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Comment by Jack/dt on May 31, 2012 at 11:14am

major league baseball  2011  total attendance - 73,451,522

NBA 2010-2011 total attendance - 21,302,573

NHL 2010-2011 total attendance - 20,928,036

NFL 2010-2011 total attendance - 17,252,949

Advertisers pay huge amounts to advertise during games.  Tickets, food,drinks, memorabilia all contribute towards salaries.  The better one plays, the more their team wins, the more people want to see them, the more advertisers want to advertise, the more they want winning athletes to promote their products, the more an athlete can earn.  Essentially they're just getting a cut of the overall gate.

Now if a fire departments got to charge for their services each time, charge all the bystanders, charge for water, EMS, media rights and had people out front hawking department jerseys, mugs and replica fire engines you might see an increase in salaries.

But overall, people spend inordinate amounts of money on sporting events, and likely far more than whatever small percentage of their (property) taxes goes to supporting their local fire department.  You see, fire departments exist to serve you ONLY when you having a really bad day, while sports to exist to entertain you whenever you're in the mood (or having a really bad day).

Comment by WestPhilly on May 26, 2012 at 9:11am

Like it or not, Jason, the difference is that just about every Tom, Dick and Harry can do our job. Elite athletes are few and far between.