Sport stars are entitled to earn a decent living, but the way that some of the top Premier League stars are splashing their cash is absolutely sickening.
A good example is Steven Gerrard.
The Liverpool captain is having a gymnasium added on to his home at a cost of $700,000. The gym will feature changing rooms, plunge pool, shower rooms, kitchenette, treatment area and games area, which will be linked to the Gerrard’s existing pool at his $4 million mansion.
The gym is worth more than some of the houses in the neighborhood, but the whole thing seems incredibly excessive to me. First of all, who needs a mansion that big (see above picture)? And doesn’t Liverpool have the facilities he needs such as treatment tables, etc?
The whole thing is sickening to me as is this article about how most Manchester United players arrived at training this summer sporting new and incredibly expensive cars. It just drives a bigger gap between the working class fan who is struggling to survive from paycheck to paycheck and the football player who has so much money he doesn’t know what to spend it on. It’s not just Man United and Liverpool. If you’ve watched Sky Sports News, you’ve probably seen video of football stars driving to or from their training camp driving cars and flaunting their wealth.
Maybe it’s time to support non-league football like this one?
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t have a problem with expensive cars and big houses. If it doesn’t affect other people, how they spend their money is their business.
Some people in this world are richer than others. Fact of life. Gerrard won some kind of lottery with his phyique and skill, but he’s also had to work hard to get what he earns.
The minute a player starts driving their car at 80 in a town center after a skinful of beers..well..you can lock them up for me.
Premiership clubs make a lot of money on the backs of their players. If the players were making 25 grand a year we’d be outraged at all the money the bosses were making off the sweat of their workers without giving them their fair share — to put it in factory terms, just slide the scale up a bit.
If there’s a market for it and that’s what the market will pay I have no issue with that.
I wouldn’t have a crazy gym with all my millions but I’m not going to begrudge someone the chance to build one.
His crazy neighbor needs to stfu.
Well they earned it..the way they spend their millions is their prerogative.
Oh no! Not a gym!!!
I’d rather see Gerrard invest money into his home/property then watch him blow it on booze, drugs and gambling. All impressions seem to be that he is a hard-working decent fellow, who as Phil points out is being richly rewarded for his physical skills.
I don’t see this as any different than film/TV actors who command huge salaries. They buy themselves lavish homes and cars as well. It seems like a lot of money to us working joes but their scale of economy is quite different than ours.
The gym might look ugly to some but it does include some interesting architectural elements:
“Gerrard won planning permission after including plans to install a living ’sedum roof’, which includes grass, moss and other plants and helps cut fuel bills by keeping the building warmer in the winter.”
Why is it such a bug deal if he spends his money like this?
He had to work extremely hard to get to where he is now, and you think he should live in a 2 bedroom apartment??
Of course not, and it also makes sense for him to build a gym. Especially for in the off season, its a good way to stay at top shape with out having to drive to the training fields and back,
I sympathize with the Gaffer’s point, but I think it is unfair to lay the blame so squarely on the athletes themselves. The problems here are institutional, with the amount of money in sport and that the costs are mostly placed on us, the ticketholders.
As ChrissMari rightly points out, the money is either going to the incredibly wealthy owners, or to the wealthy players. The problem, then, is in the structure.
U Mad?
Maybe it’s time we gave up on capitalism and democracy too. Let’s all take a vow of poverty and promise to never enjoy ourselves ever. Who’s with me???
Athletes are making millions of and buying mansions?! If only I had known that before watching them on TV, buying their jerseys, and paying to see them play!
Uhmm…
Anyway, isn’t this blog called “epltalk”? If we all started watching pickup games in our local park, where would I come to read articles like this?
Society places a high value on the players vis-a-vis other professions. Whether it should is debatable, but entirely another question. I agree that of all the ways Stevie G might spend his money, this isn’t really near the obttom of the list.
I don’t really have that much problem with a gym. It’s not as though he can pop down to the local gym without being mobbed.
So no one here is disgusted by the exorbitant amounts of cash that these players are earning and how they’re spending their money on cars, mansions and the like?
No one finds this excessive at all?
Cheers,
The Gaffer
Sorry gaffer, its not exactly news to anyone. What did you think they were earning? You thought they gave it all to charity? In a perfect world my friend but in real life its fast cars, nice houses, bigger houses which are still nice and then the racetrack. I am not so offended by it unless its flaunted at me.
Sure it’s excessive what rich people buy, but a $700,000 gym is pretty low on the frivolous spending scale. It would be great if every wealthy person gave back to charities or lived more modestly, but then that is a challenge to everyone living in the West if we’re honest.
If you are upset about how much money players and teams make, then vote with your wallet and don’t buy their merchandise, tickets, etc.
I would rather see the Players be greatly rewarded than the team owners. If the players didnt make as much more would go to ownership.
Wow Gaffer, interesting choice of words. Disgusting…sickening. You must really despise professional athletes.
People get paid what they are worth, in all walks of life. Like an earlier poster said, he has a skillset that is incredibly rare. His skillset also happens to be incredibly valuable, which is why he gets paid so much. His home and gym cost him less than half a year’s wages from the club. My home certainly cost a larger percentage of my income than his did. I personally don’t know anybody that has a home that cost a smaller percentage of their income than his did.
What would you have Steven Gerrard do with his money? Why shouldn’t he be able to spend his hard earned money to improve his home? Should he not spend his money in an attempt to not offend jealous onlookers?
I don’t begrudge anyone the right to spend their money how they see fit, as long they are acting within social norms, or at least being private about it so I don’t have to hear. If Stevie G wants to build a gym, fine with me. If he wants to give it away to charity, fine with me. If he wants to give it to me, really fine with me.
Everybody does things with their money that others might find wierd. I spend $100 a month on Directv’s HD package plus the sports packages so I can watch the EPL. I know lots of people who think that strange. One person’s normal is another’s strange.
This article caught my eye….very topical
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/footballs-richest-clubs-pay-poverty-wages-to-backroom-staff-894510.html
its his money.. he can spend it how he wants.. if ur really sick to your bones.. dont watch him play.. if more of you think that way.. maybe stadium attendances will fall and liverpool may not be able to pay him those astronomical wages..
Its not right to blame the footballer for the money he is making.. the average football fan has become football crazy in terms of spending money.. u cant have the best of both worlds my friend..
Gaffer,
I have some sympathy with your position. I, after all, do not think it is right for people to do “whatever they want with their money.” (Note, however, that this does not license the government to tell people what to do with their money either, something can be wrong and your own business – e.g., an extramarital affair).
I think part of my negative reaction is that I think it is missing the forest for the trees to look at how Premier League players spend their money. The issue seems to me to be that the game is awash with money, at costs all passed on to the consumer through ticket prices, television rates, etc. Within that institution I’d actually rather the players are the ones getting the money than the owners, and I’m also not “sickened” by people failing to live up to ethical standards I know so very few of us manage to. What sickens me is the general social trends in the stratification of wealth, particularly here in the States.
pay attention to american sports much?
EPL wages are nothing comapared to what NBA,NFL,& MLB players make…….and flaunting? the NBA instated a dress code just to tone down how the players looked coming & going from games.
@ Chris:
It’s not that people get paid what they’re worth. It’s that people get paid the value assigned them by society. Lots of folks (police, fire, teachers) get paid less than their value to society. But it is what it is. Like I said, whether it should b otherwise is another matter.
“So no one here is disgusted by the exorbitant amounts of cash that these players are earning and how they’re spending their money on cars, mansions and the like?
No one finds this excessive at all?”
I’m not, and I don’t. Like many people, you seem to think that you know what the “right” or “fair” wage for doing something is. I believe there used to be an experiment along those lines in the 20th century; it didn’t work. I, for one, am glad I live in a market economy.
And I can find nothing wrong with a person spending his honestly earned money on a gym. If he commits assault, that’s a different issue.
This article’s ridiculous. Next time Steven Gerrard trips over his wallet on the pitch, post this.
Gaffer, would you prefer that the players get paid 40k/year, and the owners pad their pockets even more? There’s a lot of money to be made in the EPL, and I’d much rather it be spread around to the players than the owners hording it all.
Wow, Gaffer. Never took you as a closet socialist. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s the fans who willingly choose to pay what they pay to watch these footballers play. In your world, who should reap the benefits? Maybe require the proceeds from television contracts, ticket sales, and licensed apparel be redistributed amongst society? Or perhaps governments should just set a cap on what athletes are allowed to earn, thereby reducing the incentive for some of these guys to work so hard to become brilliant athletes and diminish the interest in sport which creates a market for those who earn their livelihoods by running websites which celebrate the exploits of the world’s sportsmen.
If these guys are paid as much as we excitedly discuss they are paid, they must keep the money moving — what good is it just sitting in a bank? The banks are failing anyway. I’m sure the financial planners have advised the wealthy to invest the money in things that will re-invest by itself — not cars very much, but property always. It is obnoxious how much they are paid, but this is now an old topic.
I’m not going to knock anyone for how they spend their money. Especially pro athletes who spend their wages on lavish toys and the lot. There just happens to be a lot of money floating around. What are they supposed to do with it?
I’d reckon that many of them, Stevie G included give a decent amount to charities and youth groups as well. Obviously that’s not going to reported as much.
Disposable income is disposable income no matter how much money you have. If I blow some money on a DVD it’s the same as Gerrard buying a gym. We just happen to live in different economic planets. His just happens to be Mars.
its there money, they spend it the way they want to spend it,
didnt they earn the money?so why shouldnt they spend it ,
i think that steven gerrard has a evrey nice house and dont you people think that it might be hard fro all the pro athletes to pop down to the local gym where they will be followed by the press that just talk photos of these athletes.Maby its nice to have your own gym where there is no press its just you wroking out alone or with mates ??
if i have more money i’ll give it to steven gerrad i love you man
The lad is the best footballer in the world and earns something like 121,000 a week you know if you have this sort of money your going to want the best houses or mansions, best cars etc money well spent Stevie.
So tell us Karl Marx what is an appropriate amount of money to pay to a footballer, and how should he be allowed to spend it….. How about C.E.O.’s
If we stop paying to watch football, players wont get paid, who is with me ?
gerrard deserves the money he’s earning here after the amount of effort he’s put into getting where he is…
that’s another thing I’ve noticed. the person who wrote this article is american, they should be used to big houses and expensive cars over there – that doesn’t mean they don’t have their slums or their run down areas, but all the same… 80% of Brits are living in small, semi-detached properties where we can only dream of big houses like there are all over the USA and houses like Gerrard own. But that’s the thing. Gerrard IS living the dream.
The problem, as far as I can see, isn’t how Gerrard spends his money. I spend what money I have how I see fit, and Gerrard is entitled to do exactly the same. Whether his house/ gym are over the top and crass is a matter of taste – he obviously doesn’t think so. And as stated , there is a vast amount of money in top flight football nowadays and it is better that is it shared out among the players, than just given to shareholders / directors. People pay to watch the players after all. But I would be much happier if the costs were reduced so that it wasn’t so exhorbitant to watch a game. you could halve the turnstile costs at all major clubs, and the players would still be earning a fortune, yet people would be paying less to watch their favourite teams/players. However market forces mean that this is just not a realistic prospect- it’s a profit oriented business, like it or not, and profits exist to be maximised. At the expense or little old Joe Public. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it, but don’t just bitch out of jealousy – if you’re jealous of those with more money than you, you might as well be jealous of Bill Gates or The Sultan of Brunei. Life’s too short to think that way……