Politics or sports. As American as baseball or apple pie?
The costs of sports seems to far out range the costs of politics and government, although the former is an entertainment choice and the latter is an unavoidable fact of our life. WHo's cheaper?
By Ray Hanania
FREE/Sports Costs Athletes Politics/Thursday Dec. 5, 2024
The only real sport for me is politics. I’m not much of a football, baseball, hockey or basketball fan. And yet, I find myself pondering what the hell is happening with American sports these days.
I have to consider these topics because everywhere I turn, I find myself paying for sports in taxes and in fees.
It’s bad enough my property taxes continue to increase while my wages and savings struggle against the accelerating inflation, and inflation that is politicized, by the way: The tendency is to assert that inflation is slow and low under Democrats but skyrocketing under Republicans. You can’t get the truth in today’s politicized world.
The only truth I remember was when I was young and my dad would take me to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs play. Back in the 1960s, the average annual income was about $5,600, which was pretty damn good. My family’s annual income was only around $2,500. In 1960, the cost of a hotdog at a ball game was only 25 cents.
Do the math. Back then, the average annual salary in 1960 could buy 22,400 hotdogs at the ballpark.
The costs of the game (tickets, food and parking), which averaged about $6, didn’t distract my dad or I from the fun of enjoying a baseball game. The tickets were only $1.50 per person.
Today? The average annual income is about $62,027 and the typical hotdog at a ball game averages about $5.32. That means today you can buy 11,659 hotdogs.
See what I mean? The value of the buying power of our money has been cut in half, at the ballpark, which was considered a critical part of that old saying, “You are as American as baseball and apple pie.”
I don’t even want to get into what apple pie costs these days.
The last time I went to Wrigley Field to watch the Cubs play was in 2015 when I took my son Aaron to watch the Cubs play the Pittsburgh Pirates with my two cousins. The tickets were $45 each ($180 for four) and the cost of the food (hotdogs, popcorn, beer, and pop) was over $450. Parking was $50. A cup of beer costs between $8 and $15 depending on which stadium you are at.
That’s $680, or 100 times the cost of that game I saw with my dad in 1962. Who can afford that today? What happened?
Greed has taken over the game.
The average salary of a Major League Baseball (MLB) player in 1962 was approximately $12,000 to $15,000 per year. At the time, this was significantly higher than the median household income in the United States but far less than modern MLB salaries. The minimum salary in MLB during that era was around $7,000, which was set as a baseline for players.
It’s greed, driven by the costs of the players.
Two of the biggest superstars in baseball in 1962 were Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, both star players for the New York Yankees. They were among the highest-paid players in Major League Baseball
Mickey Mantle earned approximately $90,000 in 1962, making him one of the highest-paid players in the league at the time. Mantle was at the peak of his career and widely regarded as one of the best players in the game.
Roger Maris, fresh off his historic 61-home-run season in 1961, earned around $72,000 in 1962. Despite his remarkable achievements, his salary didn't match Mantle's due to Mantle's longer career and broader fan appeal.
Look at the contracted wages for today’s top 10 highest paid athletes:
As of December 2024, the top 10 highest-earning American athletes, based on combined on-field earnings (salaries, winnings, bonuses) and off-field earnings (endorsements, sponsorships), are:
LeBron James (Basketball): $128.2 million
On-field: $48.2 million
Off-field: $80 million
Stephen Curry (Basketball): $102 million
On-field: $52 million
Off-field: $50 million
Lamar Jackson (American Football): $100.5 million
On-field: $98.5 million
Off-field: $2 million
Shohei Ohtani (Baseball): $85.3 million
On-field: $70 million
Off-field: $15.3 million
Kevin Durant (Basketball): $89.1 million
On-field: $44.1 million
Off-field: $45 million
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Basketball): $111 million
On-field: $46 million
Off-field: $65 million
Patrick Mahomes (Football): $52.65 million
On-field: $52.65 million
Off-field: unknown
Joe Burrow (Football): $55 million
On-field: $55 million
Off-field: Unknown
Trevor Lawrence (Football): $55 million
On-field: $55 million
Off-field: Unknown
Jordan Love (Football): $55 million
On-field: $55 million
Off-field: Unknown
What have we done?
Maybe we should “Nationalize” sports, and bring it under government control and force the costs down. Why can’t we put the focus back on healthy sportsmanlike competition, instead of on the cash-olah?
Americans have been forced to watch sports on television these days, although Cable TV is following the greedy lead.
Xfinity Comcast Cable TV costs more than $350 a month (high-speed internet, which works most of the time, home telephone, and basic cable channels). Remember when Cable TV only cost $35 a month? And when Cable promised that if you paid for cable everything would be “free.”
Now, we pay for cable just to have the luxury of having to pay for the good programs, which cost more than $24 to watch.
Streaming services are no different. I subscribe monthly to Amazon but if I want to see the good programs, they now charge me a fee!
I liked it better when I had only four mainstream TV channels on my television set back in 1962 — Channel 2, 5, 7, and 9, and added two more UHF Channels with a little circular wire antenna attached to the back for Channels 26 and 44.
At my lake house (that I bought after paying my 30-year home mortgage off to continue to receive some income tax benefits), I bought a Roku box for each TV and I watch television for FREE, using the streaming services that I pay for monthly to enjoy movies. I’m thinking of replacing Xfinity at the main home with Roku, too!
It’s one reason why I don’t want to retire. It turns out I love to work. If I ever stop working, inflation will catch up with me. That’s the new retirement model. Work until you drop.
I am lucky, I guess. I don’t lift bricks. I write. I don’t take it for granted, though. Writing requires a lot of research. Opinion columns take a lot of commonsense and a thick skin.
I could have been a doctor, I guess like some of my uncles and cousins.
But don’t get me started on healthcare and the Medicare shell game they drop on seniors whose age causes challenges in thought and choice. That’s the next column. Something needs to be done to unravel Medicare for Seniors. They don’t deserve to have to rifle through that maze just to get healthcare that they invested in for decades of hard work.
No on-field pay without a taxpayer-funded stadium to play in. Let's include the cost to taxpayers for our part in funding a new domed stadium while we're still paying for the renovation of Soldier Field, which is one of the smallest (fewest seats) in the NFL. Taxpayers will be paying for those two stadiums while White Sox owners (or potentially new owners) want a new public/ private stadium in the south Loop area. And the White Sox stadium is only around 30 years old. Those overburdened billionaires need a break!/s I love it when taxpayers give handouts to billionaires. Is it a "handout" when the end purpose is campaign funding instead of fiscally sound development?