Are we charging our sports fans too much in order to pay their athletes? 

Everyone likes watching baseball, football or even tennis in stadiums to see their favorite players play. As fans watch the players they may get hungry or thirsty after sitting for 3 to 5 hours in the hot weather. Stadiums are eager to sell their wares to appease their hunger and thirst.

Many stadiums sell beer and soda at margins of over 90%. The margins of selling food and drinks at games are extremely high to earn the money to pay their athletes. Today’s prices prove that heading to a ball game isn’t cost-effective for families any longer. 

“I think it’s a rip-off. Usually, an average baseball ticket is $100 and we spend at least $500 the whole day at a baseball game with the train ticket, parking ticket, and our game ticket. I do think pro athletes make more money than necessary even though I’m all for capitalism and people deserve the money they earn with hard work,” said Mr. David Dymond, a substitute teacher at NHS. 

Athletes make up between $2.1-$6.5 million each year. The average NFL salary is $2.1 million according to Forbes. 

Athletes like Zath Greinke, a professional baseball pitcher for the Houston Astros, was paid $24 million for the 2019 season. 

John Matthew Stafford is an American football quarterback for the Detroit Lions and is the highest NFL player with a salary of $27 million. 

Lastly, another athlete who is the highest-paid athlete is Stephen Curry of $34.7 million. This shows how much money athletes get paid.

Athletes make a lot and one of the ways they earn money is through concessions that are sold during the games to spectators. 

Salaries range from $550,000 to $35 million for the 850-plus players on opening-day rosters and injured lists, according to USA TODAY Sports’ annual MLB salary survey. Because baseball players play at least 162 games a season, local networks pay hundreds of millions a year for teams’ broadcasting rights. 

The price of a hot dog at a concession stand at MLB games is at least $4.95, which is very expensive compared to a hot dog at Costco which is $1.50 with a soda too. 

At NBA games beer costs $7.50 and a hot dog $4.96 which again is very expensive. Lastly at NFL beer costs $8.49 and a hot dog $5.34 which is even more expensive than the concessions at MLB and NBA. 

All the prices for concessions and tickets are different in each city. If you go to New York your ticket prices are likely to be higher than most other cities, due to the popularity of local sports teams. 

I think stadiums should cut down their prices on concessions because athletes should not get paid so much. Just because they are professional and very hardworking doesn’t mean they should get paid millions and millions of dollars every year. 

Athlete salaries have been increasing faster than non-athlete salaries. Over the past 20 years, earning for pro-athletes has increased by 7.1%. Other jobs should be paid more because even though their not professional athletes they put just as much hard work though it’s not physical work.