The Evolution of Player Salaries

In most of the modern American sports we watch, players earn extremely large salaries compared to what was pre-2000s. Depending on the league some of these players play in, they could be earning upwards of millions of dollars, with the lowest contracts (particularly in the MLS) still coming in at around $40,000.

We must take into account changes in the leagues as well as international economies, inflation, etc. although the pay for these athletes continues to rise. The average pay of all these athletes is extremely high now, compared to what would have been much lower just several decades ago. In this article, we’ll discuss the evolution of player salaries in the major American sports leagues, including what these salaries looked like in the beginning versus where they are now.

Memorable changes to pro-athlete salaries

Professional sports weren’t watched as often as they are now mainly due to accessibility, which was not as apparent during early years like the 1960s. This decade was the start of pro athletes not needing to work off-season jobs, as the pay in their sport had become high enough to support their lifestyles full-time.

In 1964, NFL’s Jim Brown was awarded the first $50,000 salary which was remarkably high for its time. Even leagues such as the NHL by the 1970s had doubled and tripled their top earner’s salaries from a $20,000 range to a $60,000+ range. Willie Mays of the MLB managed to earn an annual $80,000 salary in 1960, the first in his league. The NBA’s Wilt Chamberlain’s salary was the first in basketball history to break over $100,000 annually. While the MLS doesn’t compare the pay of these leagues, Pele in 1965 was known to be the highest-paid athlete earning over $200,000 in annual wages.

Introduction of salary caps

Of all sports, the NBA was the first to adopt the idea of a salary cap in 1984, essentially limiting the amount a team may spend on its players. The NFL followed suit soon after, implementing their first league salary cap in 1994, and the NHL would mirror this in their 2005-2006 season. The MLS introduced their version of salary caps in 1996, where no player could receive above a $200,000 annual wage, while also introducing a concept called ‘Designated Player’ or DP salaries to give superstar players more pay for playing in the American Soccer League. 

Throughout each of these instances, we see the evolution of player salaries happen at a rapid rate. It only makes sense that as the potential for generating more money grew, the leagues needed to figure out a way to cap out the salaries and prevent a potential economic collapse within the sport.

Modern professional athlete salaries

From our data acquired from the 2019-2020 seasons, the NBA led in highest average player salaries of around $8.32 million, compared to the MLB’s next-highest of $4.03 million. Keep in mind, these are average player salaries which reflect a massive increase in pay for any athlete in pro sports from the 1960s regardless of the rate of inflation. Just under the MLB’s salary is the NFL’s average pay, coming in at around $3.26 million per player.

If we take the data from 1970 and compare it to now, the NHL’s average player salary is around $2.69 million which is over 30 times as much as the highest pay in 1970! Lastly, the MLS which has grown a considerable amount in the last decade, offers an average player salary of $410,000 which compared to European soccer leagues isn’t half that bad. Looking at where these salaries were versus where they are now gives us a perfect representation of the rising popularity of each sport as well as the evolution of player salaries.