This tounge-in-cheek look at the economic of professional sports versus those in other professional disciplines. A lot of questions ... no answer!
Favourite highlights:
"Why is it that no one complains when Ray Romano ("Raymond") gets $50 million a year—$1.8 million per episode—which takes about the same time to film as a baseball game;... Or when news anchors—a.k.a. teleprompter readers—and talk-show hosts ink eight-figure contracts? But let Alex Rodriguez sign for $25 million a year or let the mean baseball salary hit $2.5 million and commentators and the sports-talk-radio crowd get in a dither? "
"And why is it that movie fans don't blame Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe or Julia Roberts for driving up the cost of going to a movie, or John Grisham's healthy royalties for the price of our beach books, while we blame A-Rod or Sammy for increasing the price of baseball tickets? Of course, none is correct: the demand for players, or actors or writers, is a derived demand and thus their salaries stem from higher demands on the part of fans for the final good or service they produce. (If Randy Johnson were to bring the heat for free or Shaq were to clank free throws off the rim for no charge, it would have no more than a negligible effect on Diamondback or Laker tickets; club owners would simply pocket the savings.) At least we ought to be consistent in our errors and hostility. "
And a link to the article:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y20...rsonsports.html
Although the author tounge in cheeks claims not to know the answer, part of it must be misguided moral outrage; part of it must also be irrational love of our sports teams (the latter being something that I readily admit to being guility of). :P