Sooo, in case you were wondering how much money a USL player pulls in, average league payroll for a USLPro franchise is just $224,000. http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/article-19148-ball-control.html Not sure how much Atingua drags down the league average, but at 13 franchises, it can't be that much. Roster sizes seem to range between the low to mid 20's. So, I guess your average USL Pro player makes a little more than $10K a year?
yeah, I know. I shouldn't be surprised given the lowest salaries in MLS are low-to-mid 30's. But, hey, at least we'll know our boys are playing for the love, not the benjamins!
The lowest MLS players can be paid now because of player union agreements is $32,125. The average is much higher. If you averaged most MLS squads XI it would probably be closer to 6 figures. http://www.mlsplayers.org/salary_info.html
And, I assume if you averaged the starting XI for most USL squads, it would be closer to $13K, maybe even $14K then $10K?
They are right now. I'm sure they'd love to get the benjamins, though. That's interesting information about the comparative salaries. Back in the late 1990s, it was said that Charleston would have been profitable, but their owner wanted to win, so he was spending $400,000 a year on player salaries (this was when a reasonable team's entire budget would have been about a million). That was in the old A-League. $500,000 for an average NASL team's salary expenditure would be about $23k a player, which seems reasonable. Antigua and Charlotte would certainly bring down the USL Pro average, with Orlando almost certainly setting the standard there, whatever that standard is.
Back then Charleston reportedly paid Eric Wynalda $75,000 for the season. of course he went and blew out his knee after a match or two. I know other teams do something similar but housing is paid for the players while they are in Charleston and doubt the $224K average includes things like housing or bonuses.
You're probably right. You couldn't make it work or get quality players without providing housing, most of the time. It's come to be expected.
Living in our area, housing would be players' biggest expense. Living off of 10k+ wouldn't be that bad if you weren't paying for housing.
If the club can do a trade deal for a bunch of apartments, it's workable. If you are young and don't have a family or student loans, a couple grand a month wouldn't let you live like a king, but, as you mention, without housing (usually the guys had to pay for electric and cable and stuff in my experience) it might not be too bad.