Is it your business?

I've always felt that asking an athlete what he makes or an agent what his client is making, was none of my business. I wouldn't want them to know how little I'm making. The point is, does the public have a right to know such things?

 

Not in the slightest.

 

Given the relatively-open public records in this area -- especially re MLB and NFL -- much of this stuff isn't exactly a state secret. It has news value.
Bring. It. On.

 

Agreed. I get bitter when I can't find the salaries of certain players.

 

It's in the sports' best interest to publicize that info because fans want to know. Part of being a pro athlete is submitting to public scrutiny.

 

I think part of people not wanting others to know their salary is because they are afraid their peers will find out how little they make. With multi-million dollar contracts, does that matter?

 

If you are a reporter or a columnist, you too are in the limelight. Does that mean the public needs to know what you are making as well?

 

Columnist, possibly. Reporter, no.

But if anyone cares, I make $24,440/year at my reporting job.

 

Readers want to know. And in sports with salary caps, salary information has a DIRECT bearing on the team's performance and therefore meets every possible definition of news.

 

True. When we run golf results without listing the earnings, people call and ask for it.

 

We run a list of public salaries in our paper every year. To say that public officials don't like it is to severely understate things. One AD, one of the mildest-mannered people I've known, yelled at me about it once, to the astonishment of those he worked with.

A bigger paper did the same thing with salaries in state government and the backlash was pretty substantial. And these are public records.

 

Michael, it also bugs me to ask a guy, once he's out of the limelight, how much money he makes. The public, for whatever reason also wants to know that too.