Quite often we tend to answer that question in terms of the level of play, however, recent events (at least in Revs land) make me think of this in different terms. What does it mean to MLS when Pat Noonan can earn more than $400K in Norway and Andy Dorman can go to a team that draws about 4,500 people and earn north of $200K per year? Both amounts are WELL beyond what they would be earning in MLS. While the SPL is known for Celtic and Rangers, St. Mirren isn't exactly a UEFA regular. I think this plays well beyond the Revs. Both of them were better than average I would think, but neither were stars. With these kind of wages out there in the 'world market' for these kinds of players, the MLS may become a feeder league like it or not - OR - they are going to have to get some serious money into the game to be able to significantly increase the salaries.
I think it stands just North of Mexico. In the short run: I'm also completely unconcerned with losing players to Norway. If the Norwegian clubs wish to pay more, good for them. I imagine their scouting in the US is much better than their scouting in Latin America. More than likely, MLS clubs can simply sign an equivalent player for less money from Latin America. In the long run: We won't really lose any players we want to keep to Norwegian clubs. Our attendances dwarf theirs as does the market size. Norway has 4.7 million people. The US alone has 300 million. In 5-10 years, we will never lose a player that an MLS club actually wants to keep.
Noonan may be getting a huge pay raise when you just look at the salaries, but when you start looking at cost of living (don't know if the club pay his room and board) in Norway, he'll need a lot of that money. Norway is pretty friggin' expensive.
It's not that expensive at all if you compare the salaries to the cost of living. Housing in Aalesund will not cost much, it's not big city prices. It's a city of just over 40 000. Noonan can save up much of his salary and still have a good living. Incredible that a club in such a small market can pay that much to it's players. Being a free agent helps a lot.
I think the drain on MLS will be bigger than represented so far here. In a strange way, MLS' reputation has gotten strong enough that other leagues are going to start giving it a serious look. So, if our financial structure is not in line with theirs we are going to be subject to them 'picking off' our talent. As players see this, fewer of them are going to sign long-term contracts - or may even pull an EJ and put 'buy-out clauses' in their contracts. Hence, if we don't get the corporate sponsorships, the big money behind the MLS relatively soon, I think we could be in for some surprises. Market size is NOT the issue, realization of value in that market is the issue. There is a balance here between skill level and financial competitiveness on the world market: true professionals will go to where the money is (especially when we are talking about factors of 2-3 times.) There were only so many of our players that would be drawn into the top four leagues, but if you open it to the next two or three leagues below them, then what??
Here is some info about the norwegain league that i posted a wile ago on anoter thread. Hope that helps your comperison. Norway has a population of sligthly below 5 million 4.8 - 4.9 million i think. But not all of the population has easy acess to top divison fotball. Cause wile the population migth be tiny comperd to the larger countrys in europe the land area is sligtly larger then germany. When it comes to attendance these were the avereage number for the top lvl teams last year 1 Rosenborg 19903 2 Brann 17225 3 Viking 15846 4 Vålerenga 13835 5 Fredrikstad 11798 6 Start 11216 7 Aalesund 10475 8 Lillestrøm 9018 9 Lyn 7616 10 Sif 6807 11 Sandefjord 6098 12 Tromsø 6053 13 Odd 5795 14 Stabæk 5570 man Rosenborg just missed the 20000 mark Population of the diffrent towns with first divison teams in 2007 Oslo (Lyn and Vålerenga) 557,052 Bergen (Brann) 247,123 Trondheim (Rosenborg) 164,245 Stavanger (Viking) 119,176 Bærum (Stabæk) 108 033 Kristiandsand (Start) 78 585 Fredrikstad (Fredrikstad) 71 784 Drammen (Sif) 59 758 Tromsø (Tromsø) 65 089 Skien (Odd) 50 736 Skedsmo (Lillestrøm) 45 777 Sandefjord (Sandefjord) 42 214 Ålesund (Ålesund) 41 774 This was the planed budget for the diffrent teams for the 2007 season (inclued supports staff and oter expenses not only player salarys) First Divison Rosenborg 34,4 million dollar Brann 20,0 million dollar (champion) Lillestrøm 18,6 million dollar Vålerenga 18,6 million dollar Start 18,6 million dollar (relegated) Fredrikstad 18,6 million dollar Viking 17,7 million dollar Aalesund 11,9 million dollar Lyn 9,4 million dollar Tromsø 9,3 million dollar Strømsgodset 9,3 million dollar Stabæk 8,4 million dollar Odd Grenland 7,4 million dollar (relegated) Sandefjord 6,5 million dollar (relegated) Second Divison Molde 9,3 million dollar (promoted) HamKam 6,5 million dollar (promoted) Bodø/Glimt 5,6 million dollar (promoted) Bryne 4,2 million dollar Notodden 3,7 million dollar Sogndal 3,7 million dollar Haugesund 3,4 million dollar Moss 2,8 million dollar Hønefoss 2,8 million dollar Raufoss 2,5 million dollar Skeid 2,3 million dollar (relegated) Sparta 1,9 million dollar (relegated) Mandal 1,8 million dollar (relegated) Kongsvinger 1,7 million dollar Løv Ham 1,3 million dollar Tromsdalen 0,9 million dollar (relegated) The tv deal for the 2 top divisons was sold for about 182 million dollars for a 3 year periode.
Based upon your expense figures, Rosenborg and Start had terrible seasons. Final standings: 1. 54 pts Brann 2. 48 pts Stabæk 3. 47 pts Viking 4. 44 pts Lillestrøm (plus Cup title) 5. 41 pts Rosenborg 6. 40 pts Tromsø 7. 36 pts Vålerenga 8. 36 pts Frederikstad 9. 34 pts Lyn 10. 30 pts Strømsgodset 11. 30 pts Aalesund 12. 27 pts Odd Grenland 13. 26 pts Start 14. 16 pts Sandefjord Sum: (Spending Rank - Final Position): 1. Stabæk 10 (12-2) 2. Tromsø 4 (10-6) 3. Viking 4 (7-3) 4. Odd Grenland 1 (13-12) 5. Lyn 1 (9-8) 6. Brann 1 (2-1) 7. Sandefjord 0 (14-14) 8. Strømsgodset 0 (10-10) 9. Lillestrøm 0 (4-4) 10. Aalesund -3 (8-11) 11. Vålerenga -3 (4-7) 12. Frederikstad -4 (4-8) 13. Rosenborg -4 (1-5) 14. Start -9 (4-13) Also, just by looking at the expense figures, you can tell why the Norwegian league can currently outbid US teams for good but not great players. It's primarily because of the TV contract.
hmm yes the dp players in MLS probebly earn more then any player in ouer league average pay is about 200K dollars higest is about 1 million dollars. As for Start and Rosenborg yes the season was terribel. Rosenborg really do have a very good squad as seen in CL but many players are young and well ouer defense was very unstabel last year hopefully we will get a few new players there and have a better season next year.
I would also try to keep opposing goalkeepers from scoring on your team this year. I happened to catch that game while visiting this summer.
Current Austrian Bundesliga budgets: Red Bull Salzburg - USD 51.5 million FK Austria Wien - USD 22 million SK Rapid Wien - USD 16.2 million LASK Linz - USD 10.6 million SV Mattersburg - USD 9.6 million SK Sturm Graz - USD 8.8 million SK Austria Kärnten - USD 8.8 million FC Wacker Innsbruck - USD 7.7 million SV Ried - USD 6.8 million SCR Altach - USD 6.6 million Austria Kärnten bought Ngwenya and Jaqua is on trial at Altach.
only guessing but 50-60% maybe. Maye more for the smaller team as they probebly don`t have youth academys and as much support staff and adminestrators.
I can't give you a link, but perhaps you can confirm it SwissGCZ. The current issue of World Soccer (page 58) indicates that FC Basel has the highest budget in Switzerland at £14 million -- roughly USD 27.6 million. Does that sound about right?
Are there some extraordinary expenses in these budgets? For example, I wonder if the Salzburg and Rosenborg budgets have some stadium renovation costs included, which explains why they are so much greater than the rest of their respective leagues.
nope that is there regular budgets. and because they did well in CL i think rosenborgs ended up been about 50 million dollars.
In SK Brann ( current champs in Norway) Base pay is 200K us$. The highest payed player today is Erik Huseklepp who will recieve 2 mill us$ over 3 years, tho this also included sign-on-fee. Most valuable player is Håkon Opdal ( also national team keeper ) who is worth an estimated ( by Brann) 5-8 mill us$. Its expected that a player investment company will spend 7-10 mill us$ during the summer transfer period on either one or two players for Brann.