Inequality Between Sports and Society Sports play a very important role in the lives of people and society itself. People, cities, countries all cheer and rejoice when their team wins a championship or cry and weep when their team looses in the final of a big tournament. Athletes get very well compensated for their efforts when playing for their football, basketball, soccer teams or any other sports. But is it wrong for someone to want to make more money and live comfortably? What one football player makes in one year in income, some construction worker will work all his life and never get close to achieving that sort of money. “Tiger Woods is still the highest-paid athlete in the world–and it isn’t even a close call. Woods earned $75 million over the past 12 months, easily outdistancing second-ranked Kobe Bryant, who made $53 million”(Forbes). Many people think that athletes are well over paid. Those athletes are just entertainers and not anything outside of this world to be able to make that kind of money. Yes, athletes put their health, physically and mentally, on the line every time they go onto the field for a game but is it fair to an everyday member of society like a police officer that only makes $42,000 a year. Some people do think that the millions athletes earn is acceptable. The feeling that the Packers gave the city of Green Bay last year or the feeling that the Bruins gave the city of Boston last year was priceless. Sports has gone to new level over the past 20 years, it has gone from playing for fun and the love of ones city or country, to just wanting to make more money. On the other hand, society is the cause of these outrages salaries and endorsement contracts that athletes get. “The 2010 World Cup Final set a new record for the most watched soccer game in U.S. history Sunday when 24.3 million people watched the Spain versus Netherlands game on ABC and Univision, according to Nielsen”(Epltalk). When so many people watch these sporting events, it is obvious that that teams are going to want to bring top quality athletes to their teams. The better athletes the teams bring the better teams are, teams have a greater chance of winning championships and selling more tickets and jerseys. Society puts these athletes on pedestals, treats them as heroes, gods and if they treat them as gods then they are going to have to pay them as so. Athletes are just taking advantage of the opportunities that are out there for them and who are we to deny those opportunities.
“An organization called ‘Homeless World Cup’ in UK changes living conditions of homeless people through soccer. In 2007, number of participating countries grew into 48 from all over the world. After World Cup in 2006, 92% have a new motivation for life (342 players), 89% have improved social relations (331 players), 35% have secured regular employment (130 players), 44% have improved their housing situation (164 players), 39% chose to pursue education (145 players), etc. Soccer gave them motivations and opportunities to improve their life and living conditions”(Sportsinsociety). Sports in general bring joy and happiness to a city or country. A sports team can unite a country even though that country might be at war or in conflict. Sports gave the United States something to cheer about after the 9/11 attack on New York. Athletes may come to cities to play for money but what they accomplish by winning titles is priceless. “However, some may argue that while teacher’s only provide service to a single classroom, superstar athletes are entertaining fans all around the world, enticing people with a feeling of relaxation and excitement. Teaching is one of the most economically important occupations because our future economy relies on the education of its youth, yet teachers are paid astronomically less than the average professional athlete is. In fact, each basket Kobe Bryant scores earns him equivalent to the average classroom teacher’s yearly salary”(Bleacherreport). At moment the President of the United States makes around $400,000 a year. According to Major League Baseball, in 1997 the average salary was $1.4 per year, though that is only the average. Barry Bonds, one of the highest paid in the league, earned $11.5 in a two year contract made in 1998. Once again, the President of the United States makes $400,000 a year, not $5.75 million. Professional athletes create an entire market of supply and demand in the sports obsessed world of some Americans. Teachers, fire fighters and policemen and are jobs that earn salaries of less than $50,000 a year. An athlete is running around playing a simple game, and winning the adoration of fans everywhere while teachers, the most important job above all, receive no respect and barely enough money to live on. Even secondary athletes, not the starters, but the ones you see warming the bench, earn close to what the primary athletes earn, basically for doing nothing. While the President of the United States is protecting our country, working hard so that we Americans are safe, he is earning a only $400,000 a year. The athletes’ salaries do not end at their on-field work, but rather with the continuous flow of advertisement and endorsement deals. Fans have done this to themselves. As they live for sports and create the supply, the demand will always be there for more money.

References Bhagat, M. (2010, March 21). Do Professional Athletes Get Paid Too Much Money?. In www.bleacherreport.com. Retrieved August 27, 2012, from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/366795-do-athletes-get-paid-too-much-money
Gaffer, T. (2010, July 13). 2010 World Cup Final: The Most Watched Soccer Game In U.S. History. In www.epltalk.com. Retrieved August 22, 2011, from http://www.epltalk.com/2010-world-cup-final-the-most-watched-soccer-game-in-u-s-history-22078
Power of Sports in Society (2008, August 7). In sportsinsociety.blogspot.com. Retrieved August 22, 2011, from http://sportinsociety.blogspot.com/2008/08/power-of- sports-on-society.html The World's Highest-Paid Athletes (2011, May 31). In www.forbes.com. Retrieved August 22, 2011, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/05/31/the-worlds-highest-paid-athletes/2/