Quote Originally Posted by Guiness View Post
lol - I guess the concept of 'fair' gets dragged back into things kicking and screaming!

In a corporation, an "owner's" salary would be considered an expense, if he's an employee of the company. The fact that that employee happens to own the majority of the company's shares doesn't change that.

However, when a certain employee receives a salary an order of magnitude larger than the next highest paid employee, and he happens to also have a controlling interest, it's pretty obvious things are being done that way to control the visible bottom line.

In 1982, the average NFL salary was $90K. One of the owners was shown to have taken a "salary" of $6million. He must've been doing some heavy lifting!

I make no judgment as to whether or not that was a 'fair' amount for the owner to take. He can take whatever he wants out of the company, its his. I take issue, however, with him using that salary to affect the perceived profit of the team, then point to the bottom line and say "we're barely treading water!"
I agree regarding your example from 1982, but that was in an entirely different era, with entirely different financial relationships between players and owners. But even if the $6 million was not justified, should $150 K (or some amount appropriate for the job he held) been rightly considered as an expense (assuming he held a legitimate position)?