Pro Sports Player Salaries & Anticipated NFL TV/Media Revenue come 2014

On our facebook conversation, someone suggested - 

"Pay the players a little less. I know this will not be popular. But, alot of people take paycuts."

Pro-sports players make a lot of money so I can understand her sentiment of hey, let them kick in some money! Some make more in one year than an average person would earn in their life time. But of all the pro sports, people have commented that the NFL is the league where players can get beat-up and injured the most and the risk of their careers being cut short is high.

Here are the average salaries per player per year for the 2010-11 seasons; number of players in each league and amount of money they make for each game played:

1. NBA, $5.5 million (450 players, $61k per game)
2. MLB $3.3 million (750 players, $20k per game)
3. NFL $1.9 million (1,606 players, $119k per game)

Overall, NFL players get a 47% cut of total NFL revenues (4.6 billion of $9.7 billion) and apart from their salaries, a good size chunk is used for benefits, former players pensions and care etc...

For those curious to know what their favorate player is making see the following links:

1. Cleveland Indians Player Salaries 2012-2013 - $74 million
2. Cleveland Browns Player Salaries 2012-2013 - $69 million
3. Cleveland Cavaliers Player Salaries 2012-2013 - $63 million

Team owners get 53% of Total NFL revenues, or $5.1 billion, and these owners are who the City, County and Gateway Econ. Dvlp. Corp have agreements with.

NFL TV/Media Revenue

The NFL negotiated most of their TV/Media contracts in 2011 for contracts that will expire this year.  For the new contract period 2014 - 2022 the NFL is expected to collect about $6 billion per year, or $187.5 million per year per team.  This represents a 173% increase in annual team TV/Media revenues from the 1998 - 2005 period.

To compare, here are the approximate figures for TV/Media revenue generated for the years beginning the time the new Cleveland Browns Stadium was opened (1999)

1998 - 2005; $2.2 billion ($68.8 million per team)

2006 - 2012; $3.1 billion ($96.9 million per team)

To be fair to the players, here is a cartoon depicting the NFL team owners money problems: