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Professional Sports Research Paper

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The amount of money professional sports athletes make today is mesmerizing. It makes sense that the top athletes would make the most money. Teams are able to pay these athletes top dollar amounts because they make an extraordinary amount of money as well. North America has four major sports leagues which has a large majority of its teams playing in the United States and a handful of teams playing in Canada. These four leagues are Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Football League, and the National Basketball Association. To control how much money a team spends on players each season, the respected leagues determine a salary cap for each season. Each league has a collective bargaining agreement where the players …show more content…

The NFL consist of thirty-two teams with a roster size of fifty-three players. The NFL was formed almost ninety-eight years ago in Canton, Ohio. NFL teams play sixteen games a season in seventeen weeks. The salary cap for the 2018 NFL season is set at $177.2 million with a salary floor of 89%; equaling out to a $157.7 million salary floor. According to Ask the Commish, teams “must spend 95% of the cap. In the event that player costs are less than this overall league minimum, then, on or before April 15 of the next League Year, the NFL must pay an amount equal to such deficiency directly to the players” (Lackner). These salary conditions are stated in the collective bargaining agreement between the National Football League and the National Football League Players’ Association. Due to the hard salary cap, teams are unable to go above the limit, teams then backload contracts meaning that the player will earn more money each year of the contract the previous contract year. This can help keep the salary low for the current year, with assuming that the salary cap will increase the following years. Player salaries and signing bonuses are two aspects that go against the salary cap. The cap hit from player salaries is the actual amount that player is paid for that year. Signing bonuses are given out at once to the player receiving the bonus, but the cap hit is the average of the bonus for every year of the duration of the contract. For example, “Andrew Luck… signed a four-year deal worth $22.1 million and included a $14.5 million signing bonus. Rather than have that $14.5 million count in just one year against the cap, it is spread out over the deal. So for the Indianapolis Colts, his signing bonus would count for $3.625 million each year for four years” (Brooke). Signing bonuses are used to persuade the top players to sign contracts offered to

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