PUBLIC FORUM : READERS SWING AWAY AT PLAYERS, OWNERS OVER SOARING SALARIES.

Are the Dodgers' owners doing the right thing by paying so much money to Kevin Brown in an attempt to reach the World Series? The answer is yes. If the Dodgers didn't give Brown the money, another team would have.

Although the San Diego Padres had a great team last season, there is no way they would have reached the World Series without him. Brown is just that good.

Will actions like this price tickets out of the reach of average fans? The owners get the majority of their money from television deals, so I do not believe the tickets will rise at the same rate as the salaries. It is just too easy to see games on the tube.

Will actions like this prevent ``small-market teams'' from being competitive? Absolutely; it already has. You see the same teams in the playoffs every year. Brown's yearly salary of $15 million is only $4 million short of the 1998 Pittsburgh Pirates' team salary. What effect is all this likely to have on the popularity of professional sports?

I sincerely believe if the trend continues, it could possibly cripple the sport. My friends and I are watching and attending more and more college games and fewer professional games.

I don't blame the Dodger organization. I blame the commissioner. A salary cap should be instated in baseball.

- John Fithian

Burbank

Kevin Brown's $105 million deal is outrageous - but no more so than a number of other deals these days.

It all boils down to a slice of life in the '90s. If Jim Carrey can earn $20 million a film, if Bill Gates can amass $50 billion, if Tom Clancy can scribe his way to mega-million status, why not Brown?

Sure, it's out of balance. It's avarice at play. It's a pitch that keeps on widening the chasm of the classes.

But let's not blame the Dodger organization for this moola madness. If the Dodgers hadn't pounced on the talented Brown, another franchise would have. Demand and greed - the style of the '90s - ensure it.

The deals will keep on flying: $105 million isn't the baseball ceiling, just as $200 million for a movie isn't the ceiling. In the case of the latter, ``Titanic'' did just fine. Maybe Brown also will do fine. He, too, has an icy sinker.

And as far as his outrageous salary goes, seven years down the road, his last year of the contract, it will be perceived as little more than what they sell in the bleachers: peanuts.

- David Ian Marsh

Woodland Hills

Re Kevin Brown's bonanza:

Fifteen million per year equals $1.25 million per month, which equates to roughly $1,735 per hour, 24 hours per day.

Assuming one sleeps eight hours per day, the pay for snoozing is about $13,880. Wow.

I have a gut feeling something is grossly out of whack.

- James C. Glass

Newbury Park

Players' salaries are skyrocketing out of control. It has to stop somewhere, and each of us can help slam on the brakes.

Taxpayers can help stop the madness by drawing their own line in the sand and making it clear that they won't tolerate any public subsidies for new stadiums and arenas, just as we did with the new downtown sports arena.

The glut of new stadiums and arenas has been driven largely by the owners' need for more revenue, as these new facilities are great money generators.

Owners are talking about imposing salary caps, but the players will keep demanding more money as long as they know the owners have it to give.

It's one thing if the burden of paying the rising salaries falls just on those who attend the games, but too often some of the costs are being paid by those of us who will never see the inside of a luxury box or be able to afford to take our families to a game.

As a result of intense public anger, the developers of the downtown sports arena dropped their demand for a taxpayer subsidy. If we continue to ``just say no,'' Los Angeles will become an increasingly important leader in the national effort to end the sports salary insanity.

- Joel Wachs

President pro tem 

Los Angeles City Council 

The contract signed by Kevin Brown is frivolous insanity. But what about Joey Hamilton's new deal with the Toronto Blue Jays - three years for $17 million?

Hamilton's record last year for the Padres was 13-13, with an earned-run average of 4.40.

This has become every fan's nightmare. Many today cannot afford to attend any sporting event, much less a baseball game. Much like the escalating salaries for actors, the cost of a movie ticket has inflated. Where does it end? The NBA lockout may provide a ray of hope. However, I'm not very optimistic.

- Daniel J. McNamara

West Hills

Who pays for the outrageous sports salaries? You can bet it is neither the fans nor the owners. Owning a major sports franchise is really a license to steal from all of the people, fans or not.

Ticket prices certainly won't begin to pay for these inflated salaries; they could fill their stadiums to capacity every night and still not cover them. The money comes from each one of us, fan or not. Sound like taxation without representation? It is.

Advertising is where the money comes from, not tickets. Every product that you buy pays for these salaries.

They should be required to list the marketing ingredients in each product we buy: The price contains 20 percent Michael Jordan, 10 percent Steve Young, etc.

Wake up, people. You've just paid $105 million to someone you don't even know or couldn't care less about.

- Ed Finley

Los Angeles

The $100 million contracts some athletes are signing and the $20 million fees movie stars are commanding have driven me to writing to newspapers and beginning personal boycotts of professional sports and movies.

If everyone would say, ``I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore,'' and stop paying their hard-earned dollars to see those egotistical entertainers perform, it might help slow inflation and make the income of the average guy on the street go a little further.

- Bill Lundy

Simi Valley

You would think with a salary of $15 million per season, Kevin Brown could afford to pay for his own transportation.

Robert Sennett

Sylmar

The escalating salaries hurt the game and pull employees apart. Money becomes the top priority, and players go for the numbers. Some players lose sight of the total game and the fans.

True excitement lessens, and ticket sales escalate.

Let's give the games back to the fans. They ``pay'' to get in.

- Shirley Thielman

Reseda

It sounds good - $105 million for seven years to play a sport. Who pays this salary? Yes, the people who attend the games.

I lived through the Depression years, when a dime was a dime and a ticket to a ballgame was 25 cents for the bleachers. We played semipro baseball on Sundays for a keg of beer. These were the days to really enjoy the sport of baseball and know the value of money.

Today the sport is not a sport but a money machine. It's a disgrace that the owners put out this much money to win a championship. They should set up a bonus at the end of the year: You produce at a certain level, then your paycheck will increase. Prove your worth first, then get your bonus at the end of the season.

Eli Moonitz

Encino

Sports salaries are out of control and ridiculous.

This will do more harm to sports than anything yet devised.

- John Piccola

Sylmar

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Fans can save money by watching college games. Here, CSUN's Marco Estrada steals second against Southern Utah.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News

(2) Kevin Brown, the L.A. Dodgers' $105 million pitcher, displays his new uniform.

John McCoy/Daily News