Should athletes earn more than doctors? An athletes viewpoint.

As 2 days have passed since the ‘money’ fight between Mcgregor and Mayweather, the topic of whether athletes should earn more than your standard occupation has come into question.

Many people believe that they should, and many believe that they shouldn’t. In many cases, they are both right.
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An Athletes Viewpoint

Growing up as an athlete and taking part in various kinds of sports, I have become accustomed to the kind of training athletes endure to reach the highest level of their profession. I myself was a professional athlete; moving to Spain at the age of 17 to pursue my “once in a lifetime” opportunity and progressing further, managing to obtain a trial with Fulham Fc in London only to see myself get rejected. This lead to my change into focusing on my education, but thats a story for another day.

Many would argue that football (or any other sport) is easier when you compare it to studying Engineering or Finance. When in actuality, it takes about the same amount of time and commitment in order to reach the stage of professionalism for athletes.

I remember sitting down in my High School in Spain and my teacher would create weekly debates on all sorts of topics. This being one of them. My short answer was “If people are willing to pay the amount they do to watch a soccer match, the players are earning a fair amount. After all, they are the ones entertaining the spectators”. As one might predict, there was always those few stubborn individuals who would remain in denial. They told me that I was just supporting athletes because I myself am one – which admittedly, is partially true.

Why They Should

Imagine earning $USD 350 million after one boxing match. That is exactly how much Mayweather earned in 27 minutes 2 days ago against Conor Mcgregor (hence why it was called the ‘money’ fight). To be exact, that is $13 million dollars a minute and $216,000 a second.

These are record breaking numbers, however, now let’s have a look at a more conventional athletes salary. Professional boxers median annual pay is $40,060.  What many people fail to take into consideration is that athletes like Floyd Mayweather are amongst the best in the world at what they do (among the top 1% of athletes). If we were to compare these exceptional athletes salaries to Bill Gates (the richest man in the world), who is a programmer and entrepreneur, and arguably the best at what he does, the athlete’s salaries are minuscule compared to his. To be quite frank, athletes will never be able to achieve $84 billion dollars; if they do ever manage to reach that point – it would definitely not be justifiable.

Athletes do not bring economic value to the world, they do not save lives, but they do bring many of us joy and entertainment – and heck we are willing to pay for it!

Becoming a professional athlete takes years of practice, much like it does to become a doctor and study for the job. I am aware that doctors save lives whereas athletes entertain, however it brings me back to the argument of how much people are willing to pay to watch these athletes do what they are good at which is a palpable reason for their high salaries.

Americanisation has led to the greater amount of monetization of sports such as sponsorships and endorsements, resulting in even larger increases in salaries. Football has become a business rather than just a “game”; it has led to celebrity-like fame to the very best athletes which have helped elevate their success.

Conclusion

After further analysis and research on the topic, I can say that athletes do not earn a significantly larger amount of money than other occupations if we were to compare average salaries. Athletes have just become victim to discrimination.

Fl!ck