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GWR
14 years ago

That is a lot of money just for playing a game

Aaron Moreno
14 years ago

Considering they’re just playing a game, that is a lot of money.

Jason B
14 years ago

Won’t someone please think of the CHILDREN?!?

Derek S
14 years ago

My back-of-the-envelope calculations show player salaries (roughly 2.7 billion according to the link) as around 41% of (publicly claimed) revenues (widely reported as 6.5 billion for 2008).

Last year players received roughly 50% of revenues in the NFL and 57% in the NBA, according to their respective players’ association web sites.

Aaron Moreno
14 years ago

Did you add in the value of their included health coverage and free travel?

Derek S
14 years ago

No…I couldn’t easily get that data.  Looking a little harder, it appears that benefits are included in the NBA number, but the NFL ratio goes up to 58% if you include benefits.

Best estimates for MLB appear to be 51-55% for the last few years, and probably lower this year with revenue increasing year-over-year roughly four times faster than salaries.