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Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

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Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

Paid to Play Games

Spanish Translation

Shortstop Alex Rodriguez will earn $25,200,000 each year for 10 years!

In 1930 the great New York Yankee Babe Ruth was asked to explain his new salary: $80,000. How could he make so much playing baseball, people asked, when the President was earning $75,000? "I had a better year than he did," Ruth replied. The country was sliding into a rough time called the Great Depression, so few people disagreed.

Times have changed. The President now earns $400,000 a year. The highest-paid baseball player, Alex Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers, makes a bit more than $25 million. The two salaries are no longer in the same ballpark!

When the Price Is Right
In a perfect world, the President would earn more than any athlete. Doctors would get more than movie stars. Your teacher would earn more than Britney Spears. But our world is not perfect. Athletes, like movie stars, get huge salaries because the entertainment they provide is a big business.

Shaquille O'Neal earns about $17,100,000 a year to shoot hoops for the L.A. Lakers.

Team owners figure it makes sense to pay big salaries to stars like Rodriguez or basketball's Shaquille O'Neal or football's Brett Favre. The owners will get their money back when fans buy millions of tickets to see these athletes play. The Rangers will sell more tickets now that they have A-Rod. They will charge TV networks more to show the games.

Should Fans Say No?
As player salaries go up, so do ticket prices. It costs a family of four more than $250 to go to a basketball game (with hot dogs, parking and so on). What if fewer fans buy tickets? Then players will be paid less.

Once upon a time, the U.S. valued other jobs more highly. When George Washington became the first President in 1789, his salary was $25,000-big bucks in those days. It was much more than any sportsman was making. But Washington wouldn't take any money! Yes, times have surely changed.

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