 81 dates in the city. Each facility is privately owned and each seat sells at an average of $25. As education is important each facility in each city completely sells out for all dates. Using an average of 40,000 tickets sold over 81 dates total revenue generated is $81,000,000, for the education season. Of course, teachers like Mr. Johnson are more skilled and consistently outperforms his colleagues so he is the highest paid at $10,000,000 per year. After all, there are only 750 teachers in the U. S. A. and he is the best at what he does. He is the face of education and his online seminars and education CD's generates additional millions per year for the facility owner. In closing I would like to summarize my position that athlete are not overpaid. First, there are a limited amount of people who have the skill set necessary. Second, billions of dollars in revenue are generated by the sport. Third, the players earn millions as it is the fans that are paying for their salaries. Last, if you look at the economic behind the salaries and the law of supply and demand you will see that not only are players not overpaid but are earning what they are entitled to earn.