By Taylor Landau
Baseball and hockey are two of the most popular sports in the United States, but there's an obvious disparity between how much athletes are paid in hockey versus baseball. Hockey is a more physical sport than baseball and often leads to more serious injuries, but baseball players are paid significantly more than hockey players. Baseball is arguably a more popular sport than hockey, but other considerations should determine the salary of the players.
Based on the severity of game-related injuries and the physicality involved in both sports, hockey players in the National Hockey League (NHL) are severely underpaid in comparison to baseball players in Major League Baseball (MLB).
When examining the contracts for both sports, there's clearly an obvious pay difference between the two leagues. Connor McDavid, the captain of the Edmonton Oilers, is currently hailed as the best player in the NHL and is under a $100 million contract for the next eight years. Meanwhile, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels is considered the best MLB player and is under a $425 million contract for the next 11 years. Despite both being considered the best in their respective leagues with several accolades and the stats to show it, there is a roughly $325 million difference in what the two players are making. The average salaries for each sport also show a disparity, though not as big. For hockey players, the average salary is $3.5 million a year while the average is $4.1 million for baseball players.
It's obvious from watching just a few minutes of each sport that hockey is much more physically intense than baseball. Hockey involves shoving opponents into the boards, skating over five miles in a 60-minute game, and oftentimes getting into physical altercations mid-game. Meanwhile, the ball is only in play for about ten minutes in baseball, and there is very little physicality involved in the sport. Fights occur in baseball but often do not escalate farther than verbal disputes.
The risk and nature of hockey-related injuries is significantly more severe than baseball-related injuries. NHL players are required to wear helmets and several layers of padding while the only protective equipment involved in baseball is a batting helmet, and that's only worn when players are hitting or running the bases. Typical hockey injuries include ACL tears, broken collarbones, and dislocated shoulders. In comparison, typical baseball injuries include muscle pulls, ligament injuries, and bruises.
Under these constraints, it’s difficult to see why hockey players make significantly less than their MLB counterparts. It’s especially strange when examining specific positions and their respective pay. Andrei Vasilevskiy is the 28-year-old star goalie of the Tampa Bay Lightning and is under an eight-year $78 million contract. He plays in nearly every game and has been called the best goalie in the world on numerous occasions. On the other hand, Max Scherzer is the 38-year-old ace pitcher of the New York Mets who is considered one of the best pitchers in the league. He only plays every five days but is making $130 million on a three-year contract. Why should an older pitcher who only plays in roughly 34 out of 162 games make $52 million more than a young goalie who plays nearly 82 games in a much more physically intense sport? Vasilevskiy’s position is much more intense than Scherzer’s, and he does it more often for longer periods of time.
The main reasoning behind the big salary gap is because of broadcasting deals. The television deals are extensive in baseball due to its popularity in America. Hockey is a bigger sport in Canada than America, but it’s on the rise in the states. The 2022 World Series drew its second smallest television audience ever. In contrast, the viewership for the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals was up by 84% from the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. Baseball has been labeled a “dying sport” over the past few years, so with the popularity of baseball declining and the popularity of hockey rising, it may be time to re-examine television contracts, and in turn, player contracts.
Another major component in the pay disparity is due to the salary cap, or the lack thereof, in MLB. In the 2022-2023 season, the NHL has a salary cap of $82.5 million, and that's all the general managers of each team have to work with to pay their players. Next year, the NHL's salary cap is set to increase by $1 million, but that doesn't make a huge difference. Meanwhile, MLB doesn't have a salary cap at all, much less a salary floor. General managers have virtually all the money in the world to pay their players, so it's no wonder the contracts for these players are ginormous. The salary cap is at the center of rigorous debate as it is over whether or not it should be instituted in sports, which is a discussion for another day. Regardless, without a spending limit, it's no wonder MLB players make so much more money.
Future contracts for hockey players should expand as the league reaches new popularity in both the United States and Canada. Similarly, the nature of each sport should be taken into consideration when determining salary contracts. Hockey players receiving life-threatening injuries mid-game should be earning more than baseball players who are sidelined for years at a time with less serious injuries. As hockey gets more intense and soars to new popularity heights, it becomes a more prominent issue to re-examine the constituents of player contracts and make payment decisions based on sport intensity, game-related injuries, and newfound popularity instead of solely television deals.
This article was originally written in Professor Sonali Kudva's Media Writing course at The University of Tampa in the fall of 2022.
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