Is it necessary for athletes to have as high of salaries as they do with all of the money they make from advertisements?

In this post my goal is to get viewers to understand just how much athletes make in total. A lot of people seem to think the money athletes make is just from their salaries, but a lot of times they forget that these athletes are being paid from being in commercial and being sponsors of big companies. In the article 18 Athletes Who Make More Money Endorsing Products Than Playing Sports it shows the differences in various athletes salaries and the money they make from endorsements.It confirms that athletes already are getting paid more than the average person and then on top of that, their endorsements makes them even more money than their regular salary. This post will get viewers to believe that athletes are getting too much money.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/18-athletes-more-money-endorse-sport-2013-6#tiger-woods-earned-83-of-his-money-from-endorsements-6

Many people are well aware of the high paying salaries that they receive. But, what people don’t realize, or sometimes forget is the loads of money they make from their endorsements alone! In the article 18 Athletes Who Make More Money Endorsing Products Than Playing Sports it shows 18 athletes that get paid more money from endorsements than they do from their salaries. This article only shows 18 examples, which is obviously not the only athletes that have endorsements. There are hundreds of athletes that still have their salaries and get bonus money from endorsements as well. Everything I’m saying here is just words, but now let’s look at the statistics.

Tiger Woods, one of, if not,the best golfer that’s ever lived. A well-known athlete that played as a role model for many in the prime of his career. Obviously, being the best golfer in the world, most people can assume that he has an extremely high salary. Woods is most famously sponsored by Nike, but is also well known for being sponsored by Rolex. As many can probably imagine, Tiger Woods has a high paying salary of $13.1 million a year from golf. When that number is thrown out people obviously are aware that it is a high number. But, what many aren’t aware of is that Woods gets paid $65 million dollars in endorsements alone! That is a total of Woods making about  $78.1 million. Give the man what he deserves, but at the same time give some of the money to people that are starving to death. Tiger Woods is one of many well-known athletes that have higher paying endorsements than their salaries. Another athletic icon that get paid more in endorsements than they do playing their sport is Lebron James. Lebron James, currently the best basketball player in the world and is obviously getting paid millions of dollars for dominating his sport. But, what many don’t realize is that his salary is a lot less of his income than from his endorsements. James has a salary of $17.8 million a year from basketball. According to the article, what most people don’t realize is that James is sponsored by multiple blue chip companies such as Nike, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Samsung, and Dunkin Donuts giving him a total of $42 million alone from endorsements. That gives Lebron James a total of $59.8 million overall! Is it really necessary for athletes to get this much money?

It is simply fair that athletes get paid a lot of money for dominating their sport because there are so many people that try in this world but only a few number succeed. That being said, I don’t believe that they should get paid to the extent in which they do get paid. The amount of money from their salaries alone is reasonable, but when they get paid even more millions from their endorsements it becomes unnecessary. People need to start to realize that there are millions of people that are starved or are homeless in this world and can easily benefit from little portions of their money. Overall, it is understandable why athletes have high salaries and I think people should respect them, but at the same time they aren’t saving lives. It would only be fair if there total income was reduced and given to people that are less fortunate.


In my next blog post I will be comparing the amount of hours athletes work a week compared to the average american's work hours a week. Depending on the sport, games don't last very long, so how long could the athletes practices be daily?