Professional salaries per game

Below is a chart of the per game salaries of the max avg and min professional sports athletes.

Websites used : wikipedia.com, baseballsalaries.com, footballsalaries.com, cbssports.com

		Regular season salary	Per game
MLB 162 games	max	$30,000,000	$185,185
	avg	$3,310,000	$20,432
	min	$480,000	$2,962
NFL 16 games	max	$19,035,000	$1,189,687
	avg	$1,900,000	$118,750
	min	$390,000	$24,375
NHL 82 games	max	$14,000,000	$170,731
	avg	$2,400,000	$29,268
	min	$525,000	$6,402
NBA 82 games	max	$68,700,000	$837,804
	avg	$5,150,000	$62,804
	min	$480,000	$5,853

All calculations done by myself.


Does it make sense that football players make so much per game compared to other athletes?

     Why don't we increase the salary of police officers equal to pro athletes? After all, most of us would say cops have more important jobs than a basketball player. In order to pay each police officer 2 million dollars, in a squad of 30 officers, the city would have to be taxed $60 million.

http://www.debate.org/debates/Professional-athletes-get-paid-way-too-much/1/

two guys one garage one multbillioner company

"Apple Inc.." Compton's by Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2012.
<http://www.school.eb.com/comptons/article-301253>.

apple was founded in by two guys in their 20's, Stephen G. Wozniak and Steven P. Jobs. 
they started to build computers for in the garage of job's parents. 

one of the reasons how they became so successful was to offer a product that made it easier for the consumer to use and to use on an everyday basis. for example apple success really took off when they brought the iPod to the market, it allowed consumers to have more music on the go without having to change disks. it made everything simpler. 
http://www.school.eb.com/comptons/art-158920/Apple-introduced-the-iPod-Nano-digital-music-player-one-fifth?&articleTypeId=49

another way how they brought success was when they introduced the iPhone which allowed people to use the internet in an easier way.  so how does a company create a product  that allows users to keep coming back?

TICKET TICKET!

If you want to badly watch the Wimbeldon Final ,and you are unable to get a ticket for it. Lets say a tout comes to you with a $1500 ticket and, given the great demand, you agree to pay $3000 and have a happy viewing at the final. As per law, selling tickets in "black" is illegal.

The illegal activity the tout did was... 

 He took the trouble of standing in the Queue and getting the ticket.

 He did not force the ticket on you, it was entirely your decision to buy it from him.
He made profit by buying a good at a lower price and selling the same good at a higher price.
Isn't this exactly what "legitimate" businesses do ?
Get their hands dirty to provide you a service.
Sell that service whenever you require it.
Make a profit by charging you a premium for that service.

So, the tout's argument to the Wimbeldon Authorities will be , " Look, you guys are free to increase price. Because you are ignorant of the prevailing value of that ticket , you fixed a lower price and sold it at that wrong price to me . So, don't blame me for your incompetence ! "

Bill Cosby Lied to Us

In the 1980's Pepsi's taste test challenge advertising campaign came out and it dug deep into Coca-Cola sales. The sweeter Pepsi was usually perfered in a  head to head taste tests and Pepsi knew it, in blind taste tests across the world people were asked to choose Pepsi or Coke?

 Most went Pepsi. So in order to Compete with Pepsi, Coca-Cola had to change something. The 100 year old Soft Drink company was not very good at. But they took the leap and came up with "New Coke." A sweater drink that could go head to head with Pepsi. They hired Bill Cosby to indorce the new drink.The uproar was tremendous, the Coca-Cola Company was flooded with letters trying to convince the company to go back to the original formula. Eventually they offered both New Coke and Coca-Cola Classic on the same shelfs. This brought more people back to Coca-Cola. Why? No one really knows for sure, it was the same product offered before. Maybe it was because they saw Coca-Cola trying to listen to their fans.Maybe its because Coca-Cola appeared as a fallen hero that rored back. Either was New Coke was far from a failure.

What are some of the other marketing strategies used by Coke to become the company they are today?

Source: CNBC: Coca-Cola: The Real Story
The CNBC documentry interviewed some of the executives at coca-cola including the CEO and the owner of the Coca-Cola musseum.

Source(pic): http://markandwalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/cosby_coke-300x222.jpg

Is controversy a good thing?

Urban Outfitters has been known for having risky and controversial clothing, and products. Since there beginning they have had that 'too cool' attitude and not really caring about going 'too far'. Some sayings on their products, are thought provoking, but offends different types of people. Is being controversial a good thing?

According to the week.com controversy has never left this franchise. In April 2012 they released a t-shirt with stars of David throughout with the word f*ck crudely displayed across the front. This outraged the Jewish community, and other communities alike. Then in summer of 2010 The UO franchise released a shirt that blatantly said 'Eat Less'. This shirt was displayed on a vascular model on their website. Quickly UO got a massive load of complaints and pulled the shirt from online, but these are just a few example. With all this controversy over the history of the store, they still have become more known and created more revenue. In the last year they have been taking even more risky business choices, to provoke emotions, so more people know who they are as a franchise. Maybe being infamous is positive. According to the dividendchannel.com, the franchise from Oct. 26 2011- Oct. 26 2012 market has grown at a steady rate and sales have been going upward.

Is being infamous and controversial positive to a business' exposure?

http://www.dividendchannel.com/history/?a=chart&period=1yp&ticker=URBN&title=1+Year+Growth+Comparison

Why have a salary Cap?

Almost every sport in America has a Salary Cap. The most logical reasoning for having a salary cap is so that the large market teams cannot just pay players hundreds of millions of dollars to come play for their team and only a few teams dominate the sport. Salary Caps exist so that small market teams without a lot of money backing them up have a fighting chance in getting the big name players in each sport like Peyton Manning for Football. He was recently a free agent and was highly sough after by most teams in the NFL. He ended up in Denver which has a fairly large market, but smaller teams such as Jacksonville had a fighting chance to get him because they could offer around the same salary to him as the bigger market teams. The salary cap creates competition among teams.

Salary Caps by sport

The salary cap for each sport has a pretty direct correlation between how much yearly revenue the sport brings in and the salary cap for each team. And with the numbers provide below you can see the correlation for yourself.

League			Salary Cap					Yearly Revenue
NHL			$59.9 Million					$2.9 Billion
NBA			$58.004 Million					$3.8 Billion
MLB			$178 Million					$7 Billion
NFL			$120 Million					$9 Billion

Sports such as the NFL and MLB which have huge yearly revenues have a much higher Salary cap than sports like the NBA and NHL. Also the MLB and NFL have many more players per team than the NBA and NHL. The NFL averages around 60 active players on the starting roster, while the NBA only has around 15 active players.

Don't Think You're Googling?... Think Again

   

SOURCE: Duvien

      Though many internet consumers may not notice it, they are Googling... constantly. Many of the web's applets and services provided are run by this company. One, for example is AOL. Though AOL seems outdated to some and has lost users because of competition (ex. Yahoo). However, Google still generates enough revenue to the point where this is not a problem.

     Almost everywhere you turn, Google is there.

     Turn on your computer and open Chrome (owned by Google).
     Want to check your MySpace or YoutTube account? Google owns those too...
     Say you need directions to get somewhere... Google Earth is there to show you a precise picture of your location and directions by foot, bike, or bus (complete with mapped stops).
     You can even track Santa Clause when it gets close to Christmas using Goggle's NORAD Santa Tracker.

    Google has proved hard to escape. The multitude of services that the company has both bought and created has clearly impressed the world because the population continues to use it! With previous performance in regard, if other services were as convenient as Google has made itself, would you use them instead? Why or why not?

SOURCE:The Secret To Google's Success - Businessweek

Athletes being paid too much

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/366795-do-athletes-get-paid-too-much-money

This Article talks about how athletes are being paid way too much money and how they take for granted how much money they earn. Every time Kobe Bryant scores a basket, he gains the yearly average of a teacher's salary. Now that, is way too much .

Another interesting point that this article seems to bring up is that it's not so much that the athletes are being paid too much, but that other people that might be more deserving should be paid the same amount.

Foxconn, apple and child labor

The iPhone 5 recently released and with it news surfaced about a company with ties to apple called Foxconn. I'm sure you've heard of it by now but in case you haven't here's the low down, Foxconn supplies parts for the new iPhone however they treat their workers atrociously. Since they have begun investigations it has been found that Foxconn has suicide nets on its production buildings, workers often try to start riots, and of course child labor.                                                                                                                     Foxconn reportedly Employs nearly 1.2 million people in China. They have recently come out and said that they have been using child labor, and that they plan to clear the company of all under aged workers.  How is it that these large companies are able to get away with using child labor? Did apple know about this and if not how? Companies that try to use child labor need to be stopped and punished and right now that just isn't happening.

the new iPhone 5

What intrigues you to walk into a store?!

What attracts a customer? A Macy's or Lord and Taylor appeals to an older demographic and succeeds in the sense that people from a more of mature age bracket are more inclined to walk in and shop. But how do stores like Urban Outfitters find a demographic and figure out locations? Success of a store, or a chain of stores sometimes solely comes down to how they present themselves to the public and where they are located.

From the beginning the two co-owners of the store, Richard Hayne and Scott Belaire, realized creating a relaxed and more 'loft like' creative experience would help target their wanted 18-30 year old demographic. With cheaper prices then higher end stores they created an environment that college students, and young Americans could relate to and end up shopping in. They accomplished a look which helped lead to their success later on. Co-inciting with the image of the store- their location was key. Starting off in college towns, it helped them make a name for themselves, reaching the consumers they were targeting. Then, later on adding stores in more urban and metropolitan areas they still kept UO's target audience; a place were young people thrived.

Location, location, location. By adding UO stores in hip and bustling areas, they not only gained customers, but kept business going. By keeping their stores in more Metropolitan environments they were less likely to get criticized for their some of their 'controversial material and clothing' that let's say would be inappropriate in a more condensed conservative area.

According to http://smallbusiness.chron.com/clothing-store-marketing-plan-21115.html

It is important to a business to have:

-A quality threehold market plan
-Quality content and straight forward vision
-Strong Foundation

But what else creates an intriguing business?

historical information from: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/urban-outfitters-inc-history/

A Monopoly That's Good for Consumers

                                          fotopedia.com

       Usually, monopolies are bad for business and consumers. When there is only one manufacturer or service provider, they set the price. Competition makes companies compete for the market, driving down prices.
       There is a very unusual situation in racing, called a spec series. One manufacturer makes all of the cars, and everyone has to use them. Simple economic logic would suggest that this is a very bad thing, and the costs would be astronomical. But it is widely known in the racing community that spec series are very affordable. How can this be?
        This happens because there is still competition. Not inside the market, as there usually is, but competition for the market. What I mean to say is that one customer cannot choose a Chevy to race in a Honda spec series. This means that Honda has no competition in the series. But if Chevy introduced a spec series with a car that cost a good amount less and that offered the same performance, everyone racing in the Honda series would switch to the Chevy series.
        A real example of this is the IndyCar series. It is more or less a spec series. The only supplier of chassis is a company called Dallara. Before the Dallara was used, there was a different spec chassis. They chose to move to the new chassis because it was cheaper and offered better performance. In this instance, Dallara competed against the previous supplier without being able to sell any product.
        An IndyCar chassis right now costs $385,000. That number is from " IndyCar's New Chassis Will Reduce Costs, offers teams more freedom" by Tim Tuttle, a writer from Sports Illustrated.
        In contrast, a new price cap was introduced to Formula One in 2010. The cap is at $640,560,000. This included everything but transportation, engines, and a few other things. More info can be found on Formula One's official website. Even though the numbers are for 2010, the staggering costs of F1 are relatively the same, and 2010 offers the closest comparison to IndyCar, when engines were not counted. Formula One teams have 2 cars. so we can multiply the cost of an IndyCar by two. Then we can multiply it by two again because the price cap includes more than the car. The difference is still immense.
        But why do Formula One cars cost so much more? The answer is research and development. Dallara tested their product before selling it to consumers. Ferrari, on the other had, had to design their own car. As did BMW. As did Mercedes. As did Renault. When these major companies with major sponsors are competing so fiercely, it turns into a spending battle. They all try to develop the best car that money can buy. Which is why the price cap was set at such an insanely high number. The teams were spending more than that. And other, smaller teams, couldn't keep up. The idea in a spec series is that everyone has a more or less equal car, and cannot win by spending more.
        This all sounds great about spec series, but many claim that they hurt innovation and technological advancements. If you were going to make a top level race series, would you make it a spec series? I, personally, do not, as I believe top series should have top level cars.

 

What's Been/Should Be Done to Save Our Economy

A multitude of solutions have been proposed to solve our nation's economic woes, however many have only been temporarily successful. In this post I will discuss these as well as other solutions that can potentially fix our economic situation.

The Bailouts

A bailout occurs when the government gives privately-owned banks money in order to encourage those banks to begin lending people money again. This highly controversial method proved to be of little help, as banks did not begin lending again.

Economic Stimulus

Stimulus packages, initiated by the government, are large amounts of money that are used to fund tax cuts and initiate an increase in spending - this would theoretically allow the economy to flourish once again. The stimulus package passed by the Obama administration in 2009 seems to have only been partially successful, helping some but not others. 

Bring Jobs Back Home

Many U.S. companies have turned to outsourcing jobs in order to increase profits. While this helps put more money in the pockets of those companies, due to the lower salaries of workers in other countries, it has had quite a detrimental effect back home, where unemployment still plagues many. By bringing jobs back home, we can get Americans back to work while manufacturing more products in the U.S. - this would certainly have positive effects on American workers as well as the economy.

What else can the government and businesses do to solve the economic crisis? 

                                          www.nyaltnews.com

Sources:

http://www.isreview.org/issues/64/feat-moseley.shtml

- Highly detailed description of causes and solutions of/to the economic crisis.

http://economyincrisis.org/solutions

- Website dedicated to information about the economic crisis. 

Reaching customers through sponsorship

     

                                          Photo from indianaracing.net


        Large corporations pay millions of dollars for their name to be on a racecar. Why? because it is a very effective way to advertise to millions of people. I think it has a lot of advantages over conventional ways of advertising.
        One reason for this is simply because by sponsoring a famous racer, you are backed by a famous person. Using celebrities in commercials is commonplace. Having a famous person back your product full-time is less usual. The image of the famous person is then associated with the image of the company.
         A great example of this is Marlboro cigarettes. They sponsored Ferrari in Formula one for years. When laws against advertising tobacco were made, Ferrari changed the Marlboro logo to a bar code. The fans still knew what it meant, because the sponsorship was synonymous with the prestigious team.
        The best reason to sponsor a racer is because your advertisement reaches so many people. The most-attended sporting event in America is the Indy 500, followed by 2 other racing venues, then the Kentucky Derby, a few more races, then Baseball's largest turnout in history. These statistics are from the article "
Indy 500 tops the list of America’s most-attended sports events" by Jay Busbee. He is a writer for Yahoo sports, so he is an expert on the topic. The article was written early this year, so the information is current.
        The numbers for television viewing are hard to come by, as the most popular form of racing is Formula One, and it is shown worldwide. To get the number of viewers for the Superbowl, for example, would be easy. It is shown on one network, and the grand majority of viewers are in America. Formula One is shown in many countries, and on many different networks. According to Wikipedia, though, 600 million people watched every formula one race in 2008. Formula One also does not have one big race that attracts all of the viewers, so it is hard to compare to other sports or other racing series, that all have one all-important venue.
        If you owned a corporation, would you think it would be worth it to sponsor a driver? Even if it cost millions of dollars, much like TV ads during the Superbowl? Why or why not?

Should musicians teach for extra money?

As a musician, I have been told to "learn to teach, just in case."  Do musicians make most of their living from teaching others how to play music? 

One Jazz Sideman- Bandleader makes 70 percent of his living from teaching.  But yet he calls himself a Sideman-Bandleader. Do musicains teach just to earn enough money for a living when thier true passion is in other areas of music?

Case Study: Jazz Sideman-Bandleader
http://money.futureofmusic.org/case-study-v/


blogspot.com
Should musicians teach just for money when they have a passion for other areas of music?

NCAA Money Machine: A Greedy One

The NCAA is a billion dollar industry...but is a greedy one too. Coaches are signing contracts up to 30 million over 8 years. Coaches are being paid the most they have ever been in this time. What about the athletes? Only a staggering 69% of athletes in football and basketball combined are graduating. 78% of football and 60% NBA players are bankrupt within the first 5 years of their retirement.

• It is evident the student-athletes are not getting the amount of help they need. 
• Colleges make the argument --that they are giving the student-athletes a clear path towards success with a college degree, but look at those numbers.
•  About 1/3 of those athletes are not finishing college.
•  If players got some kind of incentive to graduate through money or even being paid for their name on jerseys or billboards they would likely stay in school. 
• Not only would they be obligated to stay in school to get their money, this would also teach them at a younger age how to control their use of spending. That way when they enter the league or even if they don't continue their athletic careers they will have a better understanding and knowledge of how to control their money.

Do you think that college athletes given money and a class to help manage their earnings would help solve these problems? Or create more?

http://www.briarpress.org/?q=system/files/images/moneybag.png


This article was written  by Larry Woodward, Pres. and CEO of Vigilante. Larry has a career in law and is a sports fanatic. He has been examining the money issues in the NCAA for years.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/fair-play-ncaa-athletes-portion-millions-advertising-dollars/story?id=9812727

Musician Sources of Income

A study was done on how different kinds of musicains earn their living.  It was found that there are multiple ways that these musicians make money.

I looked at the profile of an Indie Rock musician.  This person made their living from more than one thing.  This person was a performer, composer, bandleader, sideman, and a session musician.  But out of all of these, performing made this indie rocker the most money.

Case Study: Indie Rock Composer-Performer
http://money.futureofmusic.org/case-study-a/


www.gighive.com

Should a musician who focuses mainly on perfoming put focus into other areas too for other sources of income?

How Google Knows Your Life

      Ever get that feeling that someone is stalking you when an advertisement banner pops up on a website and it is full of exactly the things you would buy? Well, you should feel that way because you are being tracked. Google's AdSense keeps track of your website history and pairs that with products that you would potentially buy. Though this would make the average person cringe, it is really nothing to be afraid of. AdSense is a secure and private database that is not released to the public. It is not even released to the person creating the history.

Source: Flickr-Croppy

           To the average consumer, this may seem like a lot of work with little revenue. However,the work only really goes for one side. Google draws in these websites to assign advertisements to by leading with alluring titles such as "Get Paid!" and "It's Free!". Who would not want to sign up for something (for free) and get paid for simply doing so.

           AdSense is easy-going for the consumer but is not so much for the ones advertising on the website. Companies bid for certain websites that they would like to advertise on in a real-time auction (which Google facilitates and collects a percentage of each bid -- like any auctioneer). Owners of the website will know which advertisement had gotten the highest bid because the highest bidder is always shown.

           This, in part, is what makes AdSense the most reliable way to advertise. By pairing the highest bidder with the consumer's (website viewer's) search history prior to visiting the website, AdSense produces the most-successful suggestions while also earning a profit from the auction of the ad and paying the owner of the website on which the advertisement is displayed.

            Does using Google's AdSense seem like it would be good to use for the average website constructor?

   Source:Google AdSense
           This source is reliable because it is information and observations directly from the company's website itself.

How We Hit Rock Bottom

Irresponsibility caused the U.S. economic crisis. People agreed to pay more than they could afford, while banks invested in companies using the money these people could not afford to pay - which resulted in disaster.

The sources that I have utilized discussed the crisis in terms of the housing market, thus I will do the same in this post. 

A mortgage is the money you owe to a bank in order to purchase a house. 

A security, also known as an investment, is the money a bank gives to a company in order to help it start up. 

Congress passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, which allowed banks to handle deposits as well as investments...

This caused banks to use mortgages as securities in order to invest in companies. 

Things were looking pretty good at first - this caused more people to buy houses.

A housing bubble occurs when the prices of houses go up due to increasing demand. This happened after more and more people began buying houses. 

The irresponsibility of some people, who bought houses they could not afford, led to disaster as their mortgages, which banks were using as securities, were not paid off. 

Banks then had to pay companies they invested in with their own money, which led to monetary depletion and thus the closing of banks. 

How can we solve this problem and ensure that this never happens again? 

Sources:
www.fotopedia.com

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/housing_bubble.asp
- Well known resource about economic transactions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Ns4ltUvfw
-Viewed in class

Windmills and Will Smith

Who would have thought that there would be a connection between wind turbines and celebrities? You wouldn't normally put the two ideas together, but they actually have more in common than you'd think.

The wind turbine industry is a competitive one. Wind turbine farms require a lot of open space and farmers who are willing to give up their open space to set up wind turbine farms. Farmers usually have many offers put on their tables. Those farmers are needed to create the wind turbine farms. They own the "scarce but necessary input."

Just like farmers, celebrities also own the "scarce but necessary input." In this case, the input is not land but talent. Actors, singers, and comedians like Will Smith are paid as high a salary as they are because they have the scarce talent that is needed.

WHAT OTHER THINGS ARE SO VALUABLE BECAUSE THEY OWN THE "SCARCE BUT NECESSARY INPUT?"

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/07/03/celebrities-why-do-they-get-so-much-money/ "Celebrities: Why Do They Get So Much Money?"
This article can be considered credible because it was written by Tim Worstall, a contirbutor to Forbes Magazine. Forbes is a highly respected news source. Also, this source can be trusted because the author, Tim Worstall, specializes in commentating on business and technology, and this topic clearly falls under the business category. This source is also credible because it was published fairly recently in 2011.

Images: www.geograph.org.uk; www.fotopedia.com

Why Gwyneth Paltrow isn't 300 lbs.

Hollywood- the land of hopes and dreams... along with drug problems, alcoholism, eating disorders, and image-consciousness. But for now, let's just stick with that last one.
It's no surprise that some of the leading names in Hollywood just happen to be fit and attractive- in this business, success is equated with body image, specifically in terms of weight. Actors and actresses are constantly pressured by the media, agents, directors, and yes, even each other, to lose weight in order to become successful. And despite the success of "larger" women such as Queen Latifah, Mellissa McCarthy, and Octavia Spencer, this pressure to be thin isn't going away.
Although this trend of "sizeism," as it's commonly referred to, is generally frowned upon (just look at Ashley Judd or Tyra Banks), some actually encourage it. Several actors have come forward, citing Gwyneth Paltrow, someone known for her thin figure, as their chief motivation to shed weight, quoting her saying "you are your best advertisement."
Besides other actors, a large portion of this pressure is put on by agents and directors themselves- we all remember Christian Bale dangerously losing over 60 pounds for his role in The Machinist:

 

So why does this unhealthy pressure remain? Simple as this- actors know that if they aren't willing to lose the weight, someone else will. And while some fight the sizeism that comes with Hollywood, many succumb to it, if not for the positive attention, then for the job security.
If so many are willing to go along with this trend, though, how will it be stopped?

Source-
Sirs: The Skinny on Hollywood Peer Pressure