“What do you think the market value of the average football player is? In the Arena League, even before most of the teams folded, the average salary was only about $80k. The distribution was highly skewed so the typical player was earning maybe $50k”
Well the arena league team’s revenues are in the tens of millions, the big ten by itself has a tv contract worth $2.6 billion over six years. And that’s not including it’s tv network, deals with the shoe companies, ticket, merchandise sales etc… If a team like Texas has $120M in revenue, you can do some basic back of the envelope calculations if you will, to come at a player value of $500K. That’s after paying the coaches and staff, administrators, facilities expenses and assuming 105 players on the team - 85 scholarship and 20 walk-ons. But that’s just one of 120 teams and it would represent the high end.