Actually, TV revenues have been up and down. Paraphernalia sales are up but attendance is fairly static. Baseball, in particular, has struggled to shake off the effects of disastrous strikes. Pro sports heroes are terrific role models. This, in conjunction with astronomical salaries, is probably the main reason for popular disenchantment with pro sports.
Pro sports helps amateur athletics.
Actually, the college game has now been reduced to an increasingly tawdry factory-farm system for the pros. The players deserve all the money they make. After all, they generate sales. Actually, the economic activity is state-sponsored and heavily subsidized. The players are now, in a sense, privileged government workers who can't be fired unless they kill someone in front of at least 5 witnesses.