Do footy players earn too much?

[Stucey]

With a lot of the clubs struggling financially at the moment, and many clubs making million dollar losses each season, do you believe that the players are getting paid too much?

What do they do, train a couple of times a week and then play on the weekend and earn more than most people would earn in 5 or 10 years. Sure they go through a hell of a lot of tough physical work, but who wouldn't love to spend the day training with your mates and keeping your body in top physical condition.

I know that a lot, well most footballers these days have other interests (like croady) and other jobs during the week, but they would be maybe a few days a week. Do you think that the reason we see so many footballers in getting in trouble off the field is because they have too much money and too much time to spare?

If anyone here was offered the chance to train with your friends all week and go out and represent your club on the weekend, we would all jump at the chance,and we would probably do it for nothing.

I'm not saying that they don't deserve the money, I just think that something needs to be done or it will turn out like the N.F.L or N.B.A where players are earning 10's of millions of dollars.

I think there needs to be a balance between the old days, where players played for the love of the club and earned next to nothing, and now, where they have to put a lot more time and effort into football, but in my opionin earn too much

Tell me what you think

 

[Captain Sensible]

Yes all costs in football are escalating out of control. Revenue streams are drying up and football is in danger of no longer being sustainable. If we're not careful the only solution will be making it unaffordable for everyone.

 

[RacerX]

I don't have a real problem with the wages these guys are getting. Only the real big name players are pulling what I would consider to be an excessive salary.

IMO you are painting a fairly rosy picture of life as an AFL player. The real hardship of being an AFL player is not often discussed much, things like:
Very short careers when compared to other jobs (5 to 10 years is considered a good AFL career).
Copping injuries that will last them the rest of their lives
Low success rate - for every AFL player there are 10 guys who made all the sacrifices but never made the cut.
Concentrating 100% on footy at a time of their life when they could be going to uni etc.
Career uncertainty - these guys don't get a redundancy package if they get canned.

Don't get me wrong, I don't feel sorry for these guys. I just reckon the average AFL player is probably getting a reasonable wage, all things considered.

 

[Pessimistic]

Their pay is OK and relevant to the money they generate.

But watch out for a wedge being driven between the players and supporters as salaries continue to rise. Will supporters incrasingly begrudge the cost of memberships etc. Clearly many take memberships out to support their club while not neccesarily intending to attend all games.

Histeria like that witnessed recently about Trent Croad - where his 'crime' seems to be being paid 'too much]. You'd think he was the next Libba the way some people carry on

 

[Bloodstained Angel]

I disagree with you in part there RacerX

Like you, I don't really have a problem with the big money paid to the champion players.

Its what is happening at the other end of the salary scale that is really worrying me.

Apparently the average minimum salary in the AFL now is 126,000 dollars a year.

cripes

Its absolutely no wonder that clubs are struggling when they have to pay this kind of ridiculous money to just sombody who is 'on the list'.

You know the kind of player - 19-24 years old. Been around the fringes of senior selection a few times. Turns up for training and does what is asked of him, sure - such a player would spend 60 percent of their career in the VFL.

... and players like this are getting 126,000 a year ?

sheesh

Still what can you do ? - If you don't offer generous salaries then all the kids are gonna play basketball, soccer and golf because they look at people like Tiger Woods or Mark Viduka earning millions then why should they waste their time on the indigenous game when they could be making really big money in an international sport ?

its a lose-lose situation.

cheers

 

[RacerX]

$125K average minimum salary does sound a bit higher than I expected. Does that number include match payments?

I would not have a problem if that salary assumes the player plays "x" AFL games. If they just get that salary regardless of whether they play at all then I would say it is too high.

 

[Sly77]

Certainly there are some fringe players receiving a higher salary than they are worth. The problem is that clubs HAVE to at least 95% of the salary cap. This leaves clubs with two options

1) Pay the champions an even higher salary, generating a larger gap between the top and bottom players, which would no doubt create a lot of animosity between players, or:

2) Generally raise all salaries in the side, which benefits the club in raising player loyalty, moral etc etc

 

[elt]

Whilst I agree some fringe players may appear to be overpaid, I don't think we can point to players salaries as an area clubs struggling for money should target. The 95% rule will ensure that clubs looking to save money will need to look at other areas such as football department and administration costs, marketing and memberships.

Hawthorn is on track for a $1M profit this year, in no small part because they spend less on their football department than most other clubs. This is in spite of the fact they have some of the best fitness and recruiting people going around. If this level of spending can be maintained without hurting on-field results then the club will benefit financially. Clubs also need to look at how they invest and spend. Essendon have mentioned that the bulk of their profits this year will actually come from return on their investments.

Hawthorn have adopted a similar strategy with two thirds of all profits being invested and the remaining third being kept in cash reserves. Fund-raising is used for any improvements to Glenferrie.

The players are the stars of the game and as such are entitled to a proportion of the money the game generates. It is up to the AFL to ensure that the salary cap doesn't rise at a rate beyond what the clubs can keep up with.

 

[Stucey]

Originally posted by Sly77
Certainly there are some fringe players receiving a higher salary than they are worth. The problem is that clubs HAVE to at least 95% of the salary cap.


This is a stupid rule i think, it means that you have teams like Freo having to pay their hacks the same amount as teams like Essendon, it just doesn't make sense and then you get average players on top salaries

 

[Visro]

Why not have a system like the following, and take note, the numbers are only examples:

Minimum base wage: $75,000
Maximum base wage: $350,000

That base wage is just for appearing on the list, the club decides how much a player receives as their base wage depending on how much they think they're worth.

In addition the club pays a player:

Minimum game wage: $1,500
Maximum game wage: $4,000

Anyway, I think you get the gist of what I'm saying, there are basically two wages, one for being on the list and an extra for actually playing AFL games. This way, you earn your more by playing for the club. Those number figures above might have to be changed though...

Vis

 

[Stucey]

How about this, make it even simpler, well not really:

Players get no base wage.

They get paid per game and if they have a good game, they get say $20,000 max, if they have a bad one they get $3,000 min. And have a sliding scale in between. Then if they want to earn top money, they would have to perform each week.

I know this is not fair on the players who get injured etc... but it is just an idea

 

[Visro]

Originally posted by Stucey
How about this, make it even simpler, well not really:

Players get no base wage.

They get paid per game and if they have a good game, they get say $20,000 max, if they have a bad one they get $3,000 min. And have a sliding scale in between. Then if they want to earn top money, they would have to perform each week.

I know this is not fair on the players who get injured etc... but it is just an idea

Its definately not very fair on the players. What happens if you get picked up in the draft by say Essendon and due to their depth, dont get played in you first two seasons at all. No money for you and the first two years of your career wasted.

Vis

 

[Stucey]

Originally posted by Visro


Its definately not very fair on the players. What happens if you get picked up in the draft by say Essendon and due to their depth, dont get played in you first two seasons at all. No money for you and the first two years of your career wasted.

Vis

Yeah, but of course they would still pay you X amount of dollars depending on how you performed in the reserves, I know the idea was pretty silly but maybe they could have a retainer of say 30 or 40K and they work out additional player payments for the games they play and how well they perform

I don't know

 

[Stucey]

How about coaches, like.... say... Malcolm Blight who gets paid $333,333.33 per win. Do you think they are overpaid?

 

[MBER]

Players should be allocated a small area on there jumpers to use for private sponsership,

Clubs would have to arrange a special deal with there major sponsers,

and also apprenticeships/traineeships/Schooling should be offered to players when they join,
give the players something to do other then football everyday (one reason why there arn't many charaters in the game is becuase they don't know anything else or do anything else.
thats what made football so great back in the good old days,
but the AFL is obsessed with the Amercian way of things)

anyway there are heaps of different ways the AFL could fix the current problem but there all too scared, too stuck up and basically too dumb to realise,