The National Football League has selected three artists in the running to play next year’s Super Bowl Half-Time Show. They are Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Coldplay. Playing the Super Bowl is one of the ultimate heights for pop music stars, with last year’s show drawing 115 Million viewers.

This year, the NFL is looking to capitalize on that opportunity by asking the artists to pay THEM for the spot. The Wall Street Journal reports that the league is seeking compensation from the acts.

While notifying the artists’ camps of their candidacy, league representatives also asked at least some of the acts if they would be willing to contribute a portion of their post-Super Bowl tour income to the league, or if they would make some other type of financial contribution, in exchange for the halftime gig.

The Super Bowl is television’s most watched musical performance (10x the audience for the VMAs), and playing for such an audience has obvious benefits. Enough that playing for free is already happening. The Journal reports that it’s unlikely that last year’s artists, Bruno Mars and Red Hot Chili Peppers, were paid; though, their expenses for travel and hotels were covered.

But asking artists to pay-to-play reaches another level. For a business that made over $9 Billion last year to ask artists to bid for the chance to perform is unsavory at best, and exploitative at worst. The point is not that Coldplay or Rihanna cannot afford it. The point is that artists, all artists, should be valued for their creative endeavor.

For their part, the request for financial contributions from Katy Perry, Rihanna and Coldplay has been met with a “chilly reception.”