Salary Caps in Athletics free essay sample

Should professional sports leagues, such as the MLB and NBA, implement a salary cap? This has become a rising issue in the last few years, involving players and the leagues and teams for which they play. Salary caps are an amount of money that a team is able to spend on its players. For instance, each team gets a 64 million dollar spending limit in which they have to divide between each player on the team. It has led to numerous lockouts and strikes by the players because they feel it is unfair. Salary caps in professional sports should be abolished because they effect player performance, are prone to abuse, and cause some players to be paid unfairly. Athletic ability is not only a talent, but a hard-earned trait for some athletes. Through days, months, and years of training, they prepare to perform to the best of their abilities on the playing field. We will write a custom essay sample on Salary Caps in Athletics or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Athletic performance has improved drastically from the years 1940 to 2000 (Lewis). Along with this increase of physical ability also came an increase in pay rates. There have been new systems set in place for athletes, such as free agency. The purpose of free agency is to enhance competition levels between players whom are fighting for an open spot on a team and a salary with the potential to increase (DiLasco). If a salary cap is put in place, it limits how much players can make, causing some players to intentionally hold back on their performances (DiLasco). An example where salary caps Kirtner 2 have not yet been put into place is the National Hockey League, yet it has managed to maintain a very balanced and high performing competition level. The typical view of a professional athlete is one of greed and selfishness. However in reality, they are all average Americans trying to earn their pay, just in a different way. The real â€Å"bad guys† are the team owners and league commissioners who have access to the money. A salary cap depends largely on just how much these leagues and teams make. Some league owners do not include items in revenue or report less money to intentionally keep the caps low (DiLasco). In 1986, The Major League Baseball Players Association actually tried to put a salary cap of ten million dollars on 139 free agent players. They didn’t do this because they were forced to, but rather because hey wanted to (â€Å"Sportsâ€Å"). This has caused teams to find loopholes dealing with the situation. Many teams frequently use signing bonuses because they are not deducted out of a salary cap. Another way around the caps was â€Å"soft caps†, which was the resigning of free agents without their money being counted in the salary cap (DiLasco). More competitive players should be eligible for higher salary rates over those who lack the necessary abilities. Brent Mayne was a Major League player whom was paid $2. 5 million over the course of a year, yet his batting average was well below the expected standard at only a . 38 (Bradbury 75). Many other players who have higher capabilities than Mayne are paid less, the only difference being the name on their uniforms. The Houston Rockets signed a rookie for $6. 2 million , while Charles Barkley, with years of experience, signed for a mere $75,000 a year with the Philadelphia 76ers (DiLasco). This is where collective bargaining plays an important role. Collective bargaining is trying to Kirtner 3 establish an agreement on salary between club owners and players, which allows for a player’s input on what they feel they should make. However, if an agreement is not met between a large number of players and their owner, a strike or lockout may result. In 1994-95 the National Hockey League was cut short due to players going on strike (â€Å"Sportsâ€Å"). Some may argue that caps level the playing field by ensuring equal pay throughout an entire team. A generalization is made that these sports leagues are monopolies and many believe that it tends to lead to outcomes many athletes, sports fans, or even owners may not desire (Zimbalist 135). However, not every athlete has the same work ethic as his or her teammate. The higher paid players are usually the ones who are out on the field playing games day in and day out with the desire to always be improving. Their salaries can not be held against them for how hard they have worked to be categorized as an elite athlete. Yes, there are only a handful of people who make it into a professional sports career out of college or even high school, but there is also a handful who are known as â€Å"starting† players. Controversy over salary caps effecting athletics continues to become a rising issue. With the talent of players and the amount of money going into the industry rising as well, paying the deserving athletes well should not be a problem; Leagues should not feel the need to hide money for their deserving players. Such dilemmas only cause more difficulties than already at hand, therefore, leagues and athletic associations should not incorporate salary caps into the way players are paid.