executive pay

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3933228

Executive pay is a pretty hot topic right now, and a strong argument can be made on either side of the issue. I know there are plenty of "shop floor" type workers in the NFL offices and in team operations, so it is great to see an exec is willing to get even a little taste of the pain that so many people feel right now. However, for some reason, I feel differently about this case, because my opinion is that many of the athletes should be accepting pay cuts before Goodell does. The NFL has done very well under his leadership, while plenty of players have done jack ****.

I know, I know, players earn so much because we pay to see them and because teams have to compete for talent. I get how the market works. I just don't like it.



RANDOM EMOTICON TIME!!!!!!!!

P.S. I love that I've been labeled as the resident malcontent. Quite a fitting title. Drago, you have once again proven your genius.

I always thought mickey put it nicely that "so few people in the world can do what they do, they should be paid well for it".

I think "well" is the key word here, they get paid enormous sums to play a damn game.

I heard Goodell was going to take a pay cut but he could accept any number of bonuses from places no one would hear about. I like how he tries to make himself out to be a saint.

Again, I'll say this: Yeah, yeah, I understand scarcity and demand and all that, but it ignores the higher values that I wish we as a society would take into account.

There are plenty of people out there with very unique talents, and they don't get paid squat. Just because we have a cultural obsession with pro sports doesn't mean athletic ability is somehow more redeeming than any of the other niche talents that are out there. What about the juggler that can juggle 16 knives and a bowling ball? Or the lady that can tell you what day of the week it was on any given date, going back hundreds of years?

My point is that, in every culture, there will be a culturally constructed fascination with something that serves to amuse people and bring them some sort of leisure or pleasure. My disappointment isn't necessarily that some people earn so much money, but that they are so selfish with it so much of the time. The same goes for those that earn big bucks doing something that could be considered more significant, like business execs or entrepreneurs.


You're probably quite right about Goodell's less obvious forms of compensation. With bonuses, options, dependent outside earnings, and so on, the big guys earn quite a bit beyond the base salary. But the headline of taking a pay cut sure looks good.

Maybe my naivete is seeping through here, but just because Goodell can make this hush-hush deals doesn't mean he will. He's taking a pay cut, that's all anyone really knows. I'm not saying he shouldn't or that he is not overpaid. But all we know, factually, is that he's taking a pay cut.

Again with the reason and logical thought!!!!!!!!!

The thing about goodell is that he doesn't have a significant talent that warrants the 10 million he pulls down a year. I would say an Offensive or Defensive coordinator's position would be infinitely more difficult but they only get paid a meager 500k or so.

as for the juggler and the autistic chick...people have to want to watch these things. I think it sucks that sports has gotten so out of control too but i don't see it changing until interest dies down.

2 points, same topic---

1.) I don't know more than 4 people that follow the NBA enough to even watch a quarter of a game out of shear boardem...then how is the league still so damn profitable?

2.) Why do people see such a HUGGGGGGEEEEEE tie to a team of which they will probably never meet a single player? I mean these people are dropping 10K a year on tickets, tailgating, beer...WTF??? Some jets fans i know are still in college dropping 5k annually. This is what really baffles me.

1-Didn't the NBA just take out a 200 million dollar loan? I hope the league goes under. Don't worry, I'm an equal opportunity curmudgeon. I also hope that Phoenix's (Phoenix'?) and every other southern cities' hockey teams go bankrupt and have to move back to Canada. Hockey should not be played in the south or in the desert.
2-Don't know. There are lots of stupid people out there, and there are also lots of douchebags. There are far too many stupid people in the world...we really should start sterilizing some of them.
3-Booba doesn't drink his coffee black. He takes it with a dollop of baby harp seal blood and two cubes of bald eagle meat.

i like number 3 the best. holy crap that is funny.

My friend schultz just told me about the loan the NBA took out. Wasn't it to pay for "operating expenses"? Then they claim it is because of people having big screen TV's?

Give me a break. Nobody watches that garbage league because they don't have marketable players. There are a bunch of scrum bag gangsters walking around playing one on one. The art form of watching a team defense (80's Pistons) or a team offense (80's lakers/celtics) are long gone.

i hope the league folds too. Even this loan they are taking might force them to scale back the insane amount of money these thugs pull down.

I just read that the Houston Texans signed Dan Orlovsky to a 3 year, $8.5 million deal. DAN ORLOVSKY GETS ALMOST 3 MIL A YEAR????!!!!!

Carter, there is a pretty big difference between the decline of viewers and nobody regarding the NBA.

ethan wrote:I just read that the Houston Texans signed Dan Orlovsky to a 3 year, $8.5 million deal. DAN ORLOVSKY GETS ALMOST 3 MIL A YEAR????!!!!!

I don't even know who dan orlovsky is....?

booba...come on now, i was speaking in generalities. From the people on Jetnation and just friends in general...nobody seems to follow the sport anymore and i'm wondering if that is a sign of things to come.

i think it is. We'll have to see, i think the next few years will be very telling in pro sports as a whole.

I could be wrong, but I think the NBA's strongest fan base is quite young. It might be that your friends, and the people you talk with on Jetnation, are older than the NBA's biggest demographic. That's just my half-cocked theory based on NBA marketing and the people I know who follow the league (high school kids love it, whereas no one I know cares). Perhaps my evidence is too anecdotal.

Anyone else see a problem in that marketing strategy? I mean, they have been playing bands like Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen at the Super Bowl half times because the NFL's target market actually have jobs and still enjoy the sport.

Gearing the NBA to the younger crowd is simply foolish...but we'll see. I would bet in my life time that league takes some major financial hits or flat our falls apart.

I bet they'll turn it around eventually. The same thing was happening before Jordan came along and peaked.

the NBA was down a few years but it was only a few years prior that they had Magic, Bird and company. The league never really peaked like it had peaked with those guys, then Jordan took it to a whole other level.

With all the "stars" in that league, i don't see it coming back to the other generations until they have some players people either realte to or at minimum respect.

Pay should be based on how well an industry is doing. If the company falls into trouble, it is, in my opinion the result of leadership (and/or housing market fallout). They should be the first ones taking wage cuts. The problem we are having today is so many in big (buisness sp?) think they should be rewarded no matter how the company does.

That is retarded.

No one person is worth 200 million a year. Even if you invented the wheel, or figured out what to do with it. I want them to limit bank CEO salaries. They say it is a free market economy and they have to pay them to keep them?

**** that, who else is going to pay them that much? NOONE! (Maybe Saudi oil barons, who knows)


PS my cat took a wicked #2 about 20 minutes ago and it's still hanging around... any suggestions?

In Europe the CEO's will not only take pay cuts in down years but they will go into the negative. What better way to prove yourself to your fellow employees? we struggle...i struggle.

In the US the people get locked into these contracts, and you're right, no one is worth 200 million a year. Although Carmona will argue that people are worth those dollars if they can grow the company better than anyone else can.

Two problems. 1.) you can't tell what someone else COULD do with a certain company without handing them the reigns (not going to happen) and 2.) companies in this company think that because someone "earns" a CEO job that they are automatically worth said job. Bull ****. If they can't turn a profit and I mean...MAJOR profit, they should make no more than a package handler and/or be flat out fired for not being able to grow an already existing company.

I can't tell you how frustrated I am with these CEO's taking down big dollars because they can brown nose better than the next guy. My anger didn't just start this year, it's been brewing for while, so please don't peg this on the recent fall out.

The whole market-value explanation for high CEO salaries is entirely dependent on the culture. American culture is ridiculously hyper-individualist. You don't have to look very hard to notice that Asian and European firms often outperform their American counterparts, yet executive pay is much lower in comparison to shop-floor wages. No executive has to take that much money. They choose to take it because they are a product of a culture that teaches people that individualism is somehow better for economic growth and prosperity.

ethan wrote:The whole market-value explanation for high CEO salaries is entirely dependent on the culture. American culture is ridiculously hyper-individualist. You don't have to look very hard to notice that Asian and European firms often outperform their American counterparts, yet executive pay is much lower in comparison to shop-floor wages. No executive has to take that much money. They choose to take it because they are a product of a culture that teaches people that individualism is somehow better for economic growth and prosperity.

You call it indivicualism i call it good old fashion american greed. It's the foundation of this country and in many ways, capitalism. What bothers me is that these companies are seeminlgy surprised that they are failing despite all the money the pay out to the high execs.

The money has to come from somewhere. It's no wonder american cars are over priced piles of rolling tin.

American cars are not that bad anymore. They are still overpriced but at least they are reliable anymore.

I'm about as far from a gearhead as they come, and I don't know what to believe about the quality of American automobiles. A source I trust tells me that Dodge makes the longest lasting and best performing engines, but that their bodies and finishing suck. Consumer Reports still ranks the Japanese as more reliable, and I still hear some car aficionados say that the Germans and Japanese are the best out there. However, I've also heard that Ford has improved a lot in the last decade, and that even GM has some very reliable and well designed models.

That said, I hate driving, and we should all be walking, biking, and taking public transit instead of driving anyway.

you are such a tree hugging flower child. I mean i swing to the left but come on...no cars? just public transit? Next you'll be asking for mandatory bong hits before you go to work.

on second though, maybe you should put your bid in for running for some kind of pulic office. I'm pretty sure you are under qualified by not having any major felonies or a child porn collection, but you never know.

I'd like to be 2nd in line for the bong hits. What else is this about you being a felon?