Post by QPR Report on Mar 29, 2010 7:03:18 GMT
The Telegraph/Neil Harris
Premier League footballers not the richest on the planet - revealed
Exclusive: A new survey shows that Premier League footballers are second division in the global sporting pay league up against their counterparts from basketball, baseball, cricket, American football and ice hockey.
It is well established that the Premier League is the world's richest football division and that its players are, collectively, the best-paid on the planet.
But it might surprise some people to learn that compared to the richest divisions in other globally popular sports – basketball, baseball, cricket, American football and ice hockey – England's finest come some way down the pecking order.
In fact, only two Premier League teams appear in the top 30 teams in world sport, ranked by average first-team pay. Chelsea are at No 4 and Manchester United No 14, according to a report to be published this week that compares wages in the world's major sports leagues on a like-for-like basis for the first time.
Baseball's New York Yankees top the list, with their players earning £89,897 per week each in 2009, and they are followed at No 2 and No 3 by the duopolists of Spanish football, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Real's players had average first-team pay of £81,444 per week (£4.2 million a year) in the period under review, while Barca's earned £78,231 per week (£4.1 million) and Chelsea's £68,946 per week (£3.6 million).
Manchester United's comparable figures are £55,818 per week, or £2.9 million a year, while just outside the top 30 are Arsenal, at No 31 (with average pay of £50,289 per week; £2.6 million year) and Liverpool at No 33 (£48,662 per week, £2.5 million year).
Aside from Real, Barca, Chelsea and United, the top 30 is dominated by basketball franchises and baseball clubs in the United States. It does, however, include three teams from cricket's Indian Premier League, the upstart competition in world sport.
As the author of the review, my aim was to find a meaningful comparison in average player pay between different sports, and to examine the extent to which pay equals success. I found wages higher than expected in cricket and Japanese baseball, and lower in American football and parts of the Premier League. In all sports the biggest spenders generally win, with notable exceptions, particularly in American Football's NFL and ice hockey's NHL.
NBA teams fill places five to 11, with the Dallas Mavericks the best paid of those, with average pay of £68,343 per week (£3.5 million a year) just ahead of the LA Lakers (£65,563, £3.4 million). The Lakers' star player, Kobe Bryant, earned almost £13 million for his playing activities alone in the 2008-09 season.
The highest-placed IPL side, at No 12, are Royal Challengers Bangalore, whose best-paid player is England's Kevin Pietersen. His contract, the most lucrative in the IPL, earns him $1.55 million (about £1 million) for a maximum of six weeks' service. It also boosts the first-team average pay at RC Bangalore to £57,833 per week.
The lowest paying of the eight IPL teams in 2009 were Rajasthan Royals, captained by Australia's Shane Warne, with average pay of £28,029 per week, putting them at No 74 in the list. Only seven English football teams are higher placed: Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle (N49), Aston Villa (62) and West Ham (66).
Some of the findings were counter-intuitive, not least the lower-than-expected standing of the Premier League as a whole, set against the richest divisions in other sports.
The Premier League is only the world's fourth richest sports league by average earnings (£28,230 per player per week, or £1.47 million a year).
The even lower standing of American football's NFL was also a surprise, given that it has the biggest average crowds in world sport by far (67,509 people per game) and annual revenues of almost £5bn. In the NFL, I found the average pay to be £22,506 per week, or £1.2 million per year.
The best-paying leagues in order, by weekly average pay (see table for details) are the NBA, the IPL, baseball's MLB, the Premier League, ice hockey's NHL, then the NFL.
The starting point for the report - the inaugural annual Review of Global Sports Salaries -was the inclusion of the richest single league from each major sport, hence the Premier League from football, as by far the highest payer, ahead of Serie A, included for comparison, plus the richest league from basketball (NBA), baseball (MLB), cricket (IPL), ice-hockey (NHL) and gridiron (NFL). No other team sports can come close to earnings in these.
The NPB baseball league of Japan is included as another high-paying sports league in Asia (the IPL aside), the world's most populous continent. Average pay there is higher than in Serie A football, where total wage bills outstrip the top divisions in Spain, Germany and France.
The data comes mostly from players' unions or via other official bodies. In America, for example, greater transparency allows you to discover to the nearest cent how much David Beckham earns from LA Galaxy for his football activities. It was $6,500,000.08 last year, and no, I have no idea what the eight cents was for.
The MLS Players' Union can also tell you that the former Arsenal midfielder, Freddie Ljungberg, earned $1.314 million playing for Seattle Sounders in 2009, while the former Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel earned $1.798 million at New York Red Bulls.
Across at the NHL Players' Association, you can find, for example, that Sidney Crosby, Canada's ice-hockey hero of the Vancouver Olympics, is earning $9 million with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009-10, as he did in 2008-09.
Similarly reliable data is accessible from most sports, from it has been extrapolated "first-team" averages.
Football in this country has never been particularly transparent about money but annual accounts provide overall wage earnings and non first-team pay has been stripped out on a club-by-club basis. The review is based on figures available by the end of 2009, from seasons that happened wholly or ended in 2009, except for the European football data, which is from summer 2008.
More information on the ARGSS can be found at www.sportingintelligence.com, where a companion database includes updated figures, added as available, including data for Premier League clubs up to summer 2009.
Top paying sports team in the world by average first-team pay
1 NY Yankees MLB £4,674,644 (£89,897 per week) Highest: Alex Rodriguez £20,130,000
2 Real Madrid La Liga £4,235,110 £81,444 Highest paid player: n/a
3 Barcelona La Liga £4,067,200 £78,231 Highest paid player: n/a
4 Chelsea Premier League £3,585,185 £68,946 Highest paid player: n/a
5 Dallas Mavericks NBA £3,553,823 £68,343 Highest: Jason Kidd £13,036,920
6 LA Lakers NBA £3,409,281 £65,563 Highest: Kobe Bryant £12,970,125
7 Detroit Pistons NBA £3,340,189 £64,234 Highest: Allen Iverson £12,712,781
8 Cleveland Cavaliers NBA £3,303,495 £63,529 Highest: Ben Wallace £8,845,000
9 Boston Celtics NBA £3,266,251 £62,813 Highest: Kevin Garnett £15,098,680
10 New York Knicks NBA £3,264,010 £62,769 Highest: S Marbury £12,712,781
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/7527796/Premier-League-footballers-not-the-richest-on-the-planet-revealed.html
Premier League footballers not the richest on the planet - revealed
Exclusive: A new survey shows that Premier League footballers are second division in the global sporting pay league up against their counterparts from basketball, baseball, cricket, American football and ice hockey.
It is well established that the Premier League is the world's richest football division and that its players are, collectively, the best-paid on the planet.
But it might surprise some people to learn that compared to the richest divisions in other globally popular sports – basketball, baseball, cricket, American football and ice hockey – England's finest come some way down the pecking order.
In fact, only two Premier League teams appear in the top 30 teams in world sport, ranked by average first-team pay. Chelsea are at No 4 and Manchester United No 14, according to a report to be published this week that compares wages in the world's major sports leagues on a like-for-like basis for the first time.
Baseball's New York Yankees top the list, with their players earning £89,897 per week each in 2009, and they are followed at No 2 and No 3 by the duopolists of Spanish football, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Real's players had average first-team pay of £81,444 per week (£4.2 million a year) in the period under review, while Barca's earned £78,231 per week (£4.1 million) and Chelsea's £68,946 per week (£3.6 million).
Manchester United's comparable figures are £55,818 per week, or £2.9 million a year, while just outside the top 30 are Arsenal, at No 31 (with average pay of £50,289 per week; £2.6 million year) and Liverpool at No 33 (£48,662 per week, £2.5 million year).
Aside from Real, Barca, Chelsea and United, the top 30 is dominated by basketball franchises and baseball clubs in the United States. It does, however, include three teams from cricket's Indian Premier League, the upstart competition in world sport.
As the author of the review, my aim was to find a meaningful comparison in average player pay between different sports, and to examine the extent to which pay equals success. I found wages higher than expected in cricket and Japanese baseball, and lower in American football and parts of the Premier League. In all sports the biggest spenders generally win, with notable exceptions, particularly in American Football's NFL and ice hockey's NHL.
NBA teams fill places five to 11, with the Dallas Mavericks the best paid of those, with average pay of £68,343 per week (£3.5 million a year) just ahead of the LA Lakers (£65,563, £3.4 million). The Lakers' star player, Kobe Bryant, earned almost £13 million for his playing activities alone in the 2008-09 season.
The highest-placed IPL side, at No 12, are Royal Challengers Bangalore, whose best-paid player is England's Kevin Pietersen. His contract, the most lucrative in the IPL, earns him $1.55 million (about £1 million) for a maximum of six weeks' service. It also boosts the first-team average pay at RC Bangalore to £57,833 per week.
The lowest paying of the eight IPL teams in 2009 were Rajasthan Royals, captained by Australia's Shane Warne, with average pay of £28,029 per week, putting them at No 74 in the list. Only seven English football teams are higher placed: Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle (N49), Aston Villa (62) and West Ham (66).
Some of the findings were counter-intuitive, not least the lower-than-expected standing of the Premier League as a whole, set against the richest divisions in other sports.
The Premier League is only the world's fourth richest sports league by average earnings (£28,230 per player per week, or £1.47 million a year).
The even lower standing of American football's NFL was also a surprise, given that it has the biggest average crowds in world sport by far (67,509 people per game) and annual revenues of almost £5bn. In the NFL, I found the average pay to be £22,506 per week, or £1.2 million per year.
The best-paying leagues in order, by weekly average pay (see table for details) are the NBA, the IPL, baseball's MLB, the Premier League, ice hockey's NHL, then the NFL.
The starting point for the report - the inaugural annual Review of Global Sports Salaries -was the inclusion of the richest single league from each major sport, hence the Premier League from football, as by far the highest payer, ahead of Serie A, included for comparison, plus the richest league from basketball (NBA), baseball (MLB), cricket (IPL), ice-hockey (NHL) and gridiron (NFL). No other team sports can come close to earnings in these.
The NPB baseball league of Japan is included as another high-paying sports league in Asia (the IPL aside), the world's most populous continent. Average pay there is higher than in Serie A football, where total wage bills outstrip the top divisions in Spain, Germany and France.
The data comes mostly from players' unions or via other official bodies. In America, for example, greater transparency allows you to discover to the nearest cent how much David Beckham earns from LA Galaxy for his football activities. It was $6,500,000.08 last year, and no, I have no idea what the eight cents was for.
The MLS Players' Union can also tell you that the former Arsenal midfielder, Freddie Ljungberg, earned $1.314 million playing for Seattle Sounders in 2009, while the former Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel earned $1.798 million at New York Red Bulls.
Across at the NHL Players' Association, you can find, for example, that Sidney Crosby, Canada's ice-hockey hero of the Vancouver Olympics, is earning $9 million with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009-10, as he did in 2008-09.
Similarly reliable data is accessible from most sports, from it has been extrapolated "first-team" averages.
Football in this country has never been particularly transparent about money but annual accounts provide overall wage earnings and non first-team pay has been stripped out on a club-by-club basis. The review is based on figures available by the end of 2009, from seasons that happened wholly or ended in 2009, except for the European football data, which is from summer 2008.
More information on the ARGSS can be found at www.sportingintelligence.com, where a companion database includes updated figures, added as available, including data for Premier League clubs up to summer 2009.
Top paying sports team in the world by average first-team pay
1 NY Yankees MLB £4,674,644 (£89,897 per week) Highest: Alex Rodriguez £20,130,000
2 Real Madrid La Liga £4,235,110 £81,444 Highest paid player: n/a
3 Barcelona La Liga £4,067,200 £78,231 Highest paid player: n/a
4 Chelsea Premier League £3,585,185 £68,946 Highest paid player: n/a
5 Dallas Mavericks NBA £3,553,823 £68,343 Highest: Jason Kidd £13,036,920
6 LA Lakers NBA £3,409,281 £65,563 Highest: Kobe Bryant £12,970,125
7 Detroit Pistons NBA £3,340,189 £64,234 Highest: Allen Iverson £12,712,781
8 Cleveland Cavaliers NBA £3,303,495 £63,529 Highest: Ben Wallace £8,845,000
9 Boston Celtics NBA £3,266,251 £62,813 Highest: Kevin Garnett £15,098,680
10 New York Knicks NBA £3,264,010 £62,769 Highest: S Marbury £12,712,781
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/7527796/Premier-League-footballers-not-the-richest-on-the-planet-revealed.html