Quote:
Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry
Perhaps they should cross your mind. The reason player salaries are so high is because the billionaires have enough money to pay them.
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That billionaire owner observation is the common retort when anyone suggests that players are overpaid these days. But it misses the point. Consider.
As a fan I'm disinterested in watching the owners work. I certainly have no interest in buying tickets to do so. Nor I think does any fan idolize owners nor are they hounded for autographs. And I'm no exception. I give not a thought to the owners.
But as fans we are expected to cheer for the players toiling (actually just playing a kids' game) on our favourite teams. Well that would be easier to understand if they were superbly talented athletes
sacrificing to play a game they love. But the players certainly aren't sacrificing these days - or even just earning a very decent wage. They're paid and pampered like demigods. So why should we as fans live and die with their on field exploits? My own father used to occasionally make that same point back in the 1960's when I was a kid "Why do you get so sick about these games? They're all professionals you know. They're only playing for the money."
And of course back in those days players were merely well paid. Salaries have increased a quantum leap since then. Yes as a kid I viscerally identified with my teams and the players on those teams. My emotional attachment was there in spades. But that's faded now. Now my interest is more intellectual. That of course may just be because I'm sixty years older. But I still think it's rather silly for a full grown man to viscerally identify and contribute to the mega salaries of present day players from his own relatively meager earnings.
