by Daniel Cloud

Created on: January 30, 2011

Are baseball players paid too much? Nope. That depends on you, the fan. A baseball player's salary (or any sport for that  matter) is related directly to the amount of revenue expected to be generated for their presence on the team. An all-start player with a large fan base is going to produce ticket sales. Ticket sales = revenue = the formula used to determine a player's salary.

As I said before, this is true with all sports. Think of it as a concert. A concert hall is going to make money off of ticket sales because people come to see their icons play. Realize that baseball is entertainment, just like music, TV, etc. Charlie Sheen makes $1.8 million per episode of "Two and a Half Men" because people tune in to watch his crazy, drunken "close-to-reality" character. Same goes for sports.

In baseball, when the great home run race was going on between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, what happened? Attendance rose for those teams and each player was able to negotiate better salaries due to bringing in so many ticket sales.

The question of players being overpaid has absolutely nothing to do with how much they make. They are paid in relation to revenue they produce. Which begs the question, do we pay too much for tickets? Nope, if fans will pay for those tickets, then they are saying to the clubhouse, "That player is worth 'x' dollars for me to see play.

Another aspect is advertising. Those who watch every game of the season, such as the ever popular Atlanta Braves, are telling the clubhouse, I love this team. This in turn, tells the clubhouse, we can charge advertisers more per commercial slot. The players determine the overall revenue once again. The salary of a baseball player is simple economics. It is fairly obvious to me how the system works.

Jumping to a more generalized view once more. The salaries of actors, singers, bands, sports teams, and sports stars are all related to overall revenue. Ticket sales, promotions, advertising, clothing lines, trinkets, you name it; they all go toward the overall revenue. So if a player is out there batting .350 and hitting 70 home runs, he is gonna get paid what he deserves based on revenue. That pinch hitter that no one remembers the name of is gonna get paid a low standard salary because his presence on the team does not affect revenue.

I think that players are not overpaid at all. If they were paid less, sales would go down, and the clubhouse will be kicking themselves for not agreeing to negotiations. Imagine if one of the greatest pitchers of our time was told he would be paid the same as that rookie that has a win/loss ratio 0 - 5 record. The pitcher will be pulled into another clubhouse and paid what he deserves.

If you think players are overpaid, then you can drive down their salaries by not watching or buying tickets. Revenue and salaries are directly related. Simple economics. Learn it.

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