The big bucks are from television revenues and the advertisers pay that. Let the beer companies and automobile companies complain. Advertising can lower prices just as easily as it can raise them. The cost of producing most goods varies with how many units are produced. If General Motors produced just one Chevrolet, it would probably cost more than a Cadillac.
Mass production brings down the price and mass advertising makes mass production possible.
Life is not a zero-sum game, especially not economic life, otherwise we would all still be living in caves. Large salaries are spread out over millions of customers, if not in the basketball arena, then in the television audiences. If Michael Jordan played for free, it is doubtful whether a ticket to the game or an automobile that sponsors it on TV would be a dollar cheaper. But let's say it would be. Right and wrong do not depend on how many zeroes there are after the dollar sign.