Financial Change Potential if Sports Ended at College Level

bytimrowland

102 followers

11 years ago

Now, I realize there are a whole lot of people who enjoy watching “professional” sports on TV and in the stadiums. The truth is, these people could gain just as much entertainment out of watching college games as they often do watching the pros. It is more than fair to say that a vast majority of sports fans pay as much (if not more) attention to college games than they do those who play beyond their college years. Okay; stop and think for a moment about the financial changes that could be implemented in the United States if sports ended at the college level.

Imagine for a moment that any athlete wanting to remain an athlete beyond college, had to strive for the Olympics. The quality of Olympians would go up and this country would gain back an astounding amount of wasted money. Yes, wasted money. Money that is currently paid to so-called “professional” athletes. A true professional athlete is found in Olympics and not in million dollar homes and inside of cars that cost more than the typical person’s house. There are professions that are critical to our future and that warrant a great deal more than what they currently get for their efforts.

Let’s look at the math of it all… I know… I hate math too, but in order to fully understand the big picture; we simply have to do it. What is the average annual pay for a pro athlete in this country? Some may be shocked to found out, really. Well… here you go:

Average Annual Pay of a Pro Athlete:

NBA= $5.15 Million

MLB= $3.2 Million

NHL= $2.4 Million

NFL= $1.9 Million

Yeah…that’s a whole lot of money for playing. Okay, now how many people are on a sports team typically?

Typical Number of Team Members:

NBA= 12

MLB= 25

NHL= 20

NFL= 53

With me so far? Good. So if you take these figures then the average annual pay per team is:

NBA= $61,800,000

MLB= $80,000,000

NHL= $48,000,000

NFL= $100,700,000

In case you haven’t done the math yourself yet, that totals out at $290,500,000 each year that “professional” athletes are being paid in the United States. Take a long and true look at that number and then allow yourself to compare what is done to earn it, to those in professions such as:

Teachers

US Military

Healthcare Workers

Fire Fighters

Law Enforcement

If that money was budgeted out to help support these professions (who truly make a difference) then that would come out to a staggering $58,100,000 budgeted to each profession.

That alone is enough to tell me our priorities need to change, but… that’s just the numbers associated with one team. How much financial change could be done if sports stopped at the college level and all teams (other than Olympic) were eliminated; and the money put to better use? Well, let’s look. How many pro sports teams are there?

# of NBA teams= 30

# of MLB teams= 30

# of NHL teams= 30

# of NFL teams= 32

If we take the average pay for each team, and multiply it by the number of teams….

NBA= $61,800,000 X 30 = $1.85400 billion

MLB= $80,000,000 X 30 = $2.4 billion

NHL= $48,000,000 X 30 = $1.44 billion

NFL= $100,700,000 X 32= $3.2224 billion

Over all total: $8.9164 Billion Per Year!!!

Those same 5 professions could be funded with $1.78328 Billion each every year!!!

Now… all this is not even going into how that money could be used to help balance the budget, medical research, and any number of thousands of other problems we face in this country. So I guess al this just leaves me with one question….

… NOW do you see what I’m talking about?