Dylan Maple

Sports Editor

            Even though the world has been mired in a global recession, it must be comforting to know that at least one occupation is recession proof: being really, really good at sports.

                  The economy has still had an effect on sports, of course. Many professional leagues and organizations have shut down or filed for bankruptcy, but the true superstars have had no trouble getting the 9-figure contracts they want.

                  Consider this: Matt Holliday signed a 7-year contract worth $120 million with the St. Louis Cardinals this winter.

Meanwhile, the average salary for someone with a college degree is $81,400, according to the US Census Bureau. It would take roughly 250 years to earn 120 million with that salary.

Some people would say that athletes deserve the money because of all of the revenue they bring to their cities. Superstars put fans in the seats, sell merchandise and give the organization good publicity.

Others would say that in a global recession, it can be seen as insulting that Alex Rodriguez makes roughly $527,400 per week, which is more than most people in the US will ever make.

The first 100 million was in professional sports was given out in 1996, and there have 41 handed out since then, and that’s not accounting for sponsorships, which made Tiger Woods the first athlete to reach the billion dollar plateau, despite not actually playing a sport that hands out individual contracts.

In 1993, Barry Bonds signed 6-year contract worth $43.75 million, which set a record for professional athletes at the time.

Now middling athletes often surpass that contract.

Another argument to be made is that student-athletes are just as financially beneficial to their university as professional athletes are to their organizations, yet student athletes don’t get any financial compensation.

After all, student athletes for major colleges play on national television on a regular basis, so they are earning the massive TV contracts that conferences sign, like the 15-year contract the Southeastern Conference signed with ESPN for over $2 billion dollars recently, yet don’t reap any of the benefits from it.

There is also a large disparity between the salaries of male and female athletes.                  Part of that is inescapable, women’s sports leagues, such as the WNBA and LPGA, aren’t generating nearly as much revenue as their male counterparts, and if the leagues don’t have any money, the athletes don’t have enough money.

The top paid female athlete is tennis player Maria Sharapova, earning about $26 million a year, and also owns the top sponsorship deal among female athletes, am 8-year $70 million contract with Nike.