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Star athlete salaries- Mike Trout signs for $430 million!!! (1 Viewer)

timschochet

timschochet

Footballguy
This is not a baseball thread; it’s meant to be about star athlete salaries in general. I’m a huge Angels fan, Mike Trout might be my favorite player in any sport, so I’m a pretty happy man this morning. 

But $430 million... that is a heck of a lot of money. I can still remember about 20 years ago when Will Clark of the Giants signed a new contract for $3 million a year which broke all records and people were talking about it then. Since then it’s exploded, it’s unbelievable! The other day I thought I heard on the radio that the kid from Duke who is going to be drafted first in the NBA expects to earn a billion dollars over his career- surely that can’t be right can it? These numbers are amazing. 

 
timschochet said:
This is not a baseball thread; it’s meant to be about star athlete salaries in general. I’m a huge Angels fan, Mike Trout might be my favorite player in any sport, so I’m a pretty happy man this morning. 

But $430 million... that is a heck of a lot of money. I can still remember about 20 years ago when Will Clark of the Giants signed a new contract for $3 million a year which broke all records and people were talking about it then. Since then it’s exploded, it’s unbelievable! The other day I thought I heard on the radio that the kid from Duke who is going to be drafted first in the NBA expects to earn a billion dollars over his career- surely that can’t be right can it? These numbers are amazing. 
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How the heck do you not know Zion Williams' name?

But, I think it is very possible he earns that money with endorsements.  John Wall is making (or will be making) $40M+ per year.  Once he gets to his second contract on a max deal it will probably be up to $50M a year or more.

 
Supply + demand + dash of monopoly.

Players like Trout are in short supply. Therefore he is in high demand.

Add in the fact that the major sports leagues have a near-monopoly on consumers (with a tight grip on stadium and broadcast revenue), with a license to print money, and you end up with Trout.

Eventually the whole system will become too heavy to sustain itself, and you'll see teams that are so far underwater that they'll have to declare bankruptcy.

Anyway, I'm not too bothered by this. Let the Angels fans pay for him if that's what they want to do.

 
xulf said:
How the heck do you not know Zion Williams' name?

But, I think it is very possible he earns that money with endorsements.  John Wall is making (or will be making) $40M+ per year.  Once he gets to his second contract on a max deal it will probably be up to $50M a year or more.
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Sorry, I haven’t really been paying attention to college basketball this year. Been off my radar. 

 
[scooter] said:
Supply + demand + dash of monopoly.

Players like Trout are in short supply. Therefore he is in high demand.

Add in the fact that the major sports leagues have a near-monopoly on consumers (with a tight grip on stadium and broadcast revenue), with a license to print money, and you end up with Trout.

Eventually the whole system will become too heavy to sustain itself, and you'll see teams that are so far underwater that they'll have to declare bankruptcy.

Anyway, I'm not too bothered by this. Let the Angels fans pay for him if that's what they want to do.
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Oh I’m not bothered by it- I’m happy with the athletes that are making it. Especially Trout because he seems like such a good guy. 

I’m just amazed by the amounts of money that’s all. 

 
ChiefD said:
Not my money. Good for all of them. 
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Same.

NFL, college football and college basketball make advertising money off me, minor league hockey gets some $, and some college merchandise.

Other than the NFL, I just don't care about the big pro sports anymore.  

Pro triathlon and marathoners, those people deserve their (very small in comparison) paychecks. ;)

 
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timschochet said:
Just on this point- we’re not involved. I’m quite sure most Angels fans are happy this morning, but we didn’t have any say on this decision. 
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Directly no.

But you're kidding yourself if you don't think fans make this happen. 

 
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xulf said:
 John Wall is making (or will be making) $40M+ per year.  Once he gets to his second contract on a max deal it will probably be up to $50M a year or more.
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I’m glad you brought this up. Here is the Wizards Forbes valuation: 

https://www.forbes.com/teams/washington-wizards/#21943c596501

Now according to that, they are not making money by paying Wall $40 million. In fact, simply based on dollars and cents, they would earn more money if Wall were off the team and they were a worse team as a result. Or am I misunderstanding how this works? 

 
Re: that list I just posted- I can’t believe Conor Macgregor is that high. Granted I don’t watch that “sport”, but isn’t he just an idiot! What the heck is the attraction? 

 
timschochet said:
[scooter] said:
Let the Angels fans pay for him if that's what they want to do.
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Just on this point- we’re not involved. I’m quite sure most Angels fans are happy this morning, but we didn’t have any say on this decision. 
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Angels fans can voice their support or disapproval through their wallets. Prices for tickets and merchandise will gradually creep up until fans stop paying.

Angels fans are happy today but they may not be happy in a few years if the team has to cut corners to compensate for Trout's salary.

 
With regard to Ryan and Stafford, I think we can agree that unlike Mike Trout, nobody considers them to be the best at their sport- in fact, I would suspect that most experts would rank them somewhere in the middle of the 32 starting NFL quarterbacks. Their salaries are a product of free agency at exactly the right time for them. And Bryce Harper would be another example of this. 

 
timschochet said:
Re: that list I just posted- I can’t believe Conor Macgregor is that high. Granted I don’t watch that “sport”, but isn’t he just an idiot! What the heck is the attraction? 
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Objectively you could ask that about any sport.

But the dude is really good at what he does, it's basically a two person event (yeah there's undercards but the main event) that people are willing to pay boatloads to watch. 

 
[scooter] said:
Angels fans are happy today but they may not be happy in a few years if the team has to cut corners to compensate for Trout's salary.
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Well I have to admit that at least one guy I talked to last night, who is always a Debbie Downer, brought up Albert Pujols...but hey it’s not going to be like that again, right? That won’t happen twice to the same team. 

 
timschochet said:
[scooter] said:
Angels fans are happy today but they may not be happy in a few years if the team has to cut corners to compensate for Trout's salary.
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Well I have to admit that at least one guy I talked to last night, who is always a Debbie Downer, brought up Albert Pujols...but hey it’s not going to be like that again, right? That won’t happen twice to the same team. 
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Pujols was already past his prime (not to mention the possibility that his age was fudged by a few years). And with all that, the Angels are still going to get ~7.5 years out of him.

So, I wouldn't be too concerned about Trout failing to be productive. I'd be more concerned about the Angels cutting expenses to compensate for Trout's salary, which can lead to a death spiral of last-place finishes, empty stadiums, disgruntled players, and new cheapskate owners (see: Derek Jeter).

 
timschochet said:
Re: that list I just posted- I can’t believe Conor Macgregor is that high. Granted I don’t watch that “sport”, but isn’t he just an idiot! What the heck is the attraction? 
Click to expand...
McGregor is only on the list because of the gimmick boxing match he had with Mayweather.  He would never make a list like this on just MMA stuff.

 
Just like CEOs, athletes are few and can spread their increased cost over hundreds of thousands of fans.

It's kind of sickening tbh that aside from baseball, most regular people are priced out of attending games live.  And they're still paying for it with higher product cost due to tv deals and endorsements. 

 
Guaranteed contracts are what ruins it. If supply and demand requires $20 million a year (or whatever), I am ok with that.

But guarantees eliminate any financial incentive and if a player's ability declines, the ownership still has to pay  them 100%, even if they don't play anymore. This is wrong.

 
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson earned $124 million from June 2017 to June 2018.

When a lot of people pay to watch you do your thing you make a lot of money.

 
xulf said:
How the heck do you not know Zion Williams' name?

But, I think it is very possible he earns that money with endorsements.  John Wall is making (or will be making) $40M+ per year.  Once he gets to his second contract on a max deal it will probably be up to $50M a year or more.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna make a change,
For once I'm my life
It's gonna feel real good,
Gonna make a difference
Gonna make it right

As I, turn up the collar on
My favorite winter coat
This wind is blowing my mind
I see the kids in the streets,
With not enough to eat
Who am I to be blind?
Pretending not to see their needs

 
It reinforces just how much money an owner of a major professional sport franchise makes on their asset.  If you can afford an employee (team) payroll of $150,000,000/year or more, then you must be making a lot of money.

 
cashman88 said:
It reinforces just how much money an owner of a major professional sport franchise makes on their asset.  If you can afford an employee (team) payroll of $150,000,000/year or more, then you must be making a lot of money.
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Exactly. And if you as a consumer don't like it, don't buy a ticket.

 
timschochet said:
This is not a baseball thread; it’s meant to be about star athlete salaries in general. I’m a huge Angels fan, Mike Trout might be my favorite player in any sport, so I’m a pretty happy man this morning. 

But $430 million... that is a heck of a lot of money. I can still remember about 20 years ago when Will Clark of the Giants signed a new contract for $3 million a year which broke all records and people were talking about it then. Since then it’s exploded, it’s unbelievable! The other day I thought I heard on the radio that the kid from Duke who is going to be drafted first in the NBA expects to earn a billion dollars over his career- surely that can’t be right can it? These numbers are amazing. 
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you're looking to discuss.  It's a lot of money and way more than it was 20 years ago because the sport has become hugely profitable. And it makes sense that the major American sports would be hugely profitable because in the era of unlimited on demand entertainment options they're one of the few remaining ways that advertisers can get a whole bunch of people to sit through ads. And by extension the cable providers need ESPN and the RSNs because that's a large part of how they keep subscribers in this age.  FS West is paying the Angels $3 billion for their rights over a term basically concurrent with Trout's deal, and obviously the Angels have other big sources of revenue as well.

I think a much more interesting question is why someone like Giancarlo Stanton or Bryce Harper is making $30 million a year while people like Juan Soto and Ronald Acuna- who are roughly the same as those two in terms of value- will make  $575,000 this year. The vets who negotiated the baseball CBA screw over the next generation in a way that's totally different than other sports.

 
TobiasFunke said:
I think a much more interesting question is why someone like Giancarlo Stanton or Bryce Harper is making $30 million a year while people like Juan Soto and Ronald Acuna- who are roughly the same as those two in terms of value- will make  $575,000 this year. The vets who negotiated the baseball CBA screw over the next generation in a way that's totally different than other sports.
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That's only for a short period. Then those same players (Soto and Acuna and Guerrero) will sign ungodly guaranteed contracts.

It's the owners only chance to keep costs down.

It's a screwy system.

 
Mr. Mojo said:
That's only for a short period. Then those same players (Soto and Acuna and Guerrero) will sign ungodly guaranteed contracts.

It's the owners only chance to keep costs down.

It's a screwy system.
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Some of them will.  Others might get hurt or something. You never know.

The compensation for vets vs younger players in baseball is totally out of whack, and other sports have figured out how to address it much better. Obviously you're still gonna end up with a system that favors vets, but the baseball one is extreme, and probably a product of vets ignoring the priorities of younger players at the bargaining table so they can get more for themselves.  Not only is the current system unfair but it also ends up diluting the sport's talent pool. See eg Kyler Murray.

 
Mr. Mojo said:
Guaranteed contracts are what ruins it. If supply and demand requires $20 million a year (or whatever), I am ok with that.

But guarantees eliminate any financial incentive and if a player's ability declines, the ownership still has to pay  them 100%, even if they don't play anymore. This is wrong.
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supply and demand requires $430 million in this case.  however many years there are is irrelevant.  trout is worth way more than his yearly salary right now even under the new deal.  the angels will have to make up for that at the point when he is not worth that.

 
How do two sport athletes in college chose NFL over MLB?

NFL = Shorter career, less money, contract not guaranteed, concussions, .... ?  :shrug:

 
Bossman said:
How do two sport athletes in college chose NFL over MLB?

NFL = Shorter career, less money, contract not guaranteed, concussions, .... ?  :shrug:
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a lot was discussed in the Kyler Murray threads, but if you are a first-round pick (and maybe even a second-round pick) in NFL, there is a pretty good argument because you have a much better guaranteed return in the short term.

 
TobiasFunke said:
Some of them will.  Others might get hurt or something. You never know.

The compensation for vets vs younger players in baseball is totally out of whack, and other sports have figured out how to address it much better. Obviously you're still gonna end up with a system that favors vets, but the baseball one is extreme, and probably a product of vets ignoring the priorities of younger players at the bargaining table so they can get more for themselves.  Not only is the current system unfair but it also ends up diluting the sport's talent pool. See eg Kyler Murray.
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Shout out to Eloy Jimenez for undermining this point as I was typing it by signing an $43 million extension with the White Sox before playing in a major league game. I'm an idiot.

 
Same as it's always been. Supply and Demand. Athletes have skills that very few have. Owners are in a business that is selling those skills as entertainment. If they think an investment of $x million is going to return a significant profit, then they will make that investment. Sometimes these investments don't work out (injury, decline in skill, decline in effort once paid, etc). It's the risk owners are willing to take because the returns on investment can be huge. 

 
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