HBO MAX

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Anytime there's a players strike (or lockout) fans complain...how can those rich athletes strike? They are making millions of dollars!! Or when someone signs a multimillon dollar deal, you'll hear those kinds of complaints. Athletes in individual sports like Golf, you hear it less. For one, the money is less public. For another, athletes like Tiger make a lot of money outside of the sport. So in a sense they are "actors" endorsing products. Team sports, you hear it more often. The worst is among those who don't like baseball, who can't understand why someone playing baseball should make that much money. You do hear less about it in other sports, like Football or Basketball, and maybe that's because the athletes are much more public figures? I'm not sure (and I will say you hear it less these days).

 

Basketball has max contracts so a top 5 player can make the same amount as a top 20 player as long as they have the same amount of time in the league.

The big thing you hear in basketball is that the stars should take less money if they really care about winning.

Baseball has no salary cap and no max contracts.

Football has a salary cap.

 

Hockey has a salary cap, and I follow it pretty closely. You don't often see players with substantially lesser skills making the same amount of money just because "they have the same amount of time in the league."

And, FWIW, I hear a lot of sports fans complain about the amount of money athletes make (and not just because the teams pay them that exorbitant amount).

 

I'm not a sports fan, and I'm not mad at the athletes for making the money they're making, just like I'm not angry at entertainment stars making the money they're making.

I am however saddened by the fact that our society puts so much emphasis on sports that so much money flows to the entire sports infrastructure.

And the one issue that angers me is that I'm forced to help pay for all of this through higher cable bills when I don't benefit from it at all. I would be a bit more satisfied if I wasn't paying a $20 a month "tax" on my entertainment bill to support sports channels and that whole stream of money.

 

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I don’t really follow hockey so I don’t know how their system works but that is how it works in basketball.

Player A has been in the league for 10 years. He has made 9 All Star games, he is a league MVP, makes playoffs every year, is considered a top 5 player. and he has one a championship.

Player B also in league for 10 years. 5 All Star games and his team rarely makes the playoffs and is considered a borderline top 15 player.

They would both be eligible for the same exact max contract though player A might be eligible for the super max.

It is convoluted to try to keep players on teams. There should be no salary caps and no max contract. If a team wants to play LeBron, Durant or Curry $100 million a year, they should.

 

And then you end up with certain teams with geographic advantages having all the top players, because they (and only they) can afford them...

 

I don’t believe that because the players are going to want their next contract. Do you think a superstar will want to be the 4th or 5th option on a team? It would hurt him in his next contract negotiation.