Why are owners willing to pay so much for their players?

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Recently with the Chicago Cubs World Series victory we have seen the impact that sports can have on the community. Well over half of the school on Thursday, the day following Wednesday night’s World Series victory, was wearing blue or repping the Cubs in some way. The reaction to the first win in 108 years has been all over social media. This reaction has been emotional and many people are still in shock from the fact that the Cubs have finally won. All of these are part of why the owners are willing to pay their players so much. The fans have an emotional connection to the team, and their success has an impact on their daily lives. This dedication to the team by the fans leads to tons of revenue for the owners. Fans are willing to pay this ridiculous $75 for a World Series sweatshirt, because they are passionate for the Cubs. The owners can make absurd amounts of money from all of the merchandise that the fans were purchasing along the ride to the World Series and in celebration of the victory itself. Cubs fans are passionate for the Cubs, this was clear in the fact that over half of Progressive Field in Cleveland was filled with Cubs fans. That leads me to my next point, the tickets. The tickets for the World Series were so expensive in Chicago, in some cases it was cheaper to fly to Cleveland, pay for a hotel, and watch a game there in Cleveland than to just buy a ticket for the game at Wrigley. The sources,  SBNBA and Forbes, are reliable, because they are experienced with financials and how they relate to sports. All in all the main reason that the owners are willing to pay so much for the players is because of how much revenue that they earn from the player’s production on the field and the passion of the fans for the players.


Fans are incredibly passionate about their sports teams and this can lead them to paying crazy amounts of money for merchandise or tickets for their team. One of these sources where they are willing to spend large amounts is paying for sports channels that allow them to watch their teams play on television. “ The salary cap jump to $94 million was expected once the $24-billion television deal was signed, but no one immediately foresaw another substantial jump coming the year after. But it's happening, with the 2017-18 cap is set to jump to an estimated $107-110 million range.” This huge TV deal is the due to the increasing popularity of particular leagues and the increase in fan interest. This puts tons of revenue into the pockets of the owners. The owners know that they would not get this revenue without the players, so they are more than willing to give these crazy amounts to all of their players of vary levels of skill from Jay Cutler and his $21 M to Andrew Luck and his $30 M. They get this crazy revenue from the passion of their fan bases, and it makes them willing to spend large sums on their players that increase that passion of their fan bases by being successful, fun to watch, and helping to make their teams a winning product.


There is a contrast to this however. That massive new NBA TV deal was just signed in the US. However the professional basketball league in Spain does not have anywhere near as lucrative of a TV deal. Among other reasons the main reason for this is difference in interest in the sport. In America basketball is one of the big three sports that includes football and baseball as well. In Spain the major sport is soccer and nothing else is really close. They are crazy about their soccer, so the interest in basketball is lower. One might say then why is it that the NBA is so popular here like soccer in Spain, but so is the MLB and NFL. Well that is just simple economic differences between the countries. The US and it's citizens are for the most part extremely well off, especially when compared to other countries. Many Americans have the money to be passionate about multiple sports and follow them all closely. For example many at our school happen to be big Cubs, Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks fans and have merchandise for all of those teams. Most Spaniards simply do not have the money to do that, because they are not as well off as Americans are. This decreased basketball interest and amount to spend on those teams for fans there makes the wages for players there less. There is more interest for basketball here and more money for fans to spend on their teams so the wages of the players goes up.