Welcome to Rye Country Day's Economic Blog. Here you will find perspectives by students taking Economics at Rye Country Day School. It is meant to be a forum where students can openly express their ideas and take positions on relevant economic issues. I urge everyone to participate in presenting their own ideas in an open manner so that we can all learn from each other. Regardless of whether you are currently taking Economics, everyone is invited and encouraged to comment on articles and get involved. Feel free to e-mail me, Alex Osborne at alexander_osborne@rcds.rye.ny.us , with comments or suggestions.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Featured Entry - Dice-K Matsuzaka - Worth $51.5 million? Is anyone?


This week the Boston Red Sox made a big expenditure. How big? $51.5 million! The worst part is that this fee is merely for the rights to talk to Matsuzaka, a Japanese pitcher, about a contract. This price, paid to his team in Japan is just to talk to the young star, not to mention what he will be paid in salary. What price do Americans put at winning? I mean, granted the Red Sox are frustrated after a season of not making the playoffs, finishing third in the AL East, and worst of all yet again inferior to the New York Yankees. But when does the spending end? The U.S. government in my opinion needs to step in and do something. They need to somehow regulate the spending of the Red Sox, Yankees, and other baseball franchises especially when upwards of $50 million will not exchange hands ever again in America. The Red Sox are taking a big risk on an unproven, foreign player with an investment they will doubtfully see ever again. The spending needs to stop. Now this expenditure alone will likely not hurt the U.S. economy but the principle remains as a bad trend has continued of spending U.S. dollars accross U.S. borders. A value rooted in American history of a Protestant work-ethic and putting money back into your community so you can see the benefits has seemed to fade away, at least for now.

-T. A. Canning

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I honestly think that your right in saying that salaries in all major league sports are getting out of control. However, the government has no business stepping in and regulating athletes salaries because then they would have to step in and regulate CEO compensation packages. I think that just because you have the most expensive players doesnt gaurentee your going to win...even the Yankee teams of the late 90's werent that expensive they were just great players who meshed well together. I think there needs to be a universal cap on all salaries in professional sports.

Anonymous said...

There should definatley be a limit to spending in sports. Salaries of sports players have been rising greatly from the 70s to now. Although 51 million to just get a player to be available for a team is ridiculous. If a team is paying 51 million to just meet with Matsuzaka, then what in the world will they be willing to pay for his salary. Not only hurting the economy, these large expidentures start a spark for other sports teams. Not all teams can afford paying 51 million for a player to just be available, but many teams try to out-do the other. For example the Yankees are known for spending very large amounts of money for players salaries. Powerhouses like the Yankees sort of show off and do not want to be outdone by their rivals, the Red Sox. Overall paying great sums of money for players hurst the economy and does not promote the economy whatsoever

Unknown said...

$51.5million is out of control. I guess I would understand if that was how much money they were spending for a contract but just to talk to him?!?! I’ve always thought sports players got too much money. We talked about it in a roundtable once about how they have a high risk job (with a sport like football) but miners aren’t being paid 40million dollars a year so I don’t really think that’s a factor. Yes, the Red Sox didn’t have such a great season last year and I don’t know much about Matsuzaka but would he really help the team that much? Another ridiculous price being paid in sports is the $200million contract the L.A. Galaxy soccer team is offering David Beckham. Soccer isn’t even a huge deal in the USA and won’t be for a while so I don’t see how the team can even afford such an expensive contract.

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