This morning, to be exact at 12:38am we got a very interesting email from Dimitrios:
A greek basketball website (superbasket.gr) reports that the Russian sports newspaper “Sport Express” has published a list with club budgets for several European basketball clubs (not all, though). The list is quite interesting to say the least though I’ll have to maintain my reservations on whether it is accurate or not (my team, Aris, was supposed to have a 6 million dollar budget, not 12,5) nor is it complete. In any case , here’s the list in US dollar.
First of all thanks to Dimitrios for letting us know. Of course any number that has to do with salaries or budgets of players and clubs are as interesting as the latest rumors about trades. Since salaries and budgets will always be part of speculations (Clubs in Europe don’t have to publish their budgets or player’s salaries), this is probably a hot topic to touch. I am sure some of our readers do also have some inside information, so let us know within the comments
Baltic:
Zalgiris Kaunas (Euroleague) 7,000,000
Lietuvos Rytas (Euroleague) 11,000,000
Turof (Polish team) 5,460,000
Alba Berlin 9,360,000
Dynamo Kiev 11,000,000
Adriatic:
Montepaschi Siena (Euroleague) 17,160,000
Virtus Bologna (Euroleague) 14,000,000
Lyon Villeurbanne 7,500,000
Cibona Zagreb (Euroleague) 4,680,000
Olimpia (Euroleague) 3,120,000
Spain:
Real Madrid (Euroleague) 39,000,000
FC AXA Barcelona (Euroleague) 34,320,000
Tau Vitoria (Euroleague) 31,200,000
Badalona 12,480,000
Unicaja Malaga (Euroleague) 28,080,000
Russia:
CSKA Moscow (Euroleague) 50,000,000
Kimki 18,000,000
Dynamo Moscow 20,000,000
Unix(Russian) 14,000,000
Dynamo Moscow region 14,000,000
Balkans:
Panathinaikos Athens (Euroleague) 42,120,000
Olympiakos Piraeus (Euroleague) 35,880,000
Aris TT Bank (Euroleague) 12,480,000
Partizan Belgrade (Euroleague) 4,680,000
Red Star Belgrade (Euroleague) 3,120,000
Asia:
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Euroleague) 16,000,000
Hapoel Jerusalem 5,000,000
Efes Pilsen (Euroleague) 12,000,000
Fenerbahce Istanbul (Euroleague) 11,000,000
Besictas Istanbul 6,000,000
What does that mean for you as a player? Make sure you get a contract in Russia or Spain next year!
Let’s do a quick comparison to the NBA teams. According to this article, an average NBA team’s annual budget is $100 million, with $50-60 million allocated for salaries. Adding all these teams’ budgets up we get to an average of $17,000,000. Looks like alot less money for European clubs, doesn’t it? It also means for me that the top clubs of Europe, like CSKA Moscow aren’t that far from the “cheaper” NBA teams and as you can see with Panathinaikos and Real Madrid, money can’t always buy you Euroleague championships – at least this season.
