How much of a paycut would you take to stay in Seattle?

[bmorepunk]

States with NFL teams and no income tax (on salary/wages):

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Washington
4. Tennessee

In California almost every NFL player will be taxed at 11.3% or 12.3%. A player could afford to give the Seahawks roughly 10% straight up over Oakland or San Diego and break even if they/their agents actually think this through.

 

[drdiags]

If I am young and don't have family in the region, I would go to the place I thought fit my interests. If this is a real world question and not some sports related discussion, I would move from Seattle if new job was giving me moving expenses, better benefits and a 30-40% bump. 20 years ago, 15-20% for certain regions in the US, I would have pulled up stakes.

I almost relocated to Boulder, CO 2 yrs ago for a 35% bump but my current company matched. It was going to be hard because of my adult kids and grandkids are here, but the job was perfect for what I like to do.

So as far as a paycut vs potential relocation, at my current status I would need a pretty big enticement to leave. Younger man and less ties, I would be heading to one of the major cities with easy access to all hot spots across the US.

 

[HawkGA]

And since you're mentioning Oakland, I assume you're talking Beast Mode.

Interesting coincidence, but no, I wasn't thinking Beast. Just saw how much cap space Oakland had and started wondering if it would really matter.

 

[Grahamhawker]

I would play in Seattle for a 12er of Redhook and 1/4 # of smoked salmon, but that's just me.

 

[MrThortan]

I would take minimum wage to sit on the bench all season :0190l:

 

[HawKnPeppa]

I'm not talking about hometown discounts, per se, more about how much would you give up to play for a winner and a good environment? Let's say you're a good football player about to enter free agency. You'll have plenty of suitors. How much extra would, say, Oakland or Cleveland have to pay you to entice you to go there?

You forgot add the condition of 'and you don't mind the gloomy skies and rain.' Being a class organization and SB contender goes a long way, but some players will still use us to just ratchet up demand.

Rather than calling it a 'discount,' let's just say they'd play for us at market value and would go elsewhere for teams willing to overpay. This excludes categories such as high-caliber vets who never hooked up with the right franchise, are nearing the end of their career and wanting that ring.

 

[seahawks08]

If I dont have the power to change an organization, I would go with an organization that gets the best out of me, whether I get the extra coaching, class organization and clean dealings. Money is not everything for me, I would rather be happy working for an organization I feel I can grow with and helps meet team and personal goals as long as they are aligned. In a life time I will just be content with money good enough to live a humble life but be happy with great team mates, coaches and management.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

I'm with kearly, I never understood why fans expect athletes with no childhood ties to Seattle to offer a "hometown discount." Why do we even use that term? .

I think a lot of fans mistakenly think that the players should have the same emotional attachment to our teams that they do.

If it's a good situation and a town the player likes? Then yeah that's where the hometown discount comes in, but it's not huge percentage because after all it's a business and every player knows that if they have a bad year or get hurt there's going to be ZERO loyalty from the front office.

I always cringe when I hear players like Golden Tate talk about our fans turning on him for leaving. Who are these people, and how freaking naive are they to think players are going to take some lowball offer to stay when they're time to maximize their value and earnings is maybe 5 years of their NFL career?

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

I think it's all hogwash given that your typical person will have a job making 50K a year for 30 years if one is being ridiculously generous. That works out to somewhere around 1.5M total. Given that reality then there is NO damn reason for a football player that makes it through their rookie contract not to be pretty much set for life if they have any active brain cells in their head.

They already get a free education so how about using it after those 4 years if you don't get a second contract which will in fact make you a multimillioniare regardless. Currently the minimum salary for a rookie is 435K which goes up dependent on YOE so even the backend of the roster types can make more in 4 years then most make in 30 years and have a college education to back them up as a bonus.

 

[scutterhawk]

SF is one of the most desirable cities in the world to live in.

LOL Maybe to you it is, but I wouldn't live there on a bet.
With Mike Holmgren's Money, and ties to CA., you'd think he'd want to live there, wouldn't you?
There are a lot of big money people, Stars & such, that live around the Seattle area..... Bainbridge Island?

 

[kobebryant]

If I was playing for Seattle, New England, or Green Bay I'd need at least a 5% difference in pay to leave.

Though if I've already won a championship, any equal offer or pay increase offered by Miami, Tampa or San Diego and I'm gone.

 

[bmorepunk]

If I am young and don't have family in the region, I would go to the place I thought fit my interests. If this is a real world question and not some sports related discussion, I would move from Seattle if new job was giving me moving expenses, better benefits and a 30-40% bump. 20 years ago, 15-20% for certain regions in the US, I would have pulled up stakes.

I almost relocated to Boulder, CO 2 yrs ago for a 35% bump but my current company matched. It was going to be hard because of my adult kids and grandkids are here, but the job was perfect for what I like to do.

So as far as a paycut vs potential relocation, at my current status I would need a pretty big enticement to leave. Younger man and less ties, I would be heading to one of the major cities with easy access to all hot spots across the US.

I'm moving to Boulder for a new job tomorrow. The job I'm leaving required me to be gone from home for very long periods of time and out of contact with my family (I have a little one at home); I was basically never around and I often was still at work when I was. The job I'm taking in Boulder will allow me to be home pretty much all the time, but it's not as good as the job I have and it pretty much pays the same. However, I'll be able to live far enough outside of Boulder that housing costs significantly less than it does where I live now in comparable houses/school districts, so I'm getting a pay increase. Before I took this job I also had another job that I liked that would have required me to have taken a 20% paycut, and I probably would have taken it had I not found this one. The job I have now is awesome and anything is going to be a step down from it, but I have a family to think of.

Straight salary is not the only consideration for me, and it's likely the same for many NFL players.

 

[bmorepunk]

I think it's all hogwash given that your typical person will have a job making 50K a year for 30 years if one is being ridiculously generous. That works out to somewhere around 1.5M total. Given that reality then there is NO damn reason for a football player that makes it through their rookie contract not to be pretty much set for life if they have any active brain cells in their head.

They already get a free education so how about using it after those 4 years if you don't get a second contract which will in fact make you a multimillioniare regardless. Currently the minimum salary for a rookie is 435K which goes up dependent on YOE so even the backend of the roster types can make more in 4 years then most make in 30 years and have a college education to back them up as a bonus.

You're talking about how things should work but rarely does it work this way with highly paid professional athletes.

If athletes were to save their money on the front end and invest it properly, they could be reasonably set even with only a couple years as a rookie. But they'd have to live like someone who makes a normal amount of money from the start, and few of them do this. Most of them spend like they will have a full career at the pay they are receiving. It doesn't help that a large percentage of them come from families who didn't have much money and did know how to deal with it.

Few athletes actually use the education piece; even if they finish school it's generally with a pretty useless degree. If they haven't held a real job while playing football (or ever) then the only way they can get hired to do anything is based on their player status. They mostly have no skills.

Putting all your eggs in the professional athlete basket is a gamble in that you might never be paid to do it. When you get there, you might not hang around long enough to make much money.

 

[LTH]

Really when I think about the amount of money these guys make its really un comprehenseable to me... when I hear things like Dez B. not being happy with a 20 million dollar contract, I have no compassion for him... How much money can a guy spend? If you think about what a guy could do investment wise , year for 4 years... Thats way more money than any of us would ever see...

so to take a 20% cut to play in Seattle to me doesnt seem like a bad deal...Being that I make 80 grand a year... LOL

LTH

 

[Riley12]

Despite the lofty salaries of the top tier players, there is a strong analogy to the life choices of us working stiffs.

In my case, born and raised in eastern WA, my ultimate goal was to live in the Seattle area. Despite schooling and spouse employment that took me here, there and everywhere for the first 15 years or so of my adult life, I finally made it here. All the time, I was avoiding other opportunities to make sure this place remained in my future.

A friend of mine from college, on the other hand, comes to visit me once in a while and would love to live in this area. However, he doesn't want to leave his current job in an area with a very low cost of living to come here though. He'd have to accept less pay and try to maintain his accustomed lifestyle in a much spendier area and doesn't want to do it.

As far as working for the Seahawks, I am with Graham and Thorton. I would wash jockstraps and unclog toilets by hand for free if it meant being part of the team.

 

[Seahawk Sailor]

States with NFL teams and no income tax (on salary/wages):

1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Washington
4. Tennessee

In California almost every NFL player will be taxed at 11.3% or 12.3%. A player could afford to give the Seahawks roughly 10% straight up over Oakland or San Diego and break even if they/their agents actually think this through.

The monetary advantages of playing in one of these states over California or New York extend far past that. Texas and Tennessee, for example, enjoy a huge cost of living decrease over those states, so your money would go much further there. Even many places adjacent to NFL teams in Florida and Washington would be cheaper, some considerably.

Current league situations offer even more advantages to Washington and Texas, as both have teams that are predicted to do quite well over the next few years, and would offer additional salary from playoff games.

None of this even addresses playing for a team with a better chance of winning a Super Bowl, which not only is the ultimate achievement in this career, but also could come with added advertising deals and such.

I'd love to see someone better with math than I am actually come up with the numbers, comparing identical salaries with income taxes, cost of living adjustments, added playoff games salaries, and the like. I'd wager the number might be somewhere close to 20% on a straight break-even deal when comparing Seattle to a California or New York team.

 

[SonicHawk]

$0.

 

[GeekHawk]

It isn't football, but as a nuclear engineer with both Navy and civilian experience I could probably command above $180k-200k in the Midwest. Problem is, I'd be living in the Midwest... So I work for the Navy here in the Seattle area, and make about half that. Seems worth it.