Picture a world where professional athletes are no richer than the average Joe. They devote their lives to the game of basketball, football, soccer, baseball and many more for… the love of the game. This sounds crazy! In a world where LeBron James aspires to be a billionaire and David Beckham leaves his country (and continent) to become one of the highest paying athletes of all time, it seems almost insane to think of sports without 6 or 7 figures behind top athletes.
But let’s say we did, just for a second, how different would sports look? Some major negatives are the drop in income the players would suffer resulting in more modest lifestyle without five cars in the driveways of their multi-million dollar homes. There might be less interest in becoming an athlete which would cut leagues and talent pools almost in half. There might be less global appeal for people to become professional athletes. All this leading to a lesser standard of play. But it is interesting to think about how this change might affect society. Would interest decrease? When you consider Olympic athletes, they are not necessarily well paid, but people still continue to watch the Olympics in great numbers. With less global appeal to be an athlete, there might be less global appeal to watch. However professional sports without the big bucks do affect society, the notion is just a dream. If we can’t even get the NBPA to agree to a 7% cut on their income, I can’t imagine a 50-75% cut.
Alicia L. (Kin 577)
No comments:
Post a Comment