Expert: Bret Temple - 5/5/2007

Question
Why Do Basketball PLayers Get Payed So Much??

p.s this is a project for school

Answer
Hi

What a great question!!  Basketball players just like most other professional athletes are paid enormous salaries.  There is a very good explanation for this and since this is for a school project I’m going to give you a really good explanation.

Professional sports, especially basketball is some of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world.  Professional sports teams are owned by individuals and in some cases large corporations that pay millions of dollars to purchase them.  They are in fact a “business” Owners of sports teams make lots of money in different ways. Obviously fans that pay money to buy tickets to go see them in person is one way. But the most profitable way is Television.  When you watch sports on TV, the commercials that come on during the game pay millions of dollars to advertise during that specific period of time.  In fact during the Super bowl, a 30 second commercial can cost more than a million dollars.  Because superstar athletes like Kobe Bryant attract so many fans, the owners make millions of dollars themselves.  Because players like Kobe bring that kind of fan base and generate so much money to the owners, the owners are basically obligated to pay the athletes large amounts of money.  That is why their salaries are so large. Because they bring millions of dollars to the owners, the owners in return are rewarding them with those large salaries.  In addition, athletes also make money by endorsing certain products; the most popular of course are basketball shoes, like the “Air Jordans” that Michael Jordan popularized back in the early 1990’s.  Fans go out and buy shoes or clothes simply because they saw their favorite athlete wearing them on a commercial.  I gave you a pretty detailed explanation.  I hope it wasn’t too much and you really understand now why they get to make so much money.   

Good Luck with your project and let me know if you have anymore questions.