Yeah, runners don't do anything positive like those murders in the NFL.
Yeah, runners don't do anything positive like those murders in the NFL.
TheEconomist wrote:
The price of a unit of labor in a competitive labor market is equal to the marginal productivity of that labor.
For example, if having Adrian Peterson on your football team will cause an increase in revenue of $20 million, due to his own name as well as increased success of the team as a whole, a team owner will be willing pay up to $20 million to hire him.
Likewise, if Dathan Ritzenhein will increase shoe sales (probably primarily from HS runners) for a company by $500,000 that is what he will earn.
Supply and demand, plus a little charity perhaps.
An owner wants to pay the employee less than he brings in. So if AP brings in $20 million, the owner wants to pay just below that otherwise the owner is not making a profit. In your scenario, the owner would break even.
Plus sponsored runners are not magic revenue machines. I doubt that Nike offers much more than the opportunity cost associated with signing a contract.
Precious Roy wrote:
T&F athletes give up the prime earning years of their lives to compete. If they make 30-50k for ten years and then try to step into the private sector, chances are they will be starting at the salary level for a 22 year old college grad instead of being someone who is about to make partner, get propoted to upper management or finish their residency and get the big Dr. bucks. They are ten years behind when they stop running and may not even have marketable skills for the private sector (my local running store is filled with 30 something former elite wannabes).
Yeah, because everybody wants to make partner or be Dr. Bucks.
Or you can spend your twenties working at Megafirm and in your thirties get laid off like you're just a number when the economy goes bad.
And making 30-50k a year right out of college is really good considering the average american isn't making that right out of college so if you save you will do just fine in the future. Hell, the professional connections you make by being a pro athlete should set up any job you want in the future. Within respect to the industry. Of course some job opportunities like becoming a doctor might be passed but cry me a river. You do what you love.
Supply and Demand.
Next.
Whenever you need the answer wrote:
Supply and Demand.
Next.
While the supply of the best in the world (i.e. top 3-5) is, clearly, very limited, T&F is relatively unpopular with the masses which favor team sports due to the group programming everyone receives from a very young age in school. So the demand, or lack thereof, is the real culprit. People are also inherently envious of solo displays of greatness because it makes them feel inferior. Not sure how running will ever attract the attention required to furnish the very best of its athletes with compensation parity (i.e. upwards of 7 figures). The nature of the sport alienates too many people; our society is becoming more and more anti-individual.