Out of all the things you can be critical of in sports, why the athletes? The demand for the sport results in athletes no matter what. I don't think HN commenters understand the extraordinary difficulty of becoming a professional athlete. Ignoring the genetic requirements, the amount of work and drive needed is unbelievable, and 99.9% will fail. Athletes are actually underpaid in the US, if you look at the wage to revenue ratios of most professional leagues.
Even if the athletes themselves were the problem, there is no viable solution here. Banning sports?
There may be no solution to the sports industry existing, but that doesn't prevent it from being a waste of capital and labor. But in it's current form, it can at least be improved by switching to soccer. See my other comment to your sibling for more detail.
>Athletes are actually underpaid in the US, if you look at the wage to revenue ratios of most professional leagues.
You need to compare the wage to profit ratio which I'll assume you meant. And while I don't say you're wrong I'd like to see the numbers. Also I guarantee the thousands of faceless workers built around these athletes are more underpayed than the athletes, although whether that's relevant depends on exactly what point you're making. In any case, while the work and drive needed to become an athelete is very high, the amount needed to fulfill the demand is very low. Again, see my other comment. So the effort put in is just to be the one to extract the resources from ticket buyers. And the more effort put in, or more accurately the more exclusive the talent pool becomes, the higher the total cost becomes, although perhaps that amount is negligible, and that depends on the numbers which I don't have and which are either way unnecessary for my central claim.
Even if the athletes themselves were the problem, there is no viable solution here. Banning sports?