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Should sports stars be paid obscene amounts of money?
The phenomenal appeal and omnipresence of sports in today's world is undeniable. Sporting allows an individual to exhibit skill, technique and physical capabilities in overcoming difficulties, and in the gruelling process having fun simultaneously. Another method of enjoying sports is through watching top-notch players battle it out in competitions or matches via forms of media. This is generally known as sports entertainment, and the latter is presently a dominating industry in the modern context. Due to sports entertainment's alluring appeal, sports stars and personalities have earned fat pay cheques, spawning the debate about whether their incomes should be so high. One root cause would be free market forces of demand and supply, coupled with commercialization providing these sports professionals with high profits, since there is excessive demand for their performances and services. Furthermore, professionals sacrifice extraordinary amounts of time and effort to pursue and maintain their high standards of sporting and appeal. Hence, I opine that sports stars should be paid obscene amounts of money since they are talented and appropriate for the job. However, by pursuing professionalism in search of monetary benefits, sportsmen often lose sight of sportsmanship and other important values instilled and benefits provided by sporting itself, defeating the purpose its existence. Additionally, sky-high incomes commanded by sports stars add to the countries' income inequality gap, which may open another pandora's box of problems.

Via an economical viewpoint, sports stars deserve to be paid their abundant sources of revenue because they provide adequate entertainment to the masses, and by satisfying such demands they should be paid for it. But how is it that famous NBA star basketball player Lebron James made his first million at the early age of nineteen? This is due mainly to the fact that sports star's performances are not rivalrous in consumption, hence these performances can be broadcasted throughout all forms of media to all people without affecting the quality and quantity available to another consumer. Therefore costs are kept at a minimum and profit margins are high for such sports stars. This is further spurred on by the largely excessive demand of sports entertainment. In today's industrialised world, people have to work for their keep. Hence their time for leisure sporting is compromised by their hectic lifestyles which revolve about their work. These people seek relaxation via sports entertainment, contributing to the high incomes of sports stars. In my opinion, as long as sports stars do their job by supplying their performances to audiences, they deserve their sky-high profits if they have a large sphere of influence, provided by the media, to satisfy a substantial amount of needs for sports entertainment in society.

Another service provided by sports stars is that they serve as 'ambassadors' of commercialization, which adds to their already colossal revenue. We all have seen Thierry Henry, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods on television commercials bombarding people with balls, urging them to purchase the new Gilette shaver. Neither have we missed out on Maria Sharapova, a tennis personality, taking photos of her dog with a Canon video camera. These are but the tip of the iceberg in the industry of advertising, a tactic in the books for firms to boost their sales. Due to their innate ability as sports personalities to coerce people into purchasing certain goods and services, they are highly paid by such firms requiring their services as promoters when these firms make high profits. In my opinion, since sports stars have the charm and appeal to such an extent that it influences their audience's consumption habits to favour a certain advertised good or service, they should be duly paid for their service towards promoting a firm's product, even if it seems an exhorbitant amount of monetary revenue.

People always argue that sports personalities earn obscene amounts of money just by playing sports professionally. It may seem that sporting is less demanding and taxing compared to most other jobs available, which in turn pay a meagre fraction of what sports personalities today earn. However, these people do not realize the countless sacrifices these sports stars have made to stay at the top of their game, and to have their incomes at such high levels. Part and parcel of professionalism is the arduous training all sporting professionals have to endure and overcome day by day in improving their technique and physical condition for them to stay on top of their game. Sports professionals also risk sustaining life threatening injuries which may prove lethal or end their careers, rendering them unable to support themselves for a long time to come. The case of Eduardo de silva perfectly exemplifies this point. The Arsenal soccer player has sustained a broken ankle injury due to a bone-crunching tackle by another Everton defender, causing Eduardo his career and possibly his ability to walk ever again. Also, NFL player Kevin Everett suffered a lethal spinal injury after a collision another player. Despite being rescued from the brink of death, he lives in suffering and despair by requiring tedious physiotherapy and psychological afflictions. Hence, I feel that sports stars deserved to be paid their high salaries to compensate for their hard work and also the risks they take every time they step on the field or court.

However, via a socio-political viewpoint, it is generally a bane for the nation if sports stars command colossal salaries, since it aggravates the income inequality gap. In most nations, certain groups of people are rich whilst usually the majority are poor or drawing moderate wages. This has been a phenomenom present in society since medieval times. When such an issue gets out of hand, a country might face serious social, economical and political problems as history has taught us many a times. Take for instance in the 19th century, when the chinese Qing dynasty faced problems due to the poor revolting against the government, leading to social unrest, economic instability and political turmoil. If the poor see themselves suffering today, while looking at another person named Tiger Woods enjoying an annual salary of US$100million merely by swinging a golf club at a ball, feelings of resentment are bound to arise. Consequently, if the amount of discontented poor are substantial, this may well induce a revolt against the government, leading to other problems such as social instability, economic disruptions and political turmoil. Therefore, it may be essential to prevent such catastrophes from befalling the nation by regulating downward the salaries of these sports stars such that it is not obscenely high to cause instability within a nation in its various essential aspects.

The pursuit of professionalism in today's sports entertainment industry by sportsmen is mainly for the monetary benefits of being a sports star, causing certain values such as sportsmanship instilled by sporting to be cast aside and neglected. Take for instance Marion Jones, an Olympic female track runner who utilized steroids, a performance-enhancing drug, which earned her 5 gold medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. In such a case, she has clearly ditched any form of sportsmanship and honour in the pursuit of glory and monetary gain by being hell-bent on winning to such an extent that it involved unscrupulous means of doing so. As such, I feel that the salaries of sportsmen should not be exceedingly high so as to encourage the true spirit of sporting in sporting professionalism, for sportsmen to embrace the values instilled by sporting such as teamwork and foresight, and to hence maintain the authencity of the sport itself.

In conclusion, I feel that sports stars should be paid high amounts of revenue if they deliver what they promise, entertain the masses and do what they should to maintain their standards of performance. Moreover, revolts due to the high incomes of a few sports stars are unlikely to occur. Sports entertainment, revolving about profits, would continue to flourish as a successful industry and an effective tool for commercialization.