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NBA players make a lot more money than NFL players, which has caused a lot of controversy over the years.
The NFL has a higher salary cap than the NBA and features 32 teams to the NBA's 30. NBA players play a lot more games throughout the season. Let's explore why NBA players earn more money.
NFL rosters are huge compared to the NBA, which negates the higher NFL salary cap
NFL teams have a maximum of 53 players on their active roster during the season. This amounts to 1,696 players across the league.
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NBA teams have a maximum of 15 total players on their active roster during the season, which amounts to 450 players across the league.
There is a huge difference in the total number of players in the leagues which impacts how much money each player can make. Since the NFL has more players to pay, the pie naturally gets divided into more pieces, thus resulting in smaller contracts.
The NFL's total revenue in 2022 was approximately $18 billion. This is staggering when compared to the NBA's revenue, which was approximately $10 billion.
Despite this higher revenue figure, the sheer number of players in the NFL leads to smaller amounts being handed out to individual players.
Based on 1,696 players in the NFL, each player would be entitled to roughly a $10 million contract if the revenue was equally divided. Compare this to the NBA's 450 players who would each receive roughly a $22 million contract given the same situation.
NBA players are more marketable
The NBA season is 82 games long. If the team makes the playoffs and ends up winning the championship, this would take at least 16 more games. The NFL season in comparison is 17 games long with a relatively short postseason of at most 4 games (if a Wild Card team were to make the Super Bowl).
With the NBA season featuring a much higher number of games, it means that the players in the NBA get much more screen time, exposure, and coverage. This makes the players more marketable as compared to NFL players.
NBA players also do not wear helmets and pads and thus much easier for fans to see NBA players clearly as compared to NFL players. This higher degree of recognition is instrumental when it comes to marketing which in turn brings in revenue.
NFL players are more likely to get seriously injured
A Harvard University analysis in 2017 concluded that the mean injury rate in the NFL is 5.90 injuries a game. In the NBA, this rate was a mere 0.16 injuries per game.
While some people might think that a higher risk of injury means that you should get paid more, this is not true when you look at the situation from the eyes of the management.
Management sees the NFL players with the view that they are injury prone and thus shouldn't be offered a long-term deal. Therefore, their contracts run short-term and are lower in value because the player availability is not as stable as it is in the NBA.
Adding to this, the average NFL career is 3.2 years long and the average NBA career is 4.8 years long. Thus, it would make more business sense for the teams to offer a longer and more expensive contract to a player who will stay with them for a longer time duration.
