Do AFL players deserve and extra $65,000 in their pay packets ?
AFL stars are fighting for a $49 million-a-year pay rise - equal to $65,000 a player.
Industry sources confirmed the league's powerful player union will tell the AFL it wants a fixed 27 per cent cut of all future revenues, or $219 million on this year's figures.
Payments to the AFL's 750 players reached $170 million this season, about 21 per cent of the game's gross takings.
I know they are great entertainers, and I am a Collingwood tragic from way back, but I think asking for a pay rise which is greater than many of their fans entire annual pay packets is a bit rich! Come on guys, why should a young man be paid THAT much money to simply do what most football players actually pay to do every weekend. I know people who are PhD researchers trying to find ways of helping find vaccines for malaria etc. and they are paid a pittance, whereas if they were simply a bit better co-ordinated they could earn enough to set themselves up for life as a footballer!
And to say that it will only be a short career, and they have to make enough money to live on is ridiculous. Most people change jobs every few years nowadays anyway - very few have the luxury of a "first" job, fresh out of school, which pays megabucks, allows time for a part-time uni degree and gives you public recognition so your next job should be easy to get. Life in a fishbowl it may be - but it can be a very expensive fishbowl which is a huge plus!
I see no problem with indexing the rookie base rate to increases in the national basic wage rate, but beyond that, performance is the yardstick for their individual contractual salaries Raising the total salary cap from $170m to $219m is a 28.82% increase in one hit, but there is no surety that it will be equally split within each squad. There is nothing that I can see to stop each club spending their extra $2m odd on just 2 or 3 players eg Ablett @ $1m /year.
In any other industry you have per hour wage earners, protected by unions OR negotiated salaries where the terms of engagement & remuneration are between employer & employee with no union involvement. In this case, the union wants a piece of the action both ways and this could be a dangerous precedence.
Finally, until we see the details on such aspects as the proposed retirement fund etc all of which will eat a big chunk out of the $49m first, the $65,000 is only sensational headlining. Under $20,000 in the actual pay packet may be more realistic deserved and bearable.
Hard to find a guy on a 2-14 team that is underrated. I'm going to go with Dwayne Bowe though. Numbers may not be huge but that will happen when the list of QBs that have thrown to you is Brodie Croyle, Damon Huard, Tyler Palko, Tyler Thigpen, Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn. Those guys aren't making anyone look like a superstar and the lack of any other true receiving threat means he's double covered quite a bit. He's very good at blocking down field as well.
As i reported earlier this week. clubs are posting profits. which means that the AFL has the game in pretty good shape at the moment. giving the players a pay rise. will only entice more and more younger kids. to come on over to play aussie rules footy. great news for the new clubs in NRL dominated states. cheers.