Disney, Richard --- "Remuneration of Sports Stars: Implications for Regulation" [2007] ELECD 260; in Bogusz, Barbara; Cygan, Adam; Szyszcak, Erika (eds), "The Regulation of Sport in the European Union" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: The Regulation of Sport in the European Union

Editor(s): Bogusz, Barbara; Cygan, Adam; Szyszcak, Erika

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203632

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Remuneration of Sports Stars: Implications for Regulation

Author(s): Disney, Richard

Number of pages: 23

Extract:

7. Remuneration of sports stars:
implications for regulation
Richard Disney

In 1929, Babe Ruth, the greatest American baseball player, earned $70,000 . . . An
indignant reporter asked Ruth to justify how he could be worth substantially more
than what the President of the United States earned. Ruth is reported to have said:
`I had a better year'. (Quoted by Rosen and Sanderson, 2001)

Do I get value for money? What do you think? I personally don't get value for
money from the players. If you see a Premiership player on, say, £5000 a week, do
I get 20 times more pleasure than [from] a player in the Championship earning £250
a week? Of course I don't. Paying players £100,000­£150,000 is just insane. I
earned all my money the old-fashioned way and you would have to send me back
to school for me to understand why they get paid so much for doing so little.
We are the ones stupid enough to pay them, but they are overpaid for what they
contribute. (Milan Mandaric, Portsmouth FC Chairman, quoted by the Daily Mail,
24 March 2006)

Pat Burrell is in a profession where failure is routine. The best players in the game
only get a hit one out of every three times at bat. But when Burrell inked a six year,
$50 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies during the offseason, the left-
hander's room for failure decreased exponentially.
`We play a game for a living, ...