Few events unite our diverse country and bring people together like sports. No matter where we are from, which team we root for, or even if we don’t care about the game itself, the highlights of Sunday’s Super Bowl match-up will soon become part of our cultural lexicon and the shared American experience. Because of its role in maintaining our national identity, people may think of professional athletics like a common good, worthy of public investment. But, as personally meaningful and enjoyable as the big game may be, neither football nor any other professional sport is a public service: they are all for-profit enterprises that generate billions in private wealth for franchise owners.
This Sunday, we will watch athletes who earn an average annual salary of nearly $3 million compete to become champion of a league that makes more than $14 billion a year in revenue – in between commercials that cost $5 million for 30 seconds of airtime.
Big league sports do not need to be subsidized by taxpayers.
Inside Sources
by Michelle Minton
February 02, 2018