Athlete Salary Statistics Resources

The common complaint among fans, reporters, and other observers of the sports world is the salaries earned by athletes. The Internet has opened up the secrets of athlete salary statistics to keep the public informed about the sports business.

Targets For Athlete Salary Statistic Resources

The two groups that use athlete salary statistics frequently are fans and reporters. Avid sports fans will look at their team’s overall salary as well as individual salaries to get ready for the next season. Fans can use athlete salary statistics to judge the value of each player considering their on-field performance. Newspaper and TV reporters preparing their next stories use online resources containing athlete salary statistics. These statistics can be used to highlight an unlikely hero making the league minimum and draft busts who have not lived up to their oversized contracts.

How To Use Athlete Salary Statistics

Most fans will use athlete salary statistics for purely entertainment purposes. A fan who is preparing to call into a sports talk radio show may bring up online statistics to cite accurate information during a discussion. The statistics cited on websites like ESPN.com© and Sports Business Journal© can be used to settle bets between friends about the highest paid players in a particular league. The casual fan uses athlete salary statistics to boost his sports knowledge in barroom debates and discussions.

Another use for athlete salary statistics is during preparation for a fantasy sports season. The organizer of a fantasy football league can use the next season’s salary statistics to determine the value of each player. These values can restrict the acquisitions of each player if the league has a virtual salary cap. Fantasy sports leagues can also use athlete salary statistics when determining whether a trade is fair for both sides.

A die-hard sports fan can use athlete salary statistics to analyze the personnel moves of his favorite team. For example, the Florida Marlins© have been known to dump salaries after successful seasons including championship years in 1997 and 2004. By contrast, teams like the Boston Red Sox© and New York Yankees© continue to amass major payrolls to compete for championships. An analysis of athlete salary statistics can be used to forecast the odds for a good season by a particular team.

ESPN.com©

ESPN.com© (http://sports.espn.go.com) calls itself the “worldwide leader in sports” because of its 24-hour coverage of sports as well as its extensive family of cable stations. The company’s website has become a prime destination for sports fans around the world looking for information on their favorite teams. A fan looking for athlete salary statistics on ESPN.com© can start by heading to the tab for his favorite sport. After finding a team in the sport’s main page, you can look at multiple layers of information on player salaries. Each team has a list of individual salaries for the current season, a comparison of team overall salary to the rest of the league, and past salaries for each player. The main advantage of ESPN.com© is that the athlete salary statistics listed for each team are updated frequently to reflect roster moves and new contracts.

Sports Business Journal©

The raw data on athlete salaries from ESPN.com© may not be useful to the average fan without some context. Sports Business Journal© is a weekly publication by Street and Smith’s© that is designed to blend the entertainment and business values of sports. Subscribers to Sports Business Journal© can pursue various sections to find updates on athlete salary statistics. The Coast-to-Coast section covers sports news from the Atlantic to the Pacific including big contracts for players and coaches. The Labor and Agents area of Sports Business Journal© covers salary statistics from the perspective of sports agents and marketing. The pages of Sports Business Journal© are great for fans who want to go beyond the story to learn about the economics of professionals sports.

USA Today© Salaries Databases

USA Today©(http://content.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/default.aspx) is read by millions of people each day who are interested in the digest-like format covering the world’s pressing news. The daily newspaper is accessible at hotels, airports, and restaurants nationwide, demonstrating its national appeal. USA Today© has developed effective online tools like the Salaries Databases to take advantage of this popularity. The USA Today© Salaries Databases offer updated salary statistics for professional basketball, baseball, football, and hockey players.

These databases are easy to use, comprehensive, and part of USA Today’s© extensive sports coverage. You can start your search for athlete salary statistics by entering the player’s name, sport, team, position, and applicable year. USA Today© offers in-depth statistics including base salary, roster bonuses, and performance bonuses going back to the 2001 season. The state-by-state breakdown of professional sports along with the extensive cover stories on sport’s best athletes demonstrates the role USA Today© plays in the lives of sports fans.

Salary.com®

Salary.com® (http://www.salary.com) is an oft-used resource by job hunters and human resources professionals interested in the job market. The website contains articles, salary calculators, and other resources that can help professionals make smart decisions about their careers. Salary.com® does not have a blind spot for athletes, offering basic information on average salaries for a variety of athletic careers. The focus of Salary.com salary statistics for the athletic world is collegiate athletics including directors, trainers, media specialists, and broadcasters. The ideal use of athlete salary statistics on Salary.com® is a comparison of this information with salaries for non-athletes like doctors, lawyers, and teachers.

The Houston Chronicle©

The Houston Chronicle© (http://www.chron.com/databases/athletessalaries/) and other local newspapers offer lists of local athlete salaries to their readers. These lists are frequently published as part of seasonal sports articles in papers like the Houston Chronicle©, as the next season approaches. The Houston Chronicle© salary database allows fans to search by last name and team to find specific information. The database main page features a list of the top paid athletes in the Houston area, answering a common question among local sports fans. The multitude of search options and the local nature of the Chronicle’s database make it an invaluable source for athlete salary statistics. Since the Houston Chronicle© is published by Hearst Newspapers©, sports fans around the country with Hearst Newspaper© dailies can find similar resources on their websites.