GLOBAL SPORTS SALARIESSURVEY 2017
AVERAGE FIRST-TEAM PAY, TEAM-BY-TEAM,
IN THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR SPORTS LEAGUES

465 teams
29 leagues
16 countries
9 sports
9,816 sportsmen(and 2,428 sportswomen)$20.58 BILLION in wages
1 aim

sportingintelligencesportingintelligencesportingintelligence

INTRODuction
Oklahoma is a mid-ranked
American state in size andpopulation, located in south
central USA and home to four
million people. It’s famous for its
Great Plains, extreme weather
and museums dedicated tocowboy and Western heritage,
and to Route 66.

“The average pay across all
NBA players in the current
season is £5,497,859.”

Well known Oklahomans include
actors Brad Pitt and Olivia Munn,
New York Yankees legend Mickey
Mantle, Senator Elizabeth Warren,
novelist Ralph Ellison, pioneering
astronaut Shannon Lucid andfilmmaker Ron Howard.
And as of Autumn 2017,
Oklahoma is home to the best
paid sports team the world has
ever known: the Oklahoma City
Thunder of basketball’s NBA.
This is the eighth edition ofSportingintelligence’s Global
Sports Salaries Survey anduniquely we measure ‘first-teampay’ to assess the earnings ofathletes in widely different sports
and leagues around the world.
In simple terms, we add up thesalaries of all the players on eachteam and divide them by the
number of players to provide an
average figure per team.
Baseball is one sport that has
had a team featured in the
top spot, and football (soccer)
another, several times. Basketball
hit No1 for the first time last year
when the Cleveland Cavaliers
were the best paid in the world.
But this year it’s ‘The Thunder’,2 			with average on-court earningsof £7,150,388 per man for thecurrent season, or $9,295,504. That
doesn’t include endorsements orsponsorship deals or bonuses.
There’s more detail about The
Thunder and how they claimed
this record later in this report,
but the 2017 GSSS is a special
edition that takes another set ofbasketball players - from the best
women’s league in the world, the
WNBA - and puts them centre
stage along with thousands ofother sportswomen.
We have undertaken a
global audit of how women’s
professional team sports compare
to men’s in wage terms. How
many fully professional men’s
leagues are there? Hundreds.
How many women’s? Hardly any.
How many professional sportsmen
are there in the world, who earna living wage at least from theirsport? Hundreds of thousands, atleast. How many sportswomen?
The honest answer is nobody
knows, but it’s one of thequestions we explore in thesepages and it’s a tiny fraction of
the men’s figure.
What is the difference between
how much the men earn andhow much the women earn?
And does it matter? And if it
does, then who is doing what tochange it? We hope to provide
some answers, or at least robust
new figures to contribute to thedebate.

First, a small illustration of thegeneral landscape. The green
graph on the left below charts theaverage earnings in the world’s
five best paid women’s sports
leagues. Now look on the rightand the same five leagues arecircled - alongside the five best
paid men’s leagues in the worldon the same scale.

The best paid women’s league
is the WNBA, and we haveobtained the official salaryfigures for the 2017 season, when
average pay was £57,507 for theyear (or $74,759). That is what thebar on the far left of the women’sgraph represents. That is the gold
standard in elite women’s teamsport, worldwide.
The best paid sports league in theworld, by average salary, is theNBA, the men’s equivalent of the
WNBA. The average pay across all
NBA players in the current seasonis £5,497,859 (or $7,147,217).
The men of the NBA earn 96 times
as much as the women of the3

sportingintelligence
WNBA, or £105,728 each week,
or roughly twice as much as an
WNBA player will earn in a year.
IN an attempt to gain some insight
into the scale of professionalism
in women’s sport against men’s,
we looked to football, the truly
global game. Every country plays
it. It is the national sport in many
countries. It is simple, accessible,
cheap and immensely popular.
The quadrennial football World
Cups are, by a long way, thebiggest single-sport events on
the planet by almost whatever
metric you choose, from global
audience to related revenue.
For all those reasons, footballshould be ideal territory tomeasure equality, or rather
inequality, in numbers playing
it, and making a living from it.
There should be no inherent
barriers, theoretically, that prevent
women doing what their malecounterparts do.
So how many male professional
players are there in the world?
And how many women?
It seems a simple question but
no one organisation can tellyou, accurately. Not the world
governing body, FIFA, norregional bodies like UEFA. Not
the international football players’
union, FIFPro, nor even individual
football associations in eachcountry, many of whom don’t
compile such data.
Sporting Intelligence’s ‘audit’
instead reviewed all the available
sources, and added fresh
research. Cutting to the chase,
our best estimates are there are:137,021 male professional
footballers in the world.
1,287 female professional
footballers in the world.
4 			

sportingintelligence
Or in other words, 106 times as
many men as women.
Or to put it another way, 0.93 percent of the world’s professional
footballers are women.
These numbers need caveats,
heaps of them, and some ofthose come below. Perhaps
the biggest caveat is that if you
include ‘semi-professional’ players
for the men, namely those who
earn a portion of their income
but not much of it from football,the 137,021 will multiply. Whereas
those 1,287 women alreadyinclude a number of players
who would more reasonably bedescribed as semi-professional.
Some women players do wellfinancially, certainly. Many
manage to get by. The salient
point is the gender equality gap infootball might be bigger than the
106 to 1 headline suggests.
This makes professional sport, withfootball as a proxy for sport in thiscontext, more gender unequalthat many parts of society weoften consider to be maledominated, from politics to big
business.
We can demonstrate this using
data from countries where sports
teams that feature in this report
come from. In Sweden, 44 percent of members of parliament
are women, and it’s 42 per centin Mexico, 39 per cent in Spain,
37 per cent in Germany, 32 percent in the United Kingdom andAustralia, 26 per cent in Canada,
19 per cent in the USA (House ofRepresentatives) and nine percent in Japan (ditto, as of theOctober 2017 Japanese election).
In global academia, 36 of theworld’s top 200 universities are
led by women (18 per cent).
In medicine, 26 per cent of
Canada’s surgeons are women,with a figure of 18 per cent in theUSA, 11 per cent in the UK andnine per cent in Australia.
Some of these numbers remain adistance from gender parity, butwherever you look - in commerce,among the clergy, in outerspace - women make up a larger
share of the professionals than in
football, and sport.

“Space is no longer the final frontier.
Gender equality in sport is. Female
astronauts are almost 12 times moreprevalent in their industry thanprofessional female footballers.”

As ‘many’ as 4.5 per cent of
directors at Nikkei 225 companies
in Japan are women, in anenvironment traditionally hostile tothem. At Australian ASX200 firms,
11 CEOs are women, or 5.5 percent. At Fortune 500 companies
in the USA, 6 per cent of CEOs
are women, and at FTSE 100
companies in the UK, the figure is
7 per cent.

“4.5 per cent of
directors at Nikkei
225 companies inJapan are women”
None of which is laudable but it
makes 1 per cent of professional
footballers look more pitiful still.
One in 10 churches in the USA has
a woman as the senior pastor, or
10 per cent. Of the 299 people
ordained to stipendiary ministryby the Church of England in 2016,
118 of them, or 39 per cent, were
women.
Even space is no longer the final
frontier: according to official
figures from NASA, 59 different
women including cosmonauts,
astronauts and payload specialists
had flown in space by July 2017,of 550 people altogether. That’s
11 per cent.

5

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence
first-team squads, and mainly in
top divisions, in 90 countries andlogged almost 55,000 individual
professional male players. Our
audit drew on all those sources,
checked and updated them,
added countries and leagues‘missing’, spoke to local experts,
including FAs, and arrived at our
137,021 professional male players,
43 per cent of whom play within
Europe (the UEFA region), 20 per
cent in South America, 14 percent in Africa, 13 per cent in Asiaand the balance in North andCentral America and Australasia.

THE one per cent of women
professional footballers is worth
closer examination and in the
deep-dive section into a dozen
women’s leagues, we will explore
what it means to be professionalin the most established leagues.
The size of the gender gap
has never been satisfactorily
established, to date, with hard
data.
FIFA performed a major pieceof work in their 2006 global‘Big Count’ of footballers at
all levels, when they said 265
million people played the game,and 38 million were registered,and reckoned there to be6 			

113,000 (overwhelmingly male)
professional players.
FIFPro, the worldwide
representative body for
professional footballers, saythey have 65,000 members and‘about 900’ of them are women,
although FIFPro work actively withplayer unions in ‘only’ 70 of theworld’s 211 football nations.
The Football Observatory is a
respected research group within
the International Centre for Sports
Studies (CIES), an independent
body located in Neuchâtel,Switzerland. Their most recent
forensic count of professional
players looked principally atCounting the women’s
professional players accurately
is trickier still, starting with thedefinition of ‘professional’ andwhat that means. UEFA recently
published a report called‘Women’s football across thenational associations 2017’. It is acommendable piece of work andworth a look and you can geta copy at UEFA’s website here:
https://tinyurl.com/ybnrb7pv
That too makes an attemptto ‘count’ women’s footballin various ways, nation bynation, including the numberof registered teams and thenumber of professional players.
Their specific definition of‘professional player’ is thus: ‘A
player who has a contract witha club that is affiliated to thenational association via a league
or a regional association. She ispaid for her footballing activities,
and that payment covers allof her financial needs. Her lastregistration date was no morethan 12 months ago.’
UEFA clearly relies on 55+
reporting bodies (associations
and in turn their own leagues andclubs) to provide the information
collated for the report, andherein lies a problem. One
person’s view of ‘professional’ isclearly different from another’s,
as is the interpretation even ofthe ‘professional’ definition. The
report cites Turkey, for example,
as having 316 professional
women footballers, in a country
where the women’s 10-team
top division has some clubs thatare in effect amateur, some
expenses aside. And it says that
Germany, home to the FrauenBundesliga, the second best-paid
women’s league in the worldand home to European giants
such as Wolfsburg, as having no
professional footballers at all.
Something is clearly amiss. This is
not UEFA’s fault but an issue of
definition and reporting. We will
examine the make-up of some
women’s football leagues andtheir pay structures later in thisreport, where it becomes clearer
that even the ‘best’ women’s
leagues have lots of low paid oreven unpaid players.
The number of professional
women players we estimate
worldwide at 1,287 is, inevitably,
only a best attempt rather than‘right’. It is the sum of what weknow to be full-time playersin ‘professional’ leagues plus
centrally contracted international
players across ‘major’ nations.
And we believe it is probably
closer to the number of what
is more widely perceived as‘professional’ than the 1,790 that
UEFA cite in Europe alone in 2017,
including those 316 in Turkey.
More and better research is
required, and as one insider at
FIFA confided: ‘The pro, semi-pro
and amateur definition is quite agrey area for leagues and for players… Unification of the definitions andproper follow-up will be needed
to allow us to start making proper
conclusions on the subject.’

WHAT is not in doubt is thatmale professional sportsmen,
especially but not only in teamsports, outnumber professional
sportswomen by a high factor,
and demonstrably by about a 100
to 1 in football.

sport is well established, often
attracting big paying crowds
and more importantly huge TV
revenues. Sponsors flock in withmore money. This just doesn’t
happen in most women’s
professional sport, especially teamsport. So far, so obvious.

“NBA pays 96
times the WNBA.”

The next part is working out
whether that matters, and how
it might change. There seems to
be an appetite for change, adesire to debate the issues, andevolution is gathering pace.
One guest article in this reportis by Katie Brazier, the head ofwomen’s competition at the
English FA, making the case why
her federation has decided toradically restructure the English
women’s league (again) to makeit fully professional. That won’t
happen without opposition.

It is also the case that wage
differentials can be massive
between those women who domake it to elite levels and theirmale counterparts. We know the
NBA pays 96 times the WNBA. As
this edition of the GSSS calculates,
the average salary now in the
top (men’s) football competition
in England, the Premier League,is £2.64m a year, or 99 times asmuch as the average salary in the
top women’s football competition
England, the FA Women’s Super
League, where we reveal it is£26,752 this season.
This report details the salaries
paid in a dozen women’s sports
leagues, seven of them topdivision football competitions,in France, Germany, England,
the USA, Sweden, Australia and
Mexico. Those seven leagues
comprise 81 teams and 1,693
players in their current or mostrecently completed seasons,earning club salaries of £32.8m ayear, combined.
That is almost identical to the€36.8m (£32.9m) that Brazilian
forward Neymar will earn at ParisSaint-Germain, by himself, in 201718, for his playing contract alone.

Another piece from Shaun
Martyn of Fair Break, from hisdual perspective of campaigner
and promoter, examines hurdles
faced when trying to create
opportunities for women to makemoney from sport as vested
interests pursue divergent anddisruptive agendas.
A third piece, from Jaimie Fuller,
head of sportswear firm SKINS, apartner of Sporting Intelligence,launches a new initiative thatdraws attention to a small footballclub that has started paying theirmen’s and women’s teams thesame - just because they think it’sright.
Meaningful change at high levels
won’t be quick. But extraordinary
things happen in the most unlikely
places. Just ask The Thunder.

Of course we can sketch easy true - explanations for these great
disparities. Men’s professional
7

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

CONTENTS
10 		

The gender (in)equality issue, introduction

12-13 		Guest essay, Katie Brazier, the FA

14-15 		Guest essay, Shaun Martyn, Fair Break and WICL

16-17 		Guest editorial on Equality FC, Jaimie Fuller, SKINS

20-47 		 League-by-league analysis of 12 leading women’s		sports leagues
50-51 				North America’s leading sports cities by top teams,
WNBA included

53-57 		GSSS 2017: Oklahoma rise to the top of the world

58-65 		The world’s best paid sports team, full list

66-139		

League-by-league analysis of 18 leading leagues,
WNBA included

140 		

About Sportingintelligencesportingintelligence8 			

visit sportingintelligence.com
9sportingintelligence

The gender (in)equality issue
The best paid 12 men’s sports
leagues in this report comprise
7,265 players at 257 clubs in six
sports across 10 countries on threecontinents. These include athletes
from the ‘big four’ leagues of North
America in basketball, baseball, ice
hockey and American football; fromthe ‘big five’ divisions of European
football in England, Spain, Italy,
Germany and France; from cricketin the IPL in India, from football in the
CSL in China and from baseball in
the NPB in Japan. Collectively theyearn £15.7 billion ($20.4bn) at an
average of £2.16m ($2.8m) each,per year.

In the introduction we noted how
the (male) basketball players in the
NBA earn almost 100 times what
their female counterparts earn in
WNBA and how average earnings
in England’s top football division,
the Premier League, are about 100
times those in the top women’s
division in England, the FA Women’s
Super League. That massive disparity
prevails more widely across eliteteam sport.
Our table below shows the resultsof our unique survey of a dozen
leading women’s sports leagues,compiled for this special editionof the GSSS. Those 12 leagues

comprise 2,461 players at 129 clubs
in six sports across eight countries
on three continents. Collectively
they earn £52.7m ($68.6m) at an
average of £21,427 ($27,855) each,per year. In diverse sports acrossdifferent nations and cultures, thatgroup of men in elite team sports
are earning 101 times the amount of
the elite women.
Yet that is far the whole story, whichis also about a wind of change,
examined here through a leagueby-league dissection, to follow
shortly. But first, some women’s sport
insiders and equality campaigners
share their experiences.

Average annual salaries in the best paid
women’s sports leagues in the world				Conditions differ widely in each league, from season length to the breakdown of pro and amateurs. Full details in report notes
League	Country

SeasonSport

Teams Players£ sterling	US $		 Euros €

WNBA

USA

2017

Basketball

12

144

£57,490$74,759		€64,388

Super Netball

Australia

2017

Netball

880£39,978$51,987		€44,775

D1 Feminine

France2017-18

Football12273£38,282$49,782		€42,188

Frauen-Bundesliga

Germany

2017-18

Football12278£33,629$43,730		€37,060

FAWSL

England2017-18

Football10

157£26,752$35,355		€29,962

Damehåndboldligaen Denmark

2017-18

Handball

12

198£26,378$34,861		€29,543

NWSL

USA

2017

Football10

199£20,805$27,054		€23,301

Big BashAustralia

2017-18

Cricket8128£11,802$15,347		€13,218

Damallsvenskan

Sweden2017

Football12240£10,889$14,160

W-League

Australia

2017-18

Football9162£8,173$10,628		 €9,154

AFL Women’sAustralia

2018

Aussie Rules

8

218£7,477$9,723		€8,374

Liga MX Femenil

Mexico2017-18

Football

16

384£1,679$2,184		€1,881

10€12,000“Just 0.93 per cent of theworld’s professional
footballers are women.”sportingintelligencesportingintelligence“Girls growing
up across England
really can now
have a dream ofbeing a professional
footballer”
In radical proposals that have ignited debate, the English Football Association areplanning major changes to introduce a fully professional top division in the English
women’s game, of up to 14 clubs. And it will happen from next season, 2018-19. The
rationale is to provide a ‘full-time performance environment’ that helps to boost thenational team and develop the domestic game. A second tier, semi-professional, will
have up to 12 clubs. Currently there are only 10 teams in the top division and half of
those are not fully professional. Both the new tiers will be licensed and applications
from interested clubs have been submitted. KATIE BRAZIER, the head of women’s
leagues & competitions at the Football Association, explains the rationale behind themove - and why she believes it will create opportunities, not thwart them.
YOU’RE probably aware thatwomen’s football in England is on
the up; it is now Britain’s fastest
growing sport. Whilst we are ahead,
it isn’t time to rest on our laurels,quite the opposite, it is the time tobe bold and take advantage ofthe momentum.
In September, we announced that– as of next season – Tier 1 of thewomen’s game will be a full-time
professional league. It’s a decisionthat we hope will identify domestic
women’s football in England as
the best in the world. The changes
are central to our ‘Gameplan
for Growth’ strategy, which willtransform the future of the women’s
game by doubling participants
and the fan base by 2020 anddelivering consistent success on theworld stage by 2023.
12 			The league licence changes aren’t
a decision we took lightly and it
isn’t a decision that has initiallypleased everyone but it is thecorrect one and one that the clubs
are broadly supportive of.
We could have waited and letthese changes occur organically(a number of clubs are alreadyworking to this model) but thatwouldn’t allow us to capitalise on
the momentum that currently exists.
The current licensing term expires atthe end of the season and now is
the right time to act decisively.
Clubs currently residing in the
FA Women’s Super League 1
and 2 have now submitted theirapplications for a licence withineither Tier 1 or Tier 2. As part of theapplication, they have to commit
to fulfilling specific minimum

requirements for either the top
or second tier, with minimum
investment outlined as well asdelivery of an elite performanceenvironment including strengthand conditioning, performance
preparation, medical and player
welfare.

“Womans football is
now Britain’s fastest
growing sport”
Clubs are also required tohave detailed marketing andcommercial plans to support
an increase in match day
attendances and income
generation.

THESE aren’t simple requirements
for clubs, that’s the point and at
this moment in time, it might bethat clubs currently residing in
the top tier will be unable to fulfil
these demands. However they
are what is required for the gameto continue to grow and provide
players at the highest level with thesupport and environment that they
deserve for us to stay ahead.
The clubs won’t be left to fend forthemselves financially; the FA will
be increasing funding with up to£120,000 per season going to eachclub in Tier 1 and £61,500 in Tier 2.
We also recognise the importanceof all the clubs in the pyramid andwe will continue to provide support
to grow and develop the game atevery level.

week. Now the gap will be bridged
between the full-time and parttime clubs within the top tier and
we are confident fans, players andpartners will be enjoying a moreentertaining and unpredictable
league as the competitive balanceis better. This can only be goodnews for our international sides
or those competing in the UEFA
Women’s Champions League.
The better quality product will driveinterest and awareness and will
mean more fans through the gatesand more people tuning in on TV,
radio or online. Greater interest
will also raise the profile of players
and help attract more commercial
investment and provide a stronger,
more sustainable commercial
model.

Many other national associations
have chosen not to invest in
developing a strong domestic
league and this has resulted intheir players playing overseas. In
contrast, The FA recognises thebenefits to be gained throughsafeguarding and nurturing the
pinnacle of the domestic footballpyramid in this country and putting
into place a successful elite
programme.

THERE’S no doubt that we have adesire for our players to be better
rewarded for their hard work. An
improved product will help toincrease income to support higher
clubs’ budgets, players’ wages
and the opportunity for earnings
off the pitch. The developmentof the game in this way will
also increase the employment
opportunities within the women’s
game generally, not just for players
but also in coaching, refereeing,
officiating and administration
roles. For example, clubs will now
be required to sign up to anddeliver The FA’s female coachscholarship scheme by providing
much needed work placements.
The likelihood of making a career
in women’s football is now greaterthan ever.

The changes will benefit the sport
both on and off the pitch. A top
league of fully professional clubs will
be good for our players. The best
will now be full-time, benefittingfrom a minimum of 16 hours –rising to 20 hours – of daytime
contact a week, plus matches. To
put it simply, talented players will
become better.
The reality at the moment is that
we have teams preparing to playat the highest level, with players
juggling a day job and crammingin training sessions within a busy

The criteria in place for Tier 2
remains consistent with thecurrent licence and is designed
to continue to raise standards
and improve the consistency
across clubs in terms of playing

environment. We will be providing
clubs in Tier 2 with additional
tailored support to help bridge thegap and support the transition into
the top tier. In essence, clubs atthat level will be in a better position
to make the move to the top tierwhen the time is right for them –a climb many would find difficultright now.
From the 2018-19 season,promotion and relegation will beapplicable across all levels of the
pyramid for the first time since The
FA WSL was introduced.
There has been much speculation
already as to which clubs may or
may not fulfil the top tier criteria
and take up a spot for the 201819 season. Applications from thecurrent FA WSL 1 and 2 clubs are
currently being assessed and clubs
outside of The FA WSL will only begiven the opportunity to apply
for a position once the current
club applications are assessed
and licences awarded. Subject toavailability, applications from clubs
currently outside of The FA WSL will
be welcomed in March. Clubs will
be judged solely on the merits of
their application.
Key decisions still need to be
made. The name and branding of
the leagues covering the top four
tiers of the game is currently being
considered and which and how
many clubs will compete in eachleague but football loving girls
growing up across England reallycan now have a dream of being aprofessional footballer.
There can be no doubt that this is
one of the most powerful messages
the sport can deliver.

13

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

Shaun Martyn is a consultant who has
spent decades working to improveorganisation, communication,
performance and culture acrossindustries. His clients have included
iPass, Cisco, BASF, JP Morgan, UBS,
Moët-Hennessy, NSW Rugby, Telstra
and Toyota among others. Martyn isalso the founder of FairBreak, whichworks for gender equality, and founderof the Women’s International Cricket
League (WICL).
FairBreak is an organisation that aims to create pathways for women to have better access to opportunities,
eduction and high level performance roles - in all sectors of society, not just sport. Their vision is to createa sustainable environment ‘that allows women to pursue whatever field of endeavour they like, and to be
remunerated fairly and equally.’
The WICL is proposed as an annual women’s T20 cricket event involving players from around the world,
including but not only from the established ‘leading’ nations.
It is envisaged as a high-octane, high-quality event with significant new earning potential for the players.
The WICL is a response to the fact that - in most countries - there is little or no support or financial opportunity
for professional women cricketers compared to their male counterparts. Key to WICL’s ethos is the recognition
that a successful commercial event is required to drive the provision of opportunity. That in turn depends onthe mobilisation of fans of women’s sport, and the encouragement of a latent audience for women’s sport tobecome actively engaged. Only through their support and the knowledge among potential major sponsors
and broadcasters that the interest is there will significant advances be made.
Here is the rub. The way in which cricket is organised, from top to bottom, creates barriers for innovation. In anutshell, self-interest trumps the greater good. Restrictive contracting and diktats on where players can andcannot work are a major hurdle.
Here, SHAUN MARTYN explains his
philosophy.
As a 10-year-old boy, my first cricket
coach told me I was now “playing
the game of life, and with life comes
hope and opportunity.” Over theyears I have tried to keep this front ofmind.
At the conclusion of the Women’sWorld Cup in Mumbai in 2013 we
decided to embark on a mission tocreate the Women’s International
14 			

Cricket League (WICL). We had
been monitoring the increasein viewer numbers and generalinterest in the women’s game andthe notable improvement in thestandard of play globally.
At this time, some four years ago,the highest cricket contract paid toany female player was in the vicinityof £8,500 per year (roughly $11,000).
We deemed this had to change,
especially given the level ofcommitment from players, thesignificant increase in the demands
made on them and the subsequent
expectations.
The concept we formulated was a
global one, driving revenue backinto all levels of women’s cricket,
everywhere. We envisaged a
new ‘product’ in the same way
women’s tennis and women’s golf
has developed a product that isdifferentiated from men. We felt
creating a tournament with a newformat, distinct ‘look and feel’ andnew technology would enhance
what was starting to be done bycricket boards and the ICC.
What we didn’t realise, quite naively
in retrospect, was that it would be sochallenging to build a collaborative
partnership with the cricket
establishment. Our first meetings
were encouraging but quickly wewere confronted by the spectreof ‘approved’ and ‘disapproved’
cricket.
Ownership of a sport was a foreign
concept to us. Sport has custodians,
not owners. If anyone ‘owns’ a
sport it is the players and spectators.
Somewhere along the way theuniverse has been tipped on its head
and administrations dictate what
opportunities are provided.
It’s a strange concept in cricket. You
bat in partnerships and you bowl inpartnership - the game is traditionallybuilt on partnerships.
One of the key elements we believe
in for building a strong women’s
game globally is in the formationof partnerships with a variety oforganisations and bodies to create
greater opportunity at all levels.
Men have multiple opportunities toply their trade as professional cricket
players around the globe. Women
have very few. The emergenceof the WBBL in Australia and theSuper League in England has been
fantastic for the women’s game.
We need more of these domestic
leagues.
The expectation of female
players now is to play as full-time
professionals, but that opportunity islimited to a select few.
Recent work by Cricket Australia
has been ground-breaking andhas seen the bar lifted, as this reportdetails elsewhere. England has somefull-time professional players too. But
these are among rare exceptions
in selected countries. It remains
incredibly difficult for most female
players to manage a full internationalschedule and be financially stablebased on the money they are
earning playing cricket.
To highlight just two examples webelieve go to the heart of the matter:
A: The West Indian women’s teamwon the world T20 competitionin India in 2016. I’m led to believe
their players receive a maximum ofaround £1,500 (about $2,000).
B: In South Africa, contracted
players receive in the vicinity of £770
per month (about $1,000). In the
Women’s World Cup of 2017, these
women narrowly missed the final thatfeatured England and India.
Imagine the increase in thestandard of play and developmentof the game in those two countries if
their players could train and play as
full-time professionals.
Of particular significance was the 126
million worldwide viewing audience
for that 2017 women’s final. That’s a
lot of potential advertising revenue. In
an ideal world, we would hope all ofthat would go back into developing
women’s cricket, everywhere.
At a domestic level, very little
women’s cricket is professional apartfrom in Australia, where progress isbeing made. Cricket New South
Wales led the way in contracting
their domestic female players fulltime.
The FairBreak business model has
moved forward and grown toencompass all areas of genderequality. Fair Break still uses cricket

as a base but looks to extend
opportunities and create pathways
in all areas of sport, education,
media and business.
In women’s cricket, opportunity
can take many forms. It can be
the opportunity afforded to players
or countries to play against better
opposition, rather than teams fromjust one region . It can also becreated by looking beyond the
traditional presentation of the gameas dictated by men’s cricket. As wework to move female players to full
professional standing, the impact
on the communities they live in issignificant. There is huge potential
for them to inspire their communities
and bring about societal benefits
in education, health and life skills
that far outweigh any notions of‘approved ‘ and ‘disapproved’
cricket.
If you take a wider, more inclusiveand collaborative view you may
find that women’s cricket affords
opportunities that the men’s gamedoesn’t. It’s then a matter of how you
best develop those opportunities tobenefit players everywhere.
So why do we, as an organisation
focus on cricket?
It’s a team game played in over 100
countries. It’s not gender specific.
It’s not body type specific and it’s
not bound by culture, religion or
ethnicity.
It is simple, as my great first coach,Jack Thompson, said to me on that
small ground in Bowral, New South
Wales, where Don Bradman and somany boys and girls like me learnt toplay.
‘It’s the game of life!’ Jack told me.
And so it is.
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SKINS COLLECTIONSKINS.NET

SKINS COLLECTIONSKINS.NET

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WNBA Analysis

Women’s National Basketball Association2017

Total salaries:£8.28m$10.8m

12
TEAMs

PLAYERS

144

Average salary Per player:£57,490$74,759

The lowdown

The WBNA is one of the few wholly professional women’s team leagues in world sport. By this we mean that a)every player is contracted to earn a minimum salary; b) that salary is at the very least a ‘living wage’ in the nation
where the league is based, and preferably around or above the average or median national wage; and c) that the‘professionalism’ of the league extends to sufficient ‘contact hours’, and facilities, equipment, expenses and othersupport as necessary to allow ‘full-time’ pursuit of the sport.
That might seem like a subjective set of criteria, not least in part c, but the spirit of these definitions for
professionalism should be clear enough. And the WNBA is a fully professional league, as well as the best paid
women’s league (by average player salary).
Every WNBA player is contracted, with stipulated minimums. The lowest basic pay for any WNBA player in 2017
was $40,439 and the highest was $113,500. Those sums rise to $41,202 and $115,500 respectively in 2018. The
salary at multiple points between those figures depends on a player’s status (rookie or veteran), pick number andyears service. Tables of pay grades are included in the comprehensive collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for the
WNBA for 2014 to 2021 inclusive, a copy of which is available in the resources section of the Sporting Intelligencewebsite. CLICK HERE
That $40,439 minimum for 2017 is not so far away from $44,980 reported by the USA’s Bureau of Labor Statistics
as the median full-time income of America’s 114.9 million full-time workers in the first quarter of 2017, or $865 per
week. The average WNBA salary was $74,759 in 2017, well above that national median income.
As for the WNBA’s wider professionalism, the CBA provides insight, including a fascinating section on expenses(from page 92 onwards). Expenses range from housing stipends to training camp costs, hotel room provision foraway games up to first-class single rooms dependent on years of service, and per diem meal expenses ‘on the road’,
which were $78 per day in 2017.

20 			The bottom line

We have obtained the official WNBA player payroll totals for the 12 teams in the 2017 season. There were as follows,in descending order:
Atlanta Dream $938,983; Minnesota Lynx, $956,653; Phoenix Mercury, $955,960; LA Sparks, $950,625; Washington
Mystics, $931,697; Connecticut Sun, $914,221; New York Liberty, $876,136; San Antonio Stars, $860,911; Indiana
Fever, $924,936; Dallas Wings, $848,852; Seattle Storm, $818,032; Chicago Sky $788,291

Global positioning

It has been prominently noted in recent years that many WNBA players spend their off-season playing for second
teams in foreign leagues, occasionally for enormous sums they could not possibly earn at home where there is a cap
on individual pay. It happens, and more players now go abroad during this time than stay at home. But they are not
all benefits of huge extra paydays. Those tend to come at a select few teams in a select few leagues - with the stresson ‘few’ in both cases.
Most prominent among those leagues (for those biggest paydays) are the top divisions in Russia and Turkey. And
within the former, the particularly rich clubs currently are UMMC Ekaterinburg (winners of the last nine straight
Russian Women’s Premier League titles) and Dynamo Kursk. Notwithstanding that there is no accurate wage data
publicly available for these teams, let alone for the leagues, it is understood such wealth is not widespread. Where
huge wages exist, they are ‘subsidised’ for commercial and PR reasons, as in Ekaterinburg by mining firm UMMC.
Hence our belief is that the WNBA remains - as far as is demonstrable - the best paid women’s league as whole, as
well as the best women’s basketball league by strength in depth.

21sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

Super Netball
Analysis
2017

Total salaries:

£4.2m
$3.2m

8

TEAMs

PLAYERS80

Average salary Per player:£39,978$51,987

The lowdown

The inaugural season of Suncorp Super Netball was in 2017, with eight teams playing a 14-game regular season fromFebruary to May followed by a four-game finals series in June. Five of the teams emerged from the now defunct ANZChampionship (across Australia and New Zealand) with three new teams (the Magpies, Giants and Lightning) owned
by existing clubs operating in other sports, either Aussie Rules or Rugby League. Two of these ‘expansion teams’,
Sunshine Coast Lightning and Giants Netball, contested the inaugural Super Netball final, Lightning winning the title.
Super Netball meets our definition of fully professional on all fronts. All 80 competitors, or 10 players per team (and
16 of the total being international imports) have annual contracts averaging 20 hours per week.The average salary of
AUS$67,500 (Australian dollars), equated to almost £40,000 at exchange rates applicable in mid-2017, the time thefirst season ended. This was almost exactly the same as the average Australian full-time worker’s income according tolatest OECD figures.
In addition to wages, Super Netball players are protected by a new ‘parental care’ policy, have private healthinsurance contributions of up to AUS$1,500 per year, and have 100 per cent income protection on all earnings for up
to two years in the event of injury or pregnancy.

The bottom line

Each club has just under £400,000 at summer 2017 exchange rates to spend on 10 contracted athletes(AUS$675,000). They each spend that at an average of just under £40,000 per player across the league. The
minimum player salary is AUS$27,375. For comparison, the minimum wage in Australia is AUS$18.29 an hour, so a
20-hour week for 52 weeks would pay $AUS19,022, and the minimum netball rate is 44 per cent above that.

Global positioning

This league is the pre-eminent and best paying netball league in the world. Most of the players are from Australia,
who are the global powerhouse nation as measured by World Cup wins. Australia have won the World Cup 11 times,
and won six of the last seven.

The parental leave policy is a first for Australian sport. Athletes with infants are provided additional support toreturn to the sport. Players with children of 12 months and younger have their travel to matches with their children
and a carer covered at the expense of their club. For athletes with children older than 12 months, further support isdetermined on a club-by-club basis.
A player who becomes pregnant is guaranteed to be paid for the term of their contract, or a two-year period,
whichever comes first, and carry out off-court activities for the club in that time, including ambassadorial roles.
Parental leave is a basic entitlement under the Paid Parental Leave Act in Australia, but a two-year guaranteed
contract goes above and beyond for athletes.
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D1 Féminine
Analysis
20172018

Total salaries:£10.5m
$13.6m

12
TEAMs

PLAYERS

273

Average salary Per player:£38,282$49,782

The lowdown

The top level of women’s football in France is Division 1 Féminine (abbreviated to D1F) and features 12 teams playing
22 games in the season, home and away once against each rival. The most successful team in the league’s history
are Lyon (15 titles) and 11 of those have come in the last 11 consecutive seasons from 2007 and 2017 inclusive. Lyon
have also won the French women’s cup a record seven times, all since 2008, and have won the women’s European
Champions League a joint record four times times, all since 2011, while being runners-up on two other occasions.
Lyon also happen to be, unsurprisingly, the best paid women’s football team anywhere (by average salary). Their ability
to offer comparatively huge wages means they have been able to attract some of the world’s best players.
But there is a new kid on the block, and a challenger in financial and sporting terms, in the shape of Paris-Saint-Germain
Féminines, the women’s department of the Qatar-funded Ligue 1 men’s club, PSG. With the women’s World Cup being
hosted by France for the first time in 2019, there is a concerted push by teams in France to bolster their domestic
game, and the nation’s standing, with Lyon and PSG at the forefront.
Seven of the past eight women’s Champions League finals have featured either Lyon or PSG, and in 2017 the final
featured both, Lyon beating PSG on penalties in Cardiff.
It is largely through the financial outlay of that pair, which is head and shoulders above the other 10 clubs - Montpellier,Bordeaux, Paris FC, Marseille, Lille, Fleury, Rodez, ASJ Soyaux, ASPTT and Guingamp - that D1F is the best paid
women’s football league in the world. Lyon’s president Jean-Michel Aulas has made it his mission since the late 1980s to
attempt to make both the men’s and women’s teams into serial champions, putting his money where his mouth is.
The D1F is not fully professional by any of our three definitions: not all players are contracted to earn a minimum
sum, or indeed any money; therefore wages don’t meet living wage standards at some clubs; and ‘professionalism’ as24 			

defined by contact hours, facilities, equipment and support is lacking at the smallest teams with the lowest budgets,
who are semi-pro at best.
The French FA cannot provide information about the finances at women’s clubs, saying salaries in particular are abusiness matter for their clubs alone, on a case by case basis. We contacted all the clubs and had communication with avariety, on a confidential basis. Our findings in this report derive from what we were told.
It has been reported Lyon’s annual budget (for all spending, not just wages) has risen as high as €8m (£7.14m) and that
PSG’ s is not far behind, although sources insist neither is spending quite that much, yet, and the true figure is closer to€11m-€12m combined in 2017-18, with Lyon ahead.
Lyon and PSG combined are spending between 50 and 60 per cent of all the money spent (and all wages) in DF1. That’s
one sixth of the clubs with six-tenths of the resources.

The bottom line

The biggest annual contracts at Lyon and PSG, including benefits, run to hundreds of thousands of euros per year. Our
survey found the average annual player salary at Lyon is around €162,000 and at PSG around €127,000, and potentiallyhigher with bonuses.
In researching the situation more widely in Europe, sources in other leagues spoke about agents acting for unnamed
players at Lyon (in Lyon’s squad but not among their top stars) who are looking at options for either January or next
summer. ‘One agent told us his player’s requirements included €100,000 a year in salary, basic, plus accommodation andauto,’ said a manager at one club.
Total budgets at the smallest D1F clubs are a few hundred thousands euros per year. Several clubs confirmed theirplayer wage spending was typically in the region of 65 per cent of their total budget. The monthly gross pre-tax averagesalary is below €1,000 per month at some clubs, well below in one case. While there are 273 players in the first-teamsquads in D1F, only 153 have full professional contracts, others have part-time deals and one club has no professionals.

Global positioning

In international women’s football, the top four countries in FIFA’s world rankings are the USA (at No1) followed byGermany, England and France, as at 1 September 2017. That quartet also have the ‘best’ and best paid women’s
professional domestic leagues, but not in the same order. D1F is top in that regard - and it is worth reiterating that islargely a result of big expenditure by its two biggest, richest clubs. Details about the other three leagues are below.

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Frauen-Bundesliga
Analysis
20172018

Total salaries:

£9.4m
12.2m

12
TEAMs

PLAYERS

278

Average salary Per player:£33,629$43,730

The lowdown

The top level of women’s football in Germany is the Frauen-Bundesliga and has 12 teams playing 22 games in theseason, home and away once against each other.
The most successful teams in the league’s history are FF Frankfurt (7 titles) and then Turbine Potsdam (6) although inrecent years Wolfsburg have been the dominant force. Wolfsburg’s three titles have all come in the past five seasons(2013, 2014 and 2017) with Bayern Munich winning in 2015 and 2016 as Wolfsburg were runners-up. Wolfsburg havealso won four of the past five finals of the DFB Pokal - Germany’s major domestic cup competition, and won theEuropean Champions League twice.
In the 16 seasons since the women’s Champions League began in 2001-02, German clubs have won the majority of
the finals (nine of 16) with Frankfurt winning four, Wolfsburg and Turbine Potsdam two each and Duisberg one.
The German FA were not able to provide detailed financial information, but did confirm the total number of players
in the women’s Bundesliga for the 2017-18 season at 278. We were able to obtain a detailed financial breakdown
about league-wide budgets and expenditure annually since 2012-13 from other sources. Club insiders who
responded to our survey request for information provided insight into current wage levels.
Budgeting documentation shows the Bundesliga’s 12 clubs combined spent €13.9m (£12.4m at today’s rates) in
2012-13 on all costs. The biggest single cost was personnel for match days (players and coaches) at 54 per cent of
the total, then match costs (travel, hotels and so on) on 18 per cent, second teams and youth teams at nearly 10 per
cent and other expenses including all other staff at 18 per cent. The breakdowns vary from club to club but remain
consistent over the seasons. By 2015-16, total expenditure for all the clubs combined was €20.3m, of which €11.1m
was for match personnel, mostly player wages.

26 			The official league data for 2016-17 is expected to show total expenditure rose above €21.5m, and match personnel
costs climbed too; this current season will have grown again. Our survey findings put player wages alone at about£9.4m this season, across the 278 players, at an average of £33,629.
Five of the 12 clubs have wage levels above that average and seven below it. The ratio between salaries at the best
paid club and lowest paid club is around seven to one. Officials at a variety of clubs who helped with this survey
wanted to stress the financial resources within the 12 teams are diverse; that all clubs allocate money to youth
development (girls’ teams); that with employee benefits, costs per player (in expense and benefits) rise hundredsof euros per month above what the players receive; and that league rules stipulate all teams must employ a fulltime general manager as well as a full-time head coach. At the smallest clubs, some key staff (lower-grade coaches,
physios, positional coaches and match day staff) are volunteers.

The bottom line

Wolfsburg are the best funded club with a budget in the region of €3.5m for the season with capacity to be slightly
bigger. Our calculations suggest their average first-team pay is just under €100,000 per player this season, with
Bayern not far behind at around €85,000, then a drop to Frankfurt and Turbine Potsdam, where average salaries arearound €50,000, give or take a couple of thousand. Our survey replies suggest three clubs then form a ‘middle order’financially with monthly average pay in the range €2,500 to €3,000 (annual €30,000 to €35,000) and they are Freiburg,
SC Sand and Duisberg. The bottom five clubs in pay terms seem to be Hoffenheim, Koln, Werder Bremen, USV Jenaand Essen, each with total budgets well under €1m a year, and average player pay from about €18,000 a year (€1,500
a month) to below €15,000, or under €1,200 a month.

Global positioning

The Frauen-Bundesliga is a top-two European (and global) women’s league in terms of pay, and arguably the most‘balanced’ of the big European women’s leagues. While Wolfsburg and Bayern are clearly the richest, they are
nowhere near as far ahead in resources as France’s ‘big two’ in relation to their nearest competitors.

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FAWSL Analysis
20172018

12
TEAMs

PLAYERS

157** Of 367 players at FAWSL clubs in 2017-18, including young development squads, only 157 are contracted.

Total salaries:

£4.2m
$5.5m

Average salary Per player:£26,752$35,355

The lowdown

The top level of women’s football in England is the FA Women’s Super League (1), the higher of two 10-team FAWSL
divisions. The current season will involve each team playing home and away against every other team. The top flightof English women’s football has been restructured multiple times, most recently in 2011, and will be again for the
2018-19 season. An explanation of the rationale behind that, written by the FA’s head of women competitions Katie
Brazier, is published elsewhere in this report.
In the league’s current seven-year incarnation, three teams have won the title twice (Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea)
and Manchester City have won once. Other teams outside that quartet who have finished in the top two in last sevenyears are Birmingham (in 2011 and 2012) and Bristol (in 2013).
The FAWSL operates a ‘soft’ salary cap whereby permitted spending on salaries is related to club income; teams canspend a maximum sum on player wages equivalent to 40 per cent of their revenue. So in crude terms if your income
is £1m for the season, you can spend £400,000 on player salaries. If it’s £500,000, you can spend £200,000. The
FAWSL in 2017 has teams at the extremes who respectively have income at almost double £1m (with proportionate
salaries) and income well below half £500,000, and ditto.
The FA introduced the 40 per cent rule ‘to control salary costs and promote sustainability. This was felt to be more
relevant for the league, whilst its clubs seek to attract new investment and operate a range of club finance/revenue
models.’
The salary cap spending calculation for each club includes gross player salaries (pre-tax), bonuses, accommodation
expenses where applicable to an annual maximum of £5,000, and pension contributions.

The FA says that there are 367 players across the FAWSL teams, although that includes a significant number of‘development’ players who are either in the reserves or in the junior system but affiliated to the senior teams. And
there are 157 professional players who are contracted with clubs, most of them ’professional’ although some of thosein reality are semi-pro at best. Those 157 players will earn a combined £4.2m in wages in the 2017-18 season at an
average of £26,752 each.
Wages at different clubs vary, as in most leagues and within most teams, of any sport and gender.
The £26,752 average does not include any payments made for international team contracts, domestic or European
cup appearance fees or bonuses, ‘reasonable’ expenses for travel, kit, club clothing or meals while on club duty,
medical insurance, education fees (where applicable) or for separate non-playing roles within clubs, for example incommunity coaching or office administration.

The bottom line

The average of £26,752 for the 157 contracted players is a matter of fact according to the FA. We spoke to clubs
across the FAWSL and found that four of them paid higher than that average in wages (three of those only just higher)
and six paid lower. There appears to be a clear top payer in Manchester City. Even City’s own financial accounts fortheir women’s team as registered at Companies House for the season two years ago (2015-16) shows a wage billof more than £1m for all employees, against income of £1.243m. With total income closer to £2m now, you would
expect player wages by themselves to be £800,000 or a bit higher and about £40,000 per year, on average, basic, per
year.
All sources point to a wage hierarchy in the FAWSL that has Man City at the top followed by Chelsea and Arsenal, a
gap and then Liverpool, four ‘middling’ teams in Reading, Sunderland, Birmingham and Everton and then the two
smallest teams, financially, Bristol and Yeovil.
Club sources at multiple teams cited a ‘typical first-11 average basic’ at the biggest clubs of around £60,000 per year,
and less for other squad players at those clubs. That then falls closer to £20,000 for the contracted players at the
middling clubs, and towards low single-digit thousands at the bottom.

Global positioning

The FAWSL is the third best paid in Europe, and the third best according to various other metrics.

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Damehåndboldligaen
Analysis

20172018

Total salaries:

£5.3m
$6.9m

12
TEAMs

PLAYERS

198

Average salary Per player:£26,378$34,861

The lowdown

The Danish women’s handball league features 12 teams playing a regular season of 22 games. The top six progressto the play-offs, where they are split into two groups and the group winners meet in the final.
While football is the national sport of Denmark, as it is in so many countries, handball is immensely popular, witharound 150,000 registered players in a nation of fewer than six million people. The Danish women’s internationalteam have won Olympic handball gold more times than any other country (three) and while they have declined fromthat peak since the mid-Noughties, Danish handball remains well respected. Similarly the league is still regarded as
the best, at least in terms of depth. This isn’t perhaps surprising given that modern handball was effectively invented
in Denmark - or rather codified there in the late 19th century. It is part of the sporting fabric, and as such attracts
paying crowds in the thousands (in venues of capacity from 1,000 to 3,000) and commercial backers.
There is an ongoing debate in Denmark about what the women’s domestic clubs need to do to regain thedominance they enjoyed at the highest level (European Champions League) between 2000 and 2010. A bit more
spending seems to be the answer, if largely to attract some of the biggest names who currently follow the money toclubs in other countries, notably a core of teams who are extremely wealthy due to a single philanthropic backer, or
local (municipal) funding.
Romania’s Cristina Neagu, for example, sometimes known as ‘the Messi of handball’ and regarded by many as thegreatest player of all time, plays for CSM Bucharest, and her salary of €300,000 a year (or about £268,000) comesfrom the budget of Bucharest City Hall. Other clubs who can and do pay marquee names big money include
Budućnost in Montenegro, Győri in Hungary and Vardar in Macedonia. Unsurprisingly they are the dominant teamsin their own countries, and latterly, in Europe. The last six Champions Leagues titles have been split between Győri,Bucharest and Győri while Vardar have reached the semi-finals four years in a row.

30 			The bottom line

The budgets in the league vary massively from top to bottom, for all costs, not just wages. Sources say the ‘big five’
financially are Midtjylland, Viborg, Odense, Esbjerg and Randers, each with budgets in the range of 7.5m Danish
Krone per year to about 10 million DKK, or from about £900,000 to £1.2m. At the other end, they can be as low as
1m DKK or even less (£120,000 or less). Last season, for example, sources confirm Skanderborg had an entire team of
amateurs; not a single player had a contract. They were relegated. This season, 2017-18, promoted Ajax København
don’t pay all their players, and of those with contracts, the salaries are low. At the time of writing and 11 games into
the season, they have lost all 11 games.
The best paid individual players in Danish handball earn more than £100,000 a year while the average salaries at the
top clubs range from around £38,000 to £50,000. This is at first-team level among the 16 or 17 main roster players;
teams often have junior systems too. The other clubs range from a majority of unpaid players via average annual
salaries just above £10,000 to salaries hovering around £20,000.

Global positioning

Well-financed individual clubs in some nations mentioned above have become European powerhouse teams. This iscausing no end of introspection in Denmark. But the Danish women’s league as a whole remains the best paid withgreater competitive balance among its own teams.

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NWSL Analysis
2017

Total salaries:

£4.1m
$5.4m

10
TEAMs

PLAYERS

199

Average salary Per player:£20,805$27,054

The lowdown

The National Women’s Soccer League was formed in 2012 and started playing in 2013 as the latest incarnation of the
top division of women’s football in the USA. The 2017 season featured 10 teams playing 24 regular season games each
(12 at home, and 12 away) before a play-off involving the top four teams in semi-finals then a Championship game.
Portland Thorns FC finished second in the league standings and went on to win the title by beating North Carolina
Courage (first in the regular season) in the final.
The NWSL is run by the United States Soccer Federation, a particularly important fact given that the USSF is also
responsible for the US national teams - and the USSF pays the salaries of some of the players in the NWSL, for playing
in the NWSL.
The way in which salaries are controlled and allocated seems, on the face of it, to be simple enough, and you can readat the NWSL website the general overview, here: https://www.nwslsoccer.com/2017-roster-rules.
There was a salary cap in place for 2017 of $315,000 per team (£242,000), and with each team typically having aroster of 20 players, that works out at an average salary of $15,750 per player per year (£12,115). The roster rules also
stipulated that every player must be paid at least $15,000 (£11,538), and that the maximum salary for any player was$41,700 (£32,077). That is the theory. The reality differs.
Unlike in MLS, the top division of men’s football in the USA and Canada, there is no transparency over individual
player pay in the NWSL. Basic pay for every single MLS player is made public, to the last cent, by the players’ union,
twice each year. The NWSL say only that player salary details are confidential, and those details are not the only thing
undisclosed. There is a salary floor in the NWSL as well as a cap, for example, although the level is a secret. And thecap itself is a ‘soft cap’ that is actually different for each team - something else that is not widely known. Further, the$315,000 figure does not come close to representing what the players in the 20-women rosters at each club actuallyearn for playing for that team.
32 			

This survey was helped hugely by inside information and guidance from a number of knowledgeable sources across the
NWSL, and our findings suggest even the lowest paid team collectively earned more than $400,000 between them, or$20,198 each, on average (£15,537). That was Washington Spirit. And by our reckoning the 20 roster players at Portland
Thorns earned around $716,000 between them (£551,000) or an average of $35,798 (£27,537).
The complicating factor in the way the players are paid - and the thing that makes the difference in earnings at different
clubs - is that the wages of players who are centrally contracted by the US women’s national team are paid by the USSF,
and not by their clubs, and the same is true of Canadian players who are contracted by the Canadian FA.
As part of the contracts to play for their countries (and ‘part’ needs to be stressed), those players are allocated a portion ofthat contractual salary to play for (and be obliged to play for) a team in the NWSL. And that sum is not controlled by the
maximum individual salary levels allowed in the league. So there are US and Canadian international players earning morethan $41,700 a season for their club work, as well as - in some cases - much more substantial figures for their work with
their countries. That in turn can be boosted by appearances and bonuses.
Crucially, wages paid by the federations to players for their club jobs are not counted in the $315,000 cap spending. So far,so complicated. Now we can move on to how the $315,000 salary cap is not even the same cap for each team, and why.
The 32 US and Canada internationals (or ‘federation players’) in the NWSL in 2017 were not spread ‘evenly’ across the 10
teams. Washington Spirit had no USA internationals for example, and two Canadians. At the other extreme, Portland had
five USA ‘federation players’ and a Canadian.
The NWSL rule-makers recognise that there is a possibility of a significant qualitative difference between a team where asizeable group of the players are top internationals (from the USA, Canada or elsewhere), and a team where there are few
or none.
So the cap is tweaked on a club-by-club basis to recognise this. We learned that the $315,000 cap is based on thetheoretical premise that each team has three USA federation players and two Canadian federation players per 20-woman
squad. The cap per club is then adjusted accordingly, depending on how many or how few federation players each team
actually has.
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If a team has more than those 3+2, for example, then a sum is taken away from cap spending, per extra player, to reflectthat has those extra high-quality players having their wages paid by somebody else (the federation). And if a team has
fewer than the 3+2, the $315,000 is increased so the team can spend more on other high-quality players, perhaps fromoverseas.
For illustrative purposes only, imagine Team A had only two federation players instead of five. Their cap level is increased
by one salary outlay per “missing” player, or by three players in this case. If one salary outlay is $15,750 (the average of 20
players if splitting a $315,000 cap), then Team A’s cap is inflated by $47,250 (or three times $15,750). Similarly if a team has
more than their nominal 3+2 allocation, their cap is reduced below $315,000, by one salary outlay per extra player.
Knowing how the structure works, and having been guided by sources on ‘ball park’ figures for federation players, it
becomes possible to work out, approximately, what each team earns collectively for their club football duties; and hence
the average pay per club and across the NWSL. Individual player salaries range from $15,000 up to five times as much (forclub duties).

The bottom line

With the proviso that our calculations are based on guidance about contracts, and that these sums are what weunderstand the players collectively earn for their club football (as opposed to are paid by their clubs, which is different), thefollowing reflects annual average earnings at each club in 2017, to the nearest thousand dollars / pounds. Portland Thorns$36,000 (£28,000); Orlando Pride $30,000 (£23,000); FC Kansas City ($30,000) £23,000; Houston Dash $28,000 (£22,000);
Chicago Red Stars $28,000 (£21,000); North Carolina Courage $27,000 (£21,000); Boston Breakers $24,000 (£18,000);
Seattle Reign FC $24,000 (£18,000); Sky Blue FC $24,000 (£18,000); Washington Spirit $20,000 (£16,000).

Global positioning

The USA women’s national team are the best in the world, ranked No1 by FIFA and winners of a record three World Cups,
including the most recent in 2015. The NWSL is not the best women’s league in the world, qualitatively, although alongwith the leagues in France, Germany and England is up there. It does have some of the world’s best players - but arguably
only because their federation, the USSF, dictates they must play there as part of their central contracts.

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Big Bash Analysis
20172018

Total salaries:

£1.5m
$2m

8

TEAMs

PLAYERS

128

Average salary Per player:£11,802$15,347

The lowdown

The Women’s Big Bash League is an eight-team T20 tournament about to start a third season, the 2017-18 campaign, whichis scheduled to run from 9 December 2017 to 4 February 2018. The format for the WBBL is 14 games per team in a group
stage followed by a knockout stage of semi-finals and a final. The reigning champions from 2016-17 are the Sydney Sixers.
The administrator of the event is Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, which is thegoverning body for cricket in Australia.
We feature the WBBL in this report because it is the premium league (and best paid) in women’s professional ‘club’ cricket,
globally. It should be noted that the average salary of £11,802 per player is for a two-month block of work / play. So while initself it would not be a lucrative living if the players appeared only in that event each year, the reality is they don’t. Most ofthem are also playing for other teams the rest of the time, whether internationally and / or at state / county level or elsewhere.
What is particularly interesting about Australian women’s cricket is the depth and breadth of investment by CA, put inplace in the past year. It is worth exploring because it is driving a culture of professionalism - and sporting excellence - that
goes from state level to international level via the popular, glitzy WBBL. It is also creating sustainable careers for hundredsof women, some of whom can now earn six-figures a year (pounds) from their playing contracts.
The publicly stated aims of Cricket Australia include ‘achieve gender equity across Australian Cricket’, ‘accelerate
opportunities for women in all areas and levels of our game’, ‘grow female participation sustainably, and make sure
women and girls find cricket clubs welcoming and enjoyable places to be’ and ‘[make cricket] a viable professional careerfor female talented athletes, who will be supported by an expansive and structured pathway.’
They are putting their money where their mouth is, allocating AUS$55 million (£32.6m) over the next five years into
professional contracts for women players.

36 			

There were 134 such contracts in place in the 2016-17 cricket season and there will be a similar number in 2017-18;
numbers will fluctuate at any one time, but the trend is up.
There are three types of contract and various permutations of them. Cricket Australia central contracts to play for Australia’sinternational team are worth a guaranteed minimum ‘retainer’ fee of £42,700 this season. State contracts, to play for astate team, are worth a guaranteed minimum retainer of £15,438 this season. Retainer levels may be higher than theseon a case by case basis, but all these retainers are supplemented with match fees, performance payments, marketing
payments, prize money and other benefits.
Contracts to play in the WBBL are separate, with a minimum retainer fee of £6,097 for the two-month season that rises tothe average £11,802 we found in our study.
It is when players have contracts covering two of the three categories (national / state / WBBL) that cricket for Australianwomen can become not just a viable career but a good living.
As things stand at the time of writing, 13 Australian players have national contracts and all of those also have WBBL
contracts. That guarantees those players around £50,000 basic pay, with realistic potential to take it above £100,000 per
year if playing regularly for Australia, and winning.
The ‘majority experience’ of the Australian professional woman cricketer is to have a dual contract covering state and
WBBL duties; there are around 77 players in that category and they are guaranteed minimum salaries of £21,298 that more
typically rise to £27,000 plus performance and other payments on top.
There are also players contracted to play either only state cricket, or only WBBL cricket. There are around 21 in thefirst category and 30 in the second. They are guaranteed minimum payments of £15,438 and £6,097 respectively. The
averages are higher and supplemented with bonuses and benefits.

The bottom line

The average WBBL player will earn around £11,000 for the two-month event. Most of the players involved will also havenational or state contracts on top. If you make the crude calculation that a pot of around AUS$55m will potentially be
divided over the next five years between a pool of about 134 women, the average salary for that sizeable cohort works out
at about £48,600 per player per year

Global positioning

Australian women’s cricket is the best in the world, and its best players are the best paid, and the WBBL is the preeminent
women’s cricket league, and best paid.

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Damallsvenskan
Analysis
2017

Total salaries:

£2.6m
$3.4m

12
TEAMs

PLAYERS240

Average salary Per player:£10,889$14,160

The lowdown

The Damallsvenskan consists of 12 teams playing 20 games each and the most recent season, 2017, ended with
Linköpings FC as champions, with FC Rosengård as runners-up. When Rosengård won the title in 2014 and 2015,
they had Brazilian superstar Marta - the best paid female footballer in the world - in their team. She had played in
Sweden early in her career at Umea IK and returned to Sweden in 2012 to play for Tyreso FF, famously on a contract
worth $400,000 a year that the club’s owners said was being paid by external sponsors. Tyreso won the title thatyear, 2012, and Marta was still with them when they reached the 2014 Champions League final, which they lost toWolfsburg. Tyreso filed for bankruptcy the same year, as they were heading to a showpiece final, and were thenliquidated. Marta moved to Rosengård, and then on to Orlando Pride in the NWSL.

Global positioning

The Swedish league is highly rated in terms of UEFA coefficient, which is the statistical assessment of strength over arolling period. So, for example, entry berths to the 2017-18 women’s Champions League were allocated on the basisof UEFA’s 2016 coefficients, which take into account club performances in Europe in the five seasons from 2011-12
to 2015-16 inclusive. On that basis Sweden was third behind Germany and France, and ahead of England, Spain andRussia. So the Damallsvenskan remains one of the major domestic women’s leagues of Europe. Further, UEFA figures
say Sweden has twice the number of professional players than Norway, for example, and four times the number in
FInland, to give examples of other nations in the region. But whether Sweden will hold that No3 place for much
longer is uncertain.

Although the Damallsvenskan continue to employ some foreign stars, most of the players are Swedish and most of
those who aren’t are from other Scandinavian countries. Around 110 of the 240 first-team players have professional
contracts and about 40 of those are foreign players. About half of Sweden’s best Swedish players (or a dozen of
those called up to recent international squads) play outside Sweden, in France, Germany or England, indicative of
the better earning potential elsewhere.

The bottom line

Across the league as a whole, including part-timers and amateurs, the average basic salary was £10,889($14,160), which is around €1,000 per month. According to Magnus Erlingmark, secretary general of the Swedish
Spelarföreningen (Players’ Association), the corresponding average wage in the top division of Swedish men’sfootball is around €9,000 per month.

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W-League Analysis
20172018

Total salaries:

£1.3m
$1.7m

9

TEAMs

PLAYERS

162

Average salary Per player:£8,173$10,628

The lowdown

The W-League was established in 2008 with a first season in 2008-09, and is now contested by nine teams, most ofwhich are affiliated to a men’s team. The league is in transition, in a positive way, in what the main stakeholders in
the game Down Under hope will lead towards professionalism in all senses. Those stakeholders are the FFA (thegoverning body for football in Australia), the W-League as an administrative body and competition holder and theplayers’ union Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), whose chief executive John Didulica, has authored a report
called ‘From Grassroots to Greatness - a roadmap for women’s football in Australia.’
That was produced on the back of a 2016 survey of women’s professional players in the W-League, most of whomwere semi-professional, at best. Of the 111 who took part, 13 were Australian internationals.
That survey found, for example, that 85 per cent of players earned less than £3,000 per season for playing football,while a quarter of players earned less than £300 per season. More than half of the players said they spent 20 or more
hours per week in other paid work or studying - while also playing top-division football. And 90 per cent said theywould consider leaving football early in their career to pursue a more financially rewarding career.
As one player said: ‘One thousand dollars a season has been my pay for the past four seasons – it doesn’t even cover
my costs to get to training. I earn more a month from my part-time job than I do playing in the top women’s footballleague. Often I have to cancel shifts due to my football commitments. This means that it costs me to play in the
W-League.’
Changes have been made and from the 2017-18 season, recently underway, there is a minimum salary in place ofaround £5,700 for a 23-week contract. Clubs must spend a minimum of 18 times that sum on basic player contracts,

40 			or £103,000 per club at least. Other new benefits include up to £860 per week football and non-football income
protection; a maternity policy where airfares and accommodation are provided for children aged three or younger,
travelling with their mothers for games; and minimum medical standards in line with the men’s A-League.
There is a theoretical salary cap of £171,000 per squad for the current season, although some clubs will spend more
if they utilise marquee player or guest player rules, which allow additional spending.

The bottom line

Although some FFA numbers have suggested the average salary in the W-League could rise above £10,000 for
the current season, internal club and union estimates based on spending so far put the average basic at closer
to AUS$13,800, or closer to £8,000. Players who are also contracted separately to play for the Australia women’sinternational team earn around £32,000 per year for that, so can be earning £40,000-plus, and perhaps more if
playing in Europe or the USA in the W-League’s off-season.

Global positioning

Australia is a big nation geographically (sixth largest land mass), middling in population (ranked 54th, with 24.7m
people) and prone to insert itself into other continents in the arts and sport. It takes part in Europe’s Eurovision SongContest for example. It is part of Asia in a footballing sense, as a member of the Asian Football Confederation,
having left the Oceania Football Confederation in 2006. Australia’s domestic women’s football is arguably mostcomparable to other Asian leagues, not least in Japan and South Korea, in as much as they are evolving fromamateurism, are well short of being fully professional, but have a core of internationals who earn a decent living.

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AFL Women’s
Analysis
2018

Total salaries:

£1.6m
$2.1m

8

TEAMs

PLAYERS218

Average salary Per player:£7,477$9,723The lowdown

AFL Women’s league (AFLW) had its inaugural season in 2017, with eight teams involved in a competition run by theAustralian Football League (AFL), which runs the most popular sports competition in the country in the men’s AFL.
Attendance per game in AFL Women’s in the first season ranged from an average of 5,000 per match at Melbourne
to 8,465 at Carlton. The season ran over eight weeks through February and March and the grand final was won
by Adelaide in front of a crowd of almost 16,000. The biggest attendance of the season was 24,568 for Carlton v
Collingwood and the seasonal average was 6,828. There is already a demonstrable appetite for the competition andexpansion to 14 teams is envisaged by the end of 2020.
The 2018 season will include more ‘contact’ hours per player, and better pay than the first year. Contracts were fornine hours per week in 2017, plus matches; in 2018 that will rise to 10 hours in the season after 13 hours per week in
pre-season.

The average men’s AFL annual salary now is £176,690, or nearly £170,000 more than in AFLW. To put that in context,
if the men took a 1 per cent pay cut, it would cover a 100 per cent pay rise for the women. But that differential is notwhat matters for now; it’s that a women’s professional league is up and running, and succeeding.

The bottom line

Total player payments in 2017 were approaching £1.3m but they will rise closer to £1.6m in 2018, to produce
average pay for the short-form season of £7,477. Budgets at the different clubs are close to parity.

Global positioning

There is only one women’s professional Aussie Rules league.

The minimum salary will rise from £4,900 to £6,000. Marquee players’ pay (also known as Tier 1 players, two perteam) will rise from £9,700 to £11,500 and Tier 2 players’ pay will rise from £6,900 to £8,300.
For guiding us around her sport and explaining the genesis of the league, we are indebted to Chyloe Kurdas, apioneer in women’s Aussie Rules who spent 15 years as a player and coach. She has also spent a decade and more
helping to increase participation levels then developing a high-performance structure that in effect became the AFL
Women’s competition.
Of particular interest and relevance to this survey is Kurdas’s observation that the AFL Women’s teams are consideredintrinsic parts of the pre-existing men’s clubs whose names they share. They are, by and large, fully integrated into
the football operations divisions of those clubs with equal access to the same facilities and support, if not pay, yet.

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Liga MX Femenil
Analysis
2017

Total salaries:£645,120$838,656

16
TEAMs

PLAYERS

384

Average salary Per player:£1,679$2,184The lowdown

The Liga MX Femenil was established less than a year ago, in December 2016, and comprises women’s teams from
16 of the 18 clubs that play in the men’s Liga MX. The first season began in July this year. The season is split into twoparts - Apertura and Clausura - of identical format, and within each of those the 16 teams are split into two groups ofeight, ending in a four-team play-off series of semi-finals and final.
In men’s football in Mexico, low wages at the smallest clubs are, anecdotally, around 25,000 Mexican pesos permonth, or about £1,000 per month. At the higher end of the scale, leading players earn anything from £4,000 amonth to £40,000 a month, or up to half a million pounds a year. The top few players (emphasis few) can make morethan £1m. The league-wide men’s average is about £265,000 per year..
The salary cap for the women’s league was set at 2,500 pesos per month, or £100 per month, or £1,200 per year.

44 			The bottom line

The tiny cap limit was viewed in many quarters as risible, and indeed unworkable - with such low pay unable toattract players. Our survey suggests that the best paid women players are earning ‘as much’ as £800 a month, andthat the average is something closer to 3,500 peso per month, or £140, or £1,679 a year.

Global positioning

Women’s professional (and semi-professional) football is starting to take off in multiple places. Colombia also had
an inaugural ‘pro’ league in 2017, featuring 18 teams. As in Mexico it has faced teething problems, not least overmoney, and whether all the players are receiving even the relatively small sums due. We were unable to engage
anyone involved in the Colombian league, or players’ union, to discover more. If nothing else, league start-ups
indicate women’s football is evolving, however slowly.

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SEVEN conclusions
1: The WNBA is the only women’s league where team-by-team average salaries are included in the main GSSS survey list.
They are included because we have official numbers. For most of the other women’s leagues we have a good idea of
numbers for many individual clubs, but not all. So they cannot be listed in the same way. The WNBA is also includedin the main because, as the best paid women’s sports league in the world, it is a pertinent example to hold up against
men’s leagues to illustrate the gap. No WNBA team is higher than No327 on our list of 348 teams by average earnings.
Upshot: we knew there was a pay divide and probably a big one. But the gender gap in team sport pay is now precisely,
quantifiably massive.

4: There is an important role for governing bodies in not preventing positive change by bodies they see as rivals to theirpower. The most obvious examples come when commercial promoters (say, at random, in a short-form cricket event)might offer platforms for paid work but governing bodies (say with their own short-form event, or plans for one) put
barriers in place that prevent ‘their’ players taking advantage. If global and national governing bodies in whatever sports
you can name - football, cricket, cycling, athletics, whatever - are not investing in opportunities for women to pursue
professional careers, they at least should not stand in the way of others who are. We accept this is an area fraught with
political complications.

2: The biggest and richest men’s sports don’t pay their way - or rather pay their wages - via fans coming to games; theyoften rely on huge TV contracts to underpin them as viable. Women’s leagues on the contrary don’t have huge TV
contracts (generally) and so have to pay their way via other means. We provide a small insight into this via a new featurein this edition of the GSSS where we consider how easily leagues would pay their player wages if they relied only on thetickets they sold to games.

5: The AFL women’s league appears to be showing the way in terms of full integration for men’s and women’s team thatfunction on an equal basis (pay aside, for now) within one sporting organisation. The large crowds for the women’sseason in 2017 appear to be evidence that the ‘one club’ mentally has drawn in lots of supporters from the men’s teams.
Sport is tribal, and team sport especially so. In developing professional women’s team sport, organisations need to tap
into that. Put the the women’s teams on a genuinely equal footing, with facilities, opportunities, and venues, and see
what that does for you.

You can find those calculations for each league in the league-by-league analysis section of the main report’s 18 leagues- which includes WNBA analysis. In the NFL in America, for example, first-team players are earning more than £3.5
billion in wages this season, and it is expected the league will sell between 17.5m and 18m tickets for all their games
combined. (It was 17.8m last season). If those paying customers had to foot the wage bill, every single ticket would cost
£198.07. Those tickets don’t foot the wage bill, of course; huge TV deals do, in the main.
When we do the maths for the WBNA, using a total player salary bill of £8.2m in 2017, and 1,574,078 paying fansthrough the door, that works out at just £5.26 per ticket needed to pay those wages. An argument is often made along
the lines: ‘Women’s sport is rubbish, nobody watches, so there isn’t much money, no wonder wages are so small.’Actually average ‘lowest priced’ ticket prices in the WBNA are more than double the sum needed to cover the wages,
or more than £12 each. And the teams have other income streams from TV and sponsors. So they could arguably afford
to pay higher wages than they do - but that’s a whole different subject.
A more obvious conclusion around income streams if that building crowds is hugely important for women’s leagues,
first as that key step to build the revenue that pays wages, but also as marker that there is an audience there that mighttranslate into a TV audience, which in turn might start to bring the bigger money for more significant growth.

3: There is an important role for governing bodies in promoting change. The most obvious example is found in Cricket
Australia and their decision to put gender equality explicitly on the agenda and back it with cash. It’s nascent, yes, but
the culture of professionalism in women’s cricket is blossoming in Australia because the organisation that holds thepurse has decided to start being fairer. Imagine, just for a second, that football world governing body FIFA decided totake its massive income (derived from men’s football, and women’s football, albeit unequally) and then spend it equally,on men’s football and women’s football. Imagine if it did that because it is a not-for-profit responsible for all of football,not just men’s football. To use just one example, FIFA’s prize pot for the 2015 women’s World Cup was $15m. For next
year’s men’s World Cup in Russia it will be $400m. Of course that men’s prize money goes to national associations andsome of them will spend some of it on women’s football, although most will go to men. Imagine if FIFA decided insteadto make the prize funds to each of the World Cups $200m, and then stipulate that the money split at the women’s eventis spent on women’s football. It is within their power, if they have the political will to make that leap. The same goes forany governing body.

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6: The sporting arenas, and the media coverage that events attract, do both matter. There is probably no better example
of top-level professional sporting equality than that on display at the tennis Grand Slam events. The men and womencompete alongside each other on the same courts, for the same money, in the same championships, during a fortnightof play in each of Melbourne, Paris, Wimbledon and New York. Media coverage of those events, on TV, radio, social
media and old-fashioned newspapers is fundamentally equal. Certainly it is much more equal than most sports. That
isn’t to say that moving women’s team sport into men’s stadiums and arenas is necessarily going to be a magic bullet.
But a change of attitude cannot hurt.
7: We focus on team sport in this report, but individual sports also have a gender divide in earnings potential. We canlook to tennis as the most demonstrably ‘equal’ among ‘major’ sports, played worldwide, where the top players sharethe same spaces and money on the same stages for eight weeks each year. The number of male players with on-court
earnings of $250,000 or more in the calendar year of 2017 was 150 players; while the number of women was 129. That’s
16 per cent more men than women making that quarter of a million dollars or more.
Moving to specific earnings, the top 20 men’s players (in prize money) earned a total of $75.3m or an average of$3.76m as the top 20 women’s players earned $64.5m or an average of $3.2m. The top 20 men are earning 16.6 percent more each, on average, than the top 20 women.
Within the top 50, the men collectively earned $115m versus $96.6m at an average of $2.3m versus $1.9m for the
women - or 19 per cent more.
Within the top 100, the men collectively earned $149.6m versus $120.9m at an average of almost $1.5m versus $1.2m
for the women - or 24 per cent more.
So even in this even sport, relatively, there are more men making money, and also more money, even when, at theirmajor events, they are sharing the same arenas for the same pay.
That isn’t to criticise tennis - far from it. It’s a leader in equality terms in sport. But as we noted in conclusion one, a gap
remains, demonstrably.

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sportingintelligence

SKINS COLLECTIONSKINS.NET

SKINS COLLECTIONSKINS.NET49

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

Average annual earnings in the major sporting
cities of North America (four or more teams)

SEATTLE			Mariners$5,006,701
MLBSeahawks$2,899,031
NFLSounders$412,246
MLS
Storm$68,169WNBA

MINNEAPOLIS-ST PAUL
Timberwolves $7,418,763
Twins$3,475,431
Wild$3,348,478
Vikings$2,571,105
United$197,143
Lynx$79,721

NBA
MLB
NHL
NFL
MLS
WNBA

CHICAGO			
Cubs$6,541,865
MLB
Bulls
$4,290,810
NBAWhite Sox
$3,913,970
MLBBlackhawks$3,378,587
NHL
Bears
$2,718,135
NFLFire$479,714
MLS
Sky$65,691
WNBA

DETROIT			
Pistons$7,851,121
NBA
Tigers$6,932,715
MLB
Red Wings$3,392,713
NHL
Lions
$2,678,150
NFL

BOSTON			
Celtics$7,841,504
NBA
Red Sox$5,622,164
MLB
Bruins$3,445,000NHL
Patriots$2,688,177
NFL
Revolution$252,179MLS

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA		
Warriors$8,940,786
NBA
Giants$6,304,689
MLB
Sharks$3,165,326
NHL
Raiders$2,986,996
NFLAthletics$2,353,389
MLB
49ers
$2,068,695
NFL
Earthquakes$239,975
MLS

PHILADELPHIA		
76ers$5,498,142
Eagles$2,745,628
Flyers$3,082,174
Phillies$3,362,245
Union$229,581

LOS ANGELES			Clippers$8,331,098NBA
Lakers$6,805,932
NBA
Dodgers$6,064,187
MLBAngels$4,798,861
MLB
Kings
$3,287,717
NHL
Ducks
$3,120,967
NHL
Rams$2,771,968
NFLChargers$2,595,629
NFL
Galaxy$451,218
MLS
Sparks$79,219WNBA

50 			

NBA
NFL
NHL
MLB
MLS

WASHINGTON, DC		
Wizards$7,348,859
NBA
Nationals$6,259,314
MLB
Redskins$2,939,861
NFL
Capitals$3,670,326
NHL
DC United$195,276
MLS
Mystics$77,641WNBA

PHOENIX			
Suns$5,750,709
NBA
Diamondbacks $3,240,375
MLB
Cardinals$2,912,908
NFL
Coyotes$2,346,735
NHL
Mercury$79,663
WNBA

DENVER		
Nuggets$6,969,292
Rockies$3,172,299
Broncos$2,790,377
Avalanche$2,693,261
Rapids$309,255

TORONTO-HAMILTON		
Raptors$7,853,384
NBABlue Jays$5,598,392
MLB
Maple Leafs$3,144,312
NHLFC$829,623
MLS
Argonauts$80,035
CFL
Tiger-Cats$85,245
CFL

NEW YORK			Yankees$6,310,711
MLB
Knicks$6,265,159
NBA
Nets$6,014,803
NBAMets$5,686,603
MLB
Islanders$3,467,717
NHL
Rangers$3,270,978
NHL
Giants$2,930,586
NFL
Devils$2,767,065
NHL
Jets$2,285,338
NFLCity FC$640,370
MLS
Red Bulls$246,257
MLS
Liberty$73,011WNBA

ATLANTA			
Hawks$5,714,072
NBA
Braves$4,577,984
MLB
Falcons$2,974,845
NFL
United$290,573
MLS
Dream$85,362
WNBA

NBA
MLB
NFL
NHL
MLS

DALLAS-FORT WORTH		
Mavericks$5,750,044
NBA
Rangers$5,247,982
MLB
Stars
$3,431,399
NHL
Cowboys$2,586,075
NFL
FC Dallas$235,371
MLS
Wings$70,738WNBA

HOUSTON			
Rockets$7,774,619
NBA
Astros$4,720,144
MLB
Texans$2,831,027
NFL
Dynamo$181,829
MLSMIAMI			Heat$6,787,718
NBA
Marlins$4,119,582
MLB
Panthers$3,035,283
NHLDolphins$2,461,845
NFL51

sportingintelligence“Oklahoma went from being the
major professional sporting attractionin their city to the best paid sports
team the world has known.”

sportingintelligence

Global sports salaries
survey 2017: Oklahoma riseto the top of the world
LAST YEAR’s survey was all about
Brexit, the subsequent currency
fluctuations it caused and a huge
new TV deal in the NBA. They
combined to take a wrecking ballto the established order of theworld’s best paid sports teams.
This year we’ve focussed on
gender equality (or rather
inequality) as we’ve added awomen’s league, the WNBA, to
our main list for the first time.
That list, after further big pay
increases in the NBA, is evermore dominated by basketballteams using our unique metricof ‘average first-team pay’, or inother words, the average annual
salary of the first-team squadplayers, effectively but not always
the ‘active roster’. Squad makeup rules vary across sports andleagues.
This allows us to compare salaries
in hugely contrasting leagues in
multiple sports around the world.
It is no surprise really that an NBA
team is top, again, although theidentity of the team - Oklahoma
City Thunder - won’t be familiar to
many who don’t follow basketball.
They overtake last year’s No1, theCleveland Cavaliers, and the storyof how they stormed up the pay
list from No33 last year to the topof pile is a tale of giants.
One all-time giant NBA contract isinvolved, and two giant signings,

52 			and two giant pay rises, one to aplayer from a family of giants.
At the start of last season, theThunder were ranked only 23rd
just among the 30 NBA teams inaverage pay, with their 15 players
collectively earning $90m, or $6meach (£4.5m).
By opening day 2017, and thisedition of the survey, their 14man roster had collective annual
salaries of $130m, or $9.3m each(£7.15m).
The all-time giant contract has
been signed by guard Russell
Westbrook, the NBA’s leadingscorer and MVP last season.
He penned a $205m five-year
contract extension last year. It
actually kicks in from the start ofnext season, but it delivers thebiggest guaranteed deal in NBA
history, or $233m over six seasons
to 2023. He nonetheless has a‘minor’ pay rise to include inthis study, of $2m between lastseason’s $26.5m and this season’s$28.5m.
The giant signings (in sportingachievement terms) wereCarmelo Anthony from the New
York Knicks and Paul George fromthe Indiana Pacers. George is afour-time NBA All-Star, and arrived
with a pay packet of $19.5m forthis season. Anthony has been an
All-Star 10 times, been a memberof the USA Olympic basketball arecord four times, and has won
four Olympic medals, bronze in2004 and then golds in 2008, 2012
and 2016. He’s earning $26m thisseason.
One of the giant pay rises went toAndré Roberson, who re-signedwith the Thunder on a three-year$30m contract in the summer,
taking his pay from $2m in 2016-17
to $9m this season.
Without doubt our favourite
character in this story is Steven
Adams, a laid-back guitar-playing
Kiwi with Anglo-Tongan heritage.
His late mother, Lilika Ngauamo,
was from the Polynesian islands,
and his father, Sid, was an English
sailor who settled in New Zealandafter a career in the Royal Navy.
Sid had 18 children with fivedifferent women and 7ft Adams
is the youngest. His siblings are
exceptionally tall, and athletic,
his brothers and half-brothers
averaging 6ft 9in (two of thembasketball players in New
Zealand) and his sisters averaging
6ft. One of his sisters is Valerie
Adams, twice an Olympic gold
medallist in the shot putt, at
Beijing 2008 and London 2012,
before a silver at Rio 2016. She isalso a four-time world champion,in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013,
before a silver in 2015. And asof the New Years Honours, 2017,
Valerie is a Dame.

53

sportingintelligence

Back to Steven and his role inthis story, he signed a four-year,$100m contract extension with theThunder late last year, pushing his$3m salary from the last GSSS to$22m for the current season.
And that combination of events
explains how the only ‘big’ sports
franchise in the state of Oklahoma
went from being the major
professional sporting attraction in
their city to the best paid sports
team the world has known.
At No2 this year are last year’s
leaders, the Cavaliers, followed
by a third NBA team, the GoldenState Warriors at No3. The Warriors
rise from No20 last year after new
contracts (finally) kicked in for theirmajor players including Steph Curry.
The NBA’s dominance is reaching
the point where they are close toannexing the top 20. Only threeteams from outside the NBA get
into that bracket: Barcelona of La
Liga at No4 overall, up from No5 lastyear, PSG of Ligue 1 at No5 overall,up from No35 last year after the jawdropping capture of world record
signing Neymar in the summer, andReal Madrid at No 9, up from No19
last year, largely down to big newcontracts for star players.
The only other non-NBA teams in
the top 30 are baseball’s Detroit
Tigers at No22 (the highest ranked
MLB team), and then two Premier
League clubs from Manchester at
No23 and No24 (United and City,in that order, just), with Bayern
Munich of the Bundesliga at No27,
and baseball’s Chicago Cubs at
No28. The full rundown of teams
plus league-by-league analysis isincluded in this report.
As recently as the GSSS edition of
2015, eight football (soccer) teams
were in the top 10.
54 			

sportingintelligence

Currency notes
The GSSS typically takes a currency
conversion rate for each edition
at mid-year for all currencies.
Last year, given the impact of
Brexit, we used exchange rates
applicable on the Monday after
the vote, the last Monday in June
2016, when £1 was trading at$1.32 and $1 was 75.76 pence. The
pound-euro conversion rates usedwere £1 = €1.22, or €1 = 82p.
This year the rates used are £1 =US$1.30 and £1 = €1.12. Given theprevalence of Australian leagues
in the women’s sports analysis, weshould note we used the midyear figure of £1 = AUS$1.688, andstaying in women’s sport, andspecifically Danish handball, we
used a rate of £1 = DKK8.373.
If a salary has been paid in US
dollars, that figure is reported indollars, and also converted topounds. If a salary was paid ineuros, we converted to pounds,
then US dollars; and the same isthe case for Australian dollars.
We mention this simply because,in previous years, figures havebeen taken from the report andconverted into other currencies atthe publication day’s rate, thenbeen picked up and converted
again. Amounts can change
quickly and significantly from their
original state. Such is the effect of
currency fluctuations.

still happen but as the CSL analysis
later in the report highlights, thegovernment via the Chinese FA
have tried to put the brakes onspending. It has had limited effectso far, with the best paid CSL teamthis year, according to our survey,
being Shanghai SIPG with average
player pay of £1.85m a year. Thatis bigger than the vast majority ofclubs in Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s
Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A andFrance’s Ligue 1.
Chinese investors have continued
to buy stakes or majority sharesin European clubs, Southamptonof the Premier League among
them in August 2017. Chineseinterests own or part-own thePremier League’s Manchester City
and West Brom, Championshipclubs Aston Villa, Birmingham and
Wolves, La Liga clubs Espanyol
and Granada, and the two
Italian giants Milan and Inter,among others. But some of thoseinvestments at least have question
marks ballooning over them, notleast in Milan, while the march of
the CSL could look different again
by this time next year.

GSSS 2017 - a survey
for today

China’s rise, andstumble’We reiterate this each year toprovide context and explain how
this report has evolved: SportingIntelligence’s global sports salaries
survey was conceived in 2009
with several aims, one of them
being to produce a substantial
piece of original research to help
promote the full launch of www.
sportingintelligence.com in early2010.

Last year’s report was notable
for the rise of the Chinese Super
League and our floating of thenotion that massive investment infootball was all part of a plan toland the 2030 World Cup. It might

The idea was to compare, ona like-for-like basis as closely as
possible, how much ‘average’
sportsmen earned at hundreds ofdifferent clubs and teams around

With that headache-inducing but
essential digression out of the way,
we can move on.

the world in hugely contrasting
professional sports. This would
also allow us to examine therelationship between money andsuccess in each sport.
To reflect global and not justwestern patterns, we needed tolook beyond one or two ‘hotspots’in European football and major
North American sport. So thestarting point for the first survey
was considering the most popular
domestic professional sports
leagues - measured by average
ticket-buying attendance pergame - and included not only
the NFL, the Premier League andother ‘major’ leagues but also
Indian Premier League cricket andJapanese baseball.
Subsequent reports have
expanded to add Australian
Rules football and Canadian
CFL gridiron, then Chinese Super
League football, Japanese
J-League football and Ligue
1 from France. As and whenreliable numbers can be sourced
for new or growing leagues,
we’ll be happy to include them,and welcome any assistance inobtaining such data.
One important note needs tobe made on methodology.
The first six editions of this reportwere released in Spring, usually
April, and included salaries forthe ‘active’ or most recently
completed season for eachleague at the time of publication.
For the European football leagues
until last year’s report, completed
seasons were used. But moreexperience, a wider knowledge
base, and more establishedaccess to more data (bettersourcing) gave us the confidence
to use ‘live’ data for all theEuropean football leagues in the2016, and again this year.
As ever, these particular footballnumbers can only be a snapshot,of the situation applicable to thesquads as set between the end of
the summer 2017 transfer window
and the opening of the January
2017 window. But nonetheless
we believe they are the mostaccurate snapshot available
anywhere.
The only other methodologicalnote to make is some clubs’salaries - the successful clubs will be a good few percentage
points higher than the statedfigures when performance-relatedbonuses are paid. We cannot
know at the time of writing whichthose clubs will be!
All figures (across all leagues)
are sourced directly or indirectlyfrom one or more of unions,player associations, agents,
leagues, clubs and other reliable
administrative bodies.
To be more specific, league byleague, the NBA numbers arein the public domain, so too
the MLB figures and IPL figures(via auctions, with league andclub sources filling gaps). For
the Premier League, and all theEuropean leagues (in Spain,
Germany, Italy, France, Scotland)
we source a specific number foreach and every individual player
wherever possible, either fromplayers themselves, their agentsor other representatives, or clubsources. It is a painstaking exercise
and the findings can, by a survey
definition, only be as accurate as
the information provided. Thereare ‘backstops’ however, or
public record sources (some but
not all widely known) that give agood indication of the general

financial situation at a club. We
cross-reference with those. For the
first few GSSS surveys, for someleagues, the ‘backstops’ were thekey source material, then ratified.
The NHL numbers come directfrom the players’ union, the NFL
figures are in the public domain,
as are, in Japan, the figures forboth Japanese leagues (NPB and
J-League). The CSL is intriguing. We
obtained official internal numbersa few years ago and havetracked the significant changes
since on a player by player basis.
But the league-wide situation is atbest opaque. The analysis section
for the CSL explains the revelatory
nature of Evergrande’s latest
annual report, and the possibility
that pay in China might be evenbigger than we think.
The MLS numbers are from theplayers’ union, made public to
the last cent twice a year, and theunion should be applauded forthat. The AFL numbers come fromvarious sources in Australia andtake more time to pull together,hence the ‘accounting lag’; andthe same is true of Canada’s CFL(except sources in Canada).
The WNBA figures are official
numbers, sourced from those who
see the data, and we thank themfor that.

GSSS for the future an appeal
Just as we would welcome data
for new leagues, mentioned
earlier (South America would be
intriguing, please), we remaininterested in adding any otherleagues of significance to a wide
audience, either because ofinternational reach or somethingthat league can tell us about
competitive balance and money.
Suggestions are welcome. Rugby(both codes) and the Olympic
55

sportingintelligenceteam sports of water polo andvolleyball would be interesting, if
you are a senior administrator in
one of those sports and want to get
in touch.
Last year we said women’s
professional sports leagues were ofparticular interest; this year’s reportis the result of the feedback andhelp that appeal produced.

GSSS - the metricexplained
The key metric in the GSSS has
always been ‘average first-teampay’. It sounds simple but to staytrue to our like-for-like target
requires a range of decisions about
what to include. What does ‘firstteam’ constitute at a football club?
In the NBA? In Japanese baseball?
Typically, a first-team squad in
football will be 25 players although
it may be as few as 20 and it may
be more than 30. It depends on theteam. Similar numbers of players
per ‘first-team squad’ are used forthe two baseball leagues included- MLB and NPB - and for the ice
hockey league, the NHL. In NBA
basketball, the salaries of the 15 to
17 players on each roster on the
opening day of the 2017-18 season
were considered. In Canadian andAustralian football the wages ofsome 40-plus players are counted
per team and in the NFL it is morethan 50 per team.
By ‘average’, we mean ‘arithmetic
mean’. All the salaries are addedup (and by salaries, we include
money for playing sport for thatteam, not for endorsements orsponsorship or anything else
extra-curricular) and divided by
the number of players. That’s
it. A simple list that provokes
complicated arguments but does,at the very least, provide a ‘ball56 			

sportingintelligencepark’ reckoner of what different
sports teams pay.
Average pay is important - as
opposed to total wage outlay because two teams spending thesame totals on salaries will havestarkly different averages if they
are paying a significantly different
number of players.
It happens, and it matters. You
can employ a higher number oflower quality players for the same
price as a smaller number of higher
quality players, and we think it’sworth exploring which is mosteffective for performance.
Arguably one of the most counterintuitive findings in our reports has
been the relatively low levels of
average salaries in America’s NFL- by far and away the richest sport
in the world in terms of annual
domestic TV contract earnings,
often the bedrock of a league’s
income.
NFL players earn just over $2.7m ayear each on average, or morethan $4m less per man than NBA
basketball players this season.
The ‘median’ earnings in the NFL,
where you consider the middle
person in a list of all players ranked
from best-paid to worst-paid, hasonly just crept above a million
dollars a year.
The best paid NFL team in thisyear’s survey, the Oakland Raiders,
do not appear on the overall listin the top 100 places (they are
No108), with the average player
there earning £2.3m a year ($3m).
It has been argued by some sports
fans, usually in North America, that
pay-per-man is irrelevant because
it is total outlay that matters. Well,
not a single NFL team gets into the
top 10 list of total payroll size. The

Raiders are No18. The top six teamsin this regard - combined basic
salaries of the first-team players are Barcelona, PSG, Real Madrid,
the LA Dodgers, Manchester United
and the Detroit Tigers.

NBA stretch lead as
richest league
The NBA remains comfortably the
top paying league as a wholein world sport, by average salaryat £5.5m or $7.1m. The details on
how many teams and players are
considered for each league arein the league-by-league analysis
pages, as are the average salaries
and median numbers.
The Premier League is the highest
paying football league in the world,at £2.64m per player per season.
This means the average weekly
pay in the Premier League has risen
above £50,000 per week for the firsttime.
In most leagues, money matterswhen it comes to performance; themore you pay, the better you do,all other things being equal. Thatis particularly true in elite footballleagues but also true in the NBA
and in MLB. The reason is fairly
straightforward - better players costmore, and if you’re spending more
it’s generally because you havebetter players.
The 18 leagues and 348 teams
we consider in the main list startwith the ‘big four’ from American
sports, which are the NFL (gridiron,
American football), the NBA(basketball), MLB (baseball) andNHL (ice hockey), continue withthe ‘big five’ football leaguesof Europe, which are the English
Premier League (EPL), theBundesliga of Germany, La Ligaof Spain, Serie A of Italy and Ligue
1 of France, and include the
AFL from Australia, CFL football(gridiron) from Canada, NPB

baseball from Japan and IPLfrom India. The leagues have led
the way in attracting the biggest
crowds in world sport over the past
decade, as measured by averageattendance within domestic
professional sports leagues.
Our final five leagues are theScottish Premiership from Scotland,
MLS from North America, China’s
CSL and Japan’s J-League - all as
examples of smaller-scale leagues
from the world’s most popularsport, football - and the WNBA, thefirst women’s league in the GSSS.
For the NBA, the NHL and the NFL,the numbers in this report pertain to
the 2017-18 seasons. For the Premier
League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie
A, Ligue 1 and Scottish Premiership,
the salaries are for the squads
at the end of the 2017 transfer
window as the 2017-18 season
began. For MLB, MLS, IPL, NPB, CSL,
J.League and WNBA the numbers
are for 2017, and for the AFL and
CFL they come from the end of the2016 seasons.
We thank everyone who assistedwith helping us to find the mostreliable data possible. The
uniqueness of this study lies inlooking beyond total payrolls orclub wage bills to what the players
make per head.
Details and links to information
about previous years’ GSSS
reports can be found via
www.globalsportssalaries.com.
Thank you for reading.
Nick Harris
EditorSporting Intelligence
November 201757

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

Global sports salaries
survey 2017: top 12

13-57

Rank & Team	
League	(Last year)		

Avg annual pay £(Avg weekly pay)

Avg annual pay $(Avg weekly pay)		

1 (33) Oklahoma City ThunderNBA£7,150,388 (£137,507)$9,295,504 ($178,760)

2 (1) Cleveland CavaliersNBA£6,919,714 (£133,071)$8,995,628 ($172,993)

3 (20) Golden State Warriors

NBA£6,877,528 (£132,260)$8,940,786 ($171,938)

		

4 (5) Barcelona

La Liga£6,597,500 (£126,875)$8,576,750 ($164,938)		

5 (35) PSG

Ligue 1

£6,472,355 (£124,468)$8,414,061 ($161,809)

		

6 (21) Charlotte Hornets

NBA£6,445,974 (£123,961)$8,379,766 ($161,149)

		

7 (6) Portland Trail Blazers

NBA£6,434,440 (£123,739)$8,364,772 ($160,861)

		

8 (3) LA Clippers

NBA£6,408,537 (£123,241)$8,331,098 ($160,213)

		

9 (19) Real Madrid

La Liga£6,224,833 (£119,708)$8,092,283 ($155,621)

		

10 (25) New Orleans Pelicans NBA£6,063,867 (£116,613)$7,883,028 ($151,597)		

11 (11) Toronto Raptors

NBA£6,041,065 (£116,174)$7,853,384 ($151,027)		

12 (17) Detroit PistonsNBA£6,039,324 (£116,141)$7,851,121 ($150,983)

		

		
		
		

58 			

Team	

League			
13 (32)14 (29)15 (23)16 (12)17 (49)18 (15)
19 (39)20 (7)
21 (46)22 (28)23 (4)
24 (9)
25 (31)26 (18)27 (37)28 (44)29 (10)30 (36)31 (2)
32 (41)33 (13)34 (16)35 (38)36 (26)37 (53)38 (27)39 (34)40 (43)41 (42)42 (8)
43 (22)44 (45)45 (24)46 (50)47 (63)48 (47)49 (30)50 (51)51 (48)52 (68)53 (52)54 (40)55 (60)56 (71)57 (54)

Avg annual pay £(Avg weekly pay)

Avg annual pay $(Avg weekly pay)

Boston Celtics
Houston Rockets
Milwaukee Bucks
San Antonio Spurs
Minnesota Timberwolves
Washington Wizards
Utah Jazz
Memphis Grizzlies
Denver Nuggets
Detroit Tigers
Man Utd
Man City
Los Angeles Lakers
Miami Heat
Bayern Munich	Chicago Cubs
Orlando Magic
Indiana Pacers
New York Yankees
Juventus
San Francisco Giants
New York Knicks
Washington Nationals
LA Dodgers
Brooklyn Nets
Sacramento Kings
	Chelsea
Baltimore Orioles
Phoenix Suns
Dallas Mavericks
Atlanta Hawks
New York Mets
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays
Philadelphia 76ers
ArsenalTexas Rangers
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Seattle Mariners
Atletico Madrid
St Louis Cardinals
LA Angels
Liverpool
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals

NBA£6,031,926 (£115,999)
NBA£5,980,476 (£115,009)
NBA£5,873,909 (£112,960)
NBA£5,807,031 (£111,674)
NBA£5,706,740 (£109,745)
NBA£5,652,968 (£108,711)
NBA£5,645,592 (£108,569)
NBA£5,586,599 (£107,435)
NBA£5,360,994 (£103,096)
MLB£5,332,858 (£102,555)
EPL£5,241,185 (£100,792)
EPL£5,235,917 (£100,691)
NBA£5,235,333 (£100,679)
NBA£5,221,321 (£100,410)
Bundesliga £5,184,038 (£99,693)
MLB£5,032,204 (£96,773)
NBA£5,027,759 (£96,688)
NBA£4,980,303 (£95,775)
MLB£4,854,393 (£93,354)
Serie A
£4,853,467 (£93,336)
MLB£4,849,760 (£93,265)
NBA£4,819,353 (£92,680)
MLB£4,814,857 (£92,593)
MLB£4,664,760 (£89,707)
NBA£4,626,771 (£88,976)
NBA£4,545,112 (£87,406)
EPL£4,451,200 (£85,600)
MLB£4,441,873 (£85,421)
NBA£4,423,622 (£85,070)
NBA£4,423,111 (£85,060)
NBA£4,395,440 (£84,528)
MLB£4,374,310 (£84,121)
MLB£4,324,742 (£83,168)
MLB£4,306,455 (£82,816)NBA£4,229,340 (£81,333)
EPL£4,037,222 (£77,639)
MLB£4,036,909 (£77,633)
IPL£4,022,500 (£77,356)
MLB£3,851,308 (£74,064)
La Liga£3,849,130 (£74,022)
MLB£3,759,744 (£72,303)
MLB£3,691,432 (£70,989)
EPL£3,649,862 (£70,190)
MLB£3,630,880 (£69,825)
MLB£3,628,899 (£69,787)$7,841,504 ($150,798)$7,774,619 ($149,512)$7,636,082 ($146,848)$7,549,140 ($145,176)$7,418,763 ($142,669)$7,348,859 ($141,324)$7,339,269 ($141,140)$7,262,578 ($139,665)$6,969,292 ($134,025)$6,932,715 ($133,321)$6,813,541 ($131,030)$6,806,692 ($130,898)$6,805,932 ($130,883)$6,787,718 ($130,533)$6,739,250 ($129,601)$6,541,865 ($125,805)$6,536,087 ($125,694)$6,474,394 ($124,508)$6,310,711 ($121,360)$6,309,507 ($121,337)$6,304,689 ($121,244)$6,265,159 ($120,484)$6,259,314 ($120,371)$6,064,187 ($116,619)$6,014,803 ($115,669)$5,908,646 ($113,628)$5,786,560 ($111,280)$5,774,435 ($111,047)$5,750,709 ($110,591)$5,750,044 ($110,578)$5,714,072 ($109,886)$5,686,603 ($109,358)$5,622,164 ($108,119)$5,598,392 ($107,661)$5,498,142 ($105,733)$5,248,389 ($100,931)$5,247,982 ($100,923)$5,229,250 ($100,563)$5,006,701 ($96,283)$5,003,870 ($96,228)$4,887,667 ($93,994)$4,798,861 ($92,286)$4,744,821 ($91,247)$4,720,144 ($90,772)$4,717,568 ($90,722)(Last year)			

		
		
		

		

Rank	

* NB: all IPL annual salaries calculated on a pro rata basis from weekly pay

59sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

58-106107-155

Team	
League	(Last year)			

Avg annual pay £(Avg weekly pay)

Avg annual pay $(Avg weekly pay)

Rank	

(Last year)			

League	Avg annual pay £(Avg weekly pay)

Avg annual pay $(Avg weekly pay)58 (145)
Atlanta Braves
59 (57)
Rising Pune Supergiants
60 (14)	Chicago Bulls
61 (108)	Cleveland Indians
62 (107)
Miami Marlins
63 (56)
Mumbai Indians64 (66)
Tottenham
65 (132)
Milan
66 (55)	Chicago White Sox
67 (59)Sunrisers Hyderabad
68 (72)Kolkata Knight Riders
69 (61)
Delhi Daredevils
70 (90)West Ham
71 (70)
Washington Capitals
72 (101)
Everton73 (65)
Pittsburgh Pirates
74 (111)Borussia Dortmund
75 (58)Minnesota Twins
76 (92)
New York Islanders
77 (87)
Boston Bruins
78 (112)
Dallas Stars
79 (77)
Internazionale
80 (85)
Detroit Red Wings
81 (78)	Chicago Blackhawks
82 (62)Roma
83 (73)
Pittsburgh Penguins
84 (104)
Philadelphia Phillies
85 (81)
Minnesota Wild
86 (83)
St Louis Blues87 (67)
Los Angeles Kings
88 (79)
New York Rangers
89 (105)
Leicester90 (94)
Vancouver Canucks
91 (75)
Arizona Diamondbacks
92 (74)Montreal Canadiens
93 (84)	Calgary Flames
94 (69)	Colorado Rockies
95 (76)San Jose Sharks
96 (144)
Valencia
97 (88)
Tampa Bay Lightning
98 (137)
Toronto Maple Leafs
99 (120)
Napoli100 (93)
Anaheim Ducks
101 (91)
Buffalo Sabres
102 (86)
Nashville Predators
103 (89)
Philadelphia Flyers
104 (154)
Sevilla105 (115)
Florida Panthers
106 (95)
Ottawa Senators£3,521,526 (£67,722)£3,430,952 (£65,980)£3,300,623 (£63,474)£3,186,570 (£61,280)£3,168,909 (£60,941)£3,164,286 (£60,852)£3,154,667 (£60,667)£3,135,877 (£60,305)£3,010,746 (£57,899)£2,990,119 (£57,502)£2,951,667 (£56,763)£2,938,214 (£56,504)£2,936,870 (£56,478)£2,823,328 (£54,295)£2,806,207 (£53,966)£2,799,936 (£53,845)£2,739,148 (£52,676)£2,673,408 (£51,412)£2,667,475 (£51,298)£2,650,000 (£50,962)£2,639,538 (£50,760)£2,637,754 (£50,726)£2,609,779 (£50,188)£2,598,913 (£49,979)£2,598,580 (£49,973)£2,596,916 (£49,941)£2,586,343 (£49,737)£2,575,753 (£49,534)£2,559,030 (£49,212)£2,529,013 (£48,635)£2,516,137 (£48,387)£2,499,120 (£48,060)£2,492,893 (£47,940)£2,492,596 (£47,935)£2,488,040 (£47,847)£2,451,923 (£47,152)£2,440,230 (£46,928)£2,434,866 (£46,824)£2,429,818 (£46,727)£2,421,990 (£46,577)£2,418,701 (£46,513)£2,414,867 (£46,440)£2,400,744 (£46,168)£2,398,227 (£46,120)£2,375,418 (£45,681)£2,370,903 (£45,594)£2,343,490 (£45,067)£2,334,833 (£44,901)£2,334,448 (£44,893)$4,577,984 ($88,038)$4,460,238 ($85,774)$4,290,810 ($82,516)$4,142,542 ($79,664)$4,119,582 ($79,223)$4,113,571 ($79,107)$4,101,067 ($78,867)$4,076,640 ($78,397)$3,913,970 ($75,269)$3,887,155 ($74,753)$3,837,167 ($73,792)$3,819,679 ($73,455)$3,817,930 ($73,422)$3,670,326 ($70,583)$3,648,069 ($70,155)$3,639,917 ($69,998)$3,560,893 ($68,479)$3,475,431 ($66,835)$3,467,717 ($66,687)$3,445,000 ($66,250)$3,431,399 ($65,988)$3,429,080 ($65,944)$3,392,713 ($65,244)$3,378,587 ($64,973)$3,378,154 ($64,965)$3,375,991 ($64,923)$3,362,245 ($64,659)$3,348,478 ($64,394)$3,326,739 ($63,976)$3,287,717 ($63,225)$3,270,978 ($62,903)$3,248,856 ($62,478)$3,240,761 ($62,322)$3,240,375 ($62,315)$3,234,452 ($62,201)$3,187,500 ($61,298)$3,172,299 ($61,006)$3,165,326 ($60,872)$3,158,764 ($60,745)$3,148,587 ($60,550)$3,144,312 ($60,468)$3,139,327 ($60,372)$3,120,967 ($60,019)$3,117,696 ($59,956)$3,088,043 ($59,385)$3,082,174 ($59,273)$3,046,537 ($58,587)$3,035,283 ($58,371)$3,034,783 ($58,361)

107 (80)
Gujarat Lions
IPL
108 (100)
Oakland RaidersNFL
109 (138)
Atlanta Falcons
NFL
110 (109)Southampton
EPL
111 (130)
WashingtonRedskins
NFL
112 (141)	Carolina PanthersNFL
113 (121)
New York GiantsNFL
114 (118)	Crystal Palace
EPL
115 (103)
Arizona CardinalsNFL
116 (119)
Seattle SeahawksNFL
117 (110)
Jacksonville JaguarsNFL
118 (146)
Kansas City ChiefsNFL
119 (135)
West Brom
EPL
120 (124)
Winnipeg JetsNHL
121 (128)
Pittsburgh SteelersNFL
122 (129)
Tennessee TitansNFL
123 (99)
Green Bay PackersNFL
124 (116)
Houston TexansNFL
125 (-)
Vegas Golden Knights
NHL
126 (82)
Kings XI Punjab
IPL
127 (134)
Denver Broncos
NFL
128 (117)
Edmonton OilersNHL
129 (133)
Los Angeles Rams
NFL
130 (152)
New Jersey DevilsNHL
131 (139)
Philadelphia EaglesNFL
132 (148)	Chicago Bears
NFL
133 (98)	Colorado AvalancheNHL
134 (159)
MonacoLigue 1135 (156)
New England PatriotsNFL
136 (127)
Stoke
EPL
137 (140)
Detroit LionsNFL
138 (114)
Tampa Bay Bucs
NFL
139 (102)	Columbus Blue Jackets NHL
140 (96)	Cincinnati Reds
MLB
141 (106)	Cincinnati Bengals
NFL
142 (155)
Buffalo BillsNFL
143 (143)
Los Angeles Chargers
NFL
144 (113)
Dallas Cowboys
NFL
145 (122)
Minnesota VikingsNFL
146 (123)
Indianapolis ColtsNFL
147 (136)
Baltimore RavensNFL
148 (164)
New Orleans SaintsNFL
149 (153)	Carolina HurricanesNHL
150 (126)
Miami DolphinsNFL
151 (161)
Shanghai SIPG	CSL
152 (97)
Oakland Athletics
MLB
153 (150)
Milwaukee BrewersMLB
154 (147)
Arizona CoyotesNHL
155 (149)
Wolfsburg
Bundesliga£2,332,203 (£44,850)£2,297,689 (£44,186)£2,288,342 (£44,007)£2,271,286 (£43,679)£2,261,432 (£43,489)£2,256,303 (£43,390)£2,254,297 (£43,352)£2,250,857 (£43,286)£2,240,698 (£43,090)£2,230,023 (£42,885)£2,226,583 (£42,819)£2,226,583 (£42,819)£2,221,304 (£42,717)£2,207,871 (£42,459)£2,206,011 (£42,423)£2,185,950 (£42,038)£2,177,713 (£41,879)£2,177,713 (£41,879)£2,163,907 (£41,614)£2,158,155 (£41,503)£2,146,444 (£41,278)£2,143,227 (£41,216)£2,132,283 (£41,005)£2,128,512 (£40,933)£2,112,022 (£40,616)£2,090,873 (£40,209)£2,071,739 (£39,841)£2,067,929 (£39,768)£2,067,829 (£39,766)£2,064,400 (£39,700)£2,060,116 (£39,618)£2,053,874 (£39,498)£2,051,839 (£39,458)£2,044,064 (£39,309)£2,036,583 (£39,165)£2,027,868 (£38,997)£1,996,637 (£38,397)£1,989,289 (£38,256)£1,977,773 (£38,034)£1,971,297 (£37,910)£1,954,576 (£37,588)£1,945,983 (£37,423)£1,923,161 (£36,984)£1,893,727 (£36,418)£1,853,942 (£35,653)£1,810,299 (£34,813)£1,805,328 (£34,718)£1,805,181 (£34,715)£1,778,261 (£34,197)$3,031,863 ($58,305)$2,986,996 ($57,442)$2,974,845 ($57,209)$2,952,671 ($56,782)$2,939,861 ($56,536)$2,933,194 ($56,408)$2,930,586 ($56,357)$2,926,114 ($56,271)$2,912,908 ($56,017)$2,899,031 ($55,751)$2,894,558 ($55,665)$2,894,558 ($55,665)$2,887,696 ($55,533)$2,870,232 ($55,197)$2,867,815 ($55,150)$2,841,735 ($54,649)$2,831,027 ($54,443)$2,831,027 ($54,443)$2,813,080 ($54,098)$2,805,601 ($53,954)$2,790,377 ($53,661)$2,786,196 ($53,581)$2,771,968 ($53,307)$2,767,065 ($53,213)$2,745,628 ($52,801)$2,718,135 ($52,272)$2,693,261 ($51,793)$2,688,307 ($51,698)$2,688,177 ($51,696)$2,683,720 ($51,610)$2,678,150 ($51,503)$2,670,036 ($51,347)$2,667,391 ($51,296)$2,657,283 ($51,102)$2,647,558 ($50,915)$2,636,228 ($50,697)$2,595,629 ($49,916)$2,586,075 ($49,732)$2,571,105 ($49,444)$2,562,686 ($49,282)$2,540,949 ($48,864)$2,529,778 ($48,650)$2,500,109 ($48,079)$2,461,845 ($47,343)$2,410,125 ($46,349)$2,353,389 ($45,257)$2,346,927 ($45,133)$2,346,735 ($45,130)$2,311,740 ($44,457)

Rank	

60 			

MLB
IPL
NBA
MLB
MLB
IPL
EPL
Serie A
MLB
IPL
IPL
IPL
EPL
NHL
EPL
MLB
Bundesliga
MLB
NHL
NHL
NHL
Serie ANHL
NHL
Serie A
NHL
MLB
NHL
NHL
NHL
NHL
EPL
NHL
MLB
NHL
NHL
MLB
NHL
La LigaNHL
NHL
Serie A
NHL
NHL
NHL
NHL
La LigaNHL
NHL

NB: IPL annual salaries are pro rata amounts based on weekly pay

Team	

61

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence156-204
Rank	

Team	

205-254(Last year)			

Avg annual pay £(Avg weekly pay)

Avg annual pay $(Avg weekly pay)

156 (174)
Marseille
Ligue 1157 (125)
New York Jets
NFL
158 (162)
SwanseaEPL
159 (-)
Newcastle
EPL
160 (158)
Tampa Bay RaysMLB
161 (142)
SchalkeBundesliga
162 (173)	Cleveland Browns
NFL
163 (-)
Tianjin Quanjian	CSL
164 (151)
San Francisco 49ers
NFL
165 (177)
Bournemouth
EPL
166 (176)
Hebei China Fortune	CSL
167 (163)
Bayer Leverkusen
Bundesliga
168 (172)
Lazio
Serie A
169 (157)
WatfordEPL
170 (169)
Athletic Bilbao
La Liga
171 (203)
Shanghai Shenua	CSL
172 (181)
BurnleyEPL
173 (168)
Lyon
Ligue 1174 (-)
Brighton
EPL
175 (179)
Real Sociedad
La Liga
176 (167)
Villarreal
La Liga
177 (178)
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks NPB
178 (188)
RB Leipzig
Bundesliga
179 (166)
Guangzhou Evergrande	CSL
180 (184)
Hoffenheim
Bundesliga
181 (180)
Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga
182 (160)
Shangdong Luneng	CSL
183 (189)
TorinoSerie A
184 (182)
Yomiuri GiantsNPB
185 (187)
Espanyol
La Liga
186 (194)
Sampdoria
Serie A
187 (-)
Huddersfield
EPL
188 (183)
Hamburg
Bundesliga
189 (185)
Hertha Berlin
Bundesliga
190 (201)
FC Koln
Bundesliga
191 (223)
Real Betis
La Liga
192 (175)
Fiorentina
Serie A
193 (208)	Celta Vigo
La Liga
194 (213)
Nice
Ligue 1195 (165)
Jiangsu Suning	CSL
196 (196)
Deportivo La Coruna
La Liga
197 (64)
San Diego PadresMLB
198 (215)
MalagaLa Liga
199 (186)
Genoa
Serie A
200 (191)
Bologna
Serie A
201 (195)
Sassuolo
Serie A202 (212)
Atalanta
Serie A203 (192)	Celtic
Scot Prem
204 (197)
Beijing Guoan	CSL£1,769,700 (£34,033)£1,757,952 (£33,807)£1,712,880 (£32,940)£1,710,222 (£32,889)£1,682,272 (£32,351)£1,654,052 (£31,809)£1,644,663 (£31,628)£1,612,198 (£31,004)£1,591,304 (£30,602)£1,577,333 (£30,333)£1,551,731 (£29,841)£1,518,400 (£29,200)£1,488,278 (£28,621)£1,457,857 (£28,036)£1,419,500 (£27,298)£1,375,986 (£26,461)£1,371,500 (£26,375)£1,354,704 (£26,052)£1,346,429 (£25,893)£1,335,750 (£25,688)£1,326,115 (£25,502)£1,310,563 (£25,203)£1,269,382 (£24,411)£1,149,117 (£22,098)£1,125,415 (£21,643)£1,076,586 (£20,704)£1,066,564 (£20,511)£1,052,596 (£20,242)£1,051,486 (£20,221)£1,046,175 (£20,119)£1,039,981 (£20,000)£1,024,012 (£19,693)£1,014,018 (£19,500)£1,000,350 (£19,238)£992,250 (£19,082)£978,504 (£18,817)£974,605 (£18,742)£968,032 (£18,616)£915,007 (£17,596)£914,904 (£17,594)£881,608 (£16,954)£857,926 (£16,499)£856,060 (£16,463)£848,679 (£16,321)£821,538 (£15,799)£769,214 (£14,793)£769,136 (£14,791)£735,040 (£14,135)£724,938 (£13,941)$2,300,610 ($44,243)$2,285,338 ($43,949)$2,226,744 ($42,822)$2,223,289 ($42,756)$2,186,954 ($42,057)$2,150,268 ($41,351)$2,138,062 ($41,117)$2,095,857 ($40,305)$2,068,695 ($39,783)$2,050,533 ($39,433)$2,017,250 ($38,793)$1,973,920 ($37,960)$1,934,761 ($37,207)$1,895,214 ($36,446)$1,845,350 ($35,488)$1,788,781 ($34,400)$1,782,950 ($34,288)$1,761,115 ($33,868)$1,750,357 ($33,661)$1,736,475 ($33,394)$1,723,950 ($33,153)$1,703,732 ($32,764)$1,650,197 ($31,735)$1,493,852 ($28,728)$1,463,039 ($28,135)$1,399,561 ($26,915)$1,386,533 ($26,664)$1,368,375 ($26,315)$1,366,932 ($26,287)$1,360,028 ($26,154)$1,351,976 ($26,000)$1,331,216 ($25,600)$1,318,223 ($25,350)$1,300,455 ($25,009)$1,289,925 ($24,806)$1,272,056 ($24,463)$1,266,986 ($24,365)$1,258,442 ($24,201)$1,189,510 ($22,875)$1,189,375 ($22,873)$1,146,090 ($22,040)$1,115,303 ($21,448)$1,112,878 ($21,402)$1,103,282 ($21,217)$1,068,000 ($20,538)$999,979 ($19,230)$999,877 ($19,228)$955,552 ($18,376)$942,419 ($18,123)62 			

League	(Last year)			

Rank	

Team	

League	Avg annual pay £(Avg weekly pay)

Avg annual pay $(Avg weekly pay)

205 (198)
Hanshin TigersNPB
206 (209)	Cagliari
Serie A
207 (228)
Eibar
La Liga
208 (190)
Bordeaux
Ligue 1209 (205)
Eintracht Frankfurt
Bundesliga
210 (204)
Toronto FC	
MLS
211 (207)
Tokyo Yakult Swallows
NPB
212 (211)
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters NPB
213 (200)
Werder Bremen
Bundesliga
214 (206)
Lille
Ligue 1215 (-)
GironaLa Liga
216 (193)
Orix BuffaloesNPB
217 (210)
Saitama Seibu LionsNPB
218 (-)
Hellas Verona
Serie A219 (-)
SPAL
Serie A
220 (202)Saint-Etienne
Ligue 1221 (217)
Mainz
Bundesliga
222 (248)
Alaves
La Liga
223 (-)
Getafe
La Liga
224 (-)
Stuttgart
Bundesliga
225 (253)
Las Palmas
La Liga
226 (224)
Toulouse
Ligue 1227 (214)
UdineseSerie A
228 (254)
Leganes
La Liga
229 (225)	Chievo
Serie A
230 (229)
RennesLigue 1231 (221)
Augsburg
Bundesliga
232 (199)
New York City FC	
MLS
233 (-)
Levante
La Liga
234 (219)	Chiba Lotte MarinesNPB
235 (216)
Hiroshima Toyo Carp
NPB
236 (222)
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles NPB
237 (226)
Montpellier
Ligue 1238 (251)
NantesLigue 1239 (305)	Changchun Yatai	CSL
240 (234)
Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars NPB
241 (-)
Hannover 96
Bundesliga
242 (240)
Freiburg
Bundesliga
243 (256)
Tianjin Teda	CSL
244 (231)	Chunichi DragonsNPB
245 (-)
Benevento
Serie A
246 (235)	Caen
Ligue 1247 (-)
AmiensLigue 1248 (-)
Strasbourg
Ligue 1249 (307)	Chicago Fire
MLS
250 (242)
Metz
Ligue 1251 (239)
Dijon
Ligue 1252 (250)
Guingamp
Ligue 1253 (220)
LA Galaxy
MLS
254 (243)
AngersLigue 1

£686,549 (£13,203)£653,903 (£12,575)£648,185 (£12,465)£643,032 (£12,366)£638,471 (£12,278)£638,171 (£12,273)£626,432 (£12,047)£623,592 (£11,992)£621,214 (£11,946)£620,691 (£11,936)£617,283 (£11,871)£615,634 (£11,839)£611,385 (£11,757)£597,728 (£11,495)£576,218 (£11,081)£568,341 (£10,930)£562,855 (£10,824)£560,444 (£10,778)£544,781 (£10,477)£538,400 (£10,354)£537,863 (£10,344)£536,500 (£10,317)£534,511 (£10,279)£523,274 (£10,063)£522,019 (£10,039)£520,686 (£10,013)£517,021 (£9,943)£492,592 (£9,473)£490,750 (£9,438)£490,423 (£9,431)£488,979 (£9,403)£465,023 (£8,943)£464,500 (£8,933)£458,081 (£8,809)£457,308 (£8,794)£455,869 (£8,767)£449,966 (£8,653)£448,718 (£8,629)£442,382 (£8,507)£430,188 (£8,273)£427,885 (£8,229)£416,770 (£8,015)£409,067 (£7,867)£378,393 (£7,277)£369,011 (£7,096)£366,889 (£7,056)£365,100 (£7,021)£355,500 (£6,837)£347,091 (£6,675)£346,900 (£6,671)$892,514 ($17,164)$850,074 ($16,348)$842,641 ($16,205)$835,942 ($16,076)$830,013 ($15,962)$829,623 ($15,954)$814,362 ($15,661)$810,669 ($15,590)$807,579 ($15,530)$806,898 ($15,517)$802,468 ($15,432)$800,324 ($15,391)$794,800 ($15,285)$777,047 ($14,943)$749,083 ($14,405)$738,843 ($14,209)$731,712 ($14,071)$728,578 ($14,011)$708,215 ($13,620)$699,920 ($13,460)$699,222 ($13,447)$697,450 ($13,413)$694,865 ($13,363)$680,256 ($13,082)$678,625 ($13,050)$676,892 ($13,017)$672,127 ($12,926)$640,370 ($12,315)$637,975 ($12,269)$637,549 ($12,261)$635,673 ($12,224)$604,531 ($11,626)$603,850 ($11,613)$595,506 ($11,452)$594,500 ($11,433)$592,629 ($11,397)$584,956 ($11,249)$583,334 ($11,218)$575,097 ($11,060)$559,244 ($10,755)$556,250 ($10,697)$541,801 ($10,419)$531,787 ($10,227)$491,911 ($9,460)$479,714 ($9,225)$476,956 ($9,172)$474,630 ($9,128)$462,150 ($8,888)$451,218 ($8,677)$450,970 ($8,673)
63

sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

255-302303-348

Rank	

Team	
League	(Last year)			

Avg annual pay £(Avg weekly pay)

Avg annual pay $(Avg weekly pay)

Rank	

Team	
League	(Last year)			

Avg annual pay £(Avg weekly pay)

Avg annual pay $(Avg weekly pay)

255 (249)
Orlando City
MLS
256 (244)
Rangers
Scot Prem
Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng	CSL
257 (-)
258 (245)
Seattle Sounders
MLS
259 (303)
Guangzhou R&F	CSL
260 (267)
Portland Timbers
MLS
261 (-)
TroyesLigue 1262 (272)
Henan Jianye	CSL
263 (246)	Crotone
Serie A
264 (252)
Urawa Red Diamonds
J.League
265 (261)	Chongqing Lifan	CSL
266 (255)	Colorado Rapids
MLS
267 (265)
Vissel Kobe
J.League
268 (-)
Atlanta United
MLS
269 (-)	Cerezo Osaka
J.League
270 (259)
FC Tokyo
J.League271 (286)
Real Salt Lake
MLS
272 (278)
Kashima Antlers
J.League
273 (257)
Gamba Osaka
J.League274 (281)
Sporting Kansas City
MLS
275 (282)
Vancouver Whitecaps
MLS
276 (279)
New England Revolution MLS
277 (268)
Kawasaki Frontale
J.League
278 (291)
Gold Coast
AFL
279 (285)
New York Red Bulls
MLS
280 (301)
Western Bulldogs
AFL
281 (270)
San Jose Earthquakes
MLS
282 (262)
Sanfrecce Hiroshima
J.League
283 (258)
Yokohama F Marinos
J.League284 (308)
FC Dallas
MLS
285 (293)
Melbourne
AFL
286 (297)
North Melbourne
AFL
287 (296)
Liaoning Whowin	CSL
288 (276)
Greater Western Sydney AFL
289 (274)
Sydney Swans
AFL
290 (283)
Philadelphia Union
MLS
291 (280)
Richmond
AFL
292 (266)	Collingwood
AFL
293 (295)
Brisbane LionsAFL
294 (271)
Fremantle
AFL
295 (298)
St Kilda
AFL
296 (273)
Geelong
AFL
297 (288)	Columbus Crew
MLS
298 (264)
West Coast Eagles
AFL
299 (277)	Carlton
AFL
300 (284)
Adelaide Crows
AFL
301 (292)
Port Adelaide
AFL
302 (275)
EssendonAFL£338,954 (£6,518)£329,600 (£6,338)£323,623 (£6,224)£317,112 (£6,098)£314,543 (£6,049)£308,380 (£5,930)£300,541 (£5,780)£296,490 (£5,702)£292,575 (£5,626)£289,185 (£5,561)£248,923 (£4,787)£237,888 (£4,575)£236,037 (£4,539)£223,518 (£4,298)£212,654 (£4,090)£211,752 (£4,072)£211,378 (£4,065)£206,362 (£3,969)£199,736 (£3,841)£194,922 (£3,748)£194,216 (£3,735)£193,984 (£3,730)£191,776 (£3,688)£189,586 (£3,646)£189,428 (£3,643)£188,100 (£3,617)£184,596 (£3,550)£183,350 (£3,526)£183,099 (£3,521)£181,055 (£3,482)£180,971 (£3,480)£180,971 (£3,480)£180,129 (£3,464)£179,964 (£3,461)£177,579 (£3,415)£176,601 (£3,396)£176,546 (£3,395)£175,686 (£3,379)£175,679 (£3,378)£174,271 (£3,351)£174,271 (£3,351)£173,279 (£3,332)£173,014 (£3,327)£172,843 (£3,324)£172,821 (£3,323)£172,814 (£3,323)£172,814 (£3,323)£172,154 (£3,311)$440,640 ($8,474)$428,480 ($8,240)$420,710 ($8,091)$412,246 ($7,928)$408,906 ($7,864)$400,894 ($7,710)$390,703 ($7,514)$385,437 ($7,412)$380,347 ($7,314)$375,941 ($7,230)$323,600 ($6,223)$309,255 ($5,947)$306,848 ($5,901)$290,573 ($5,588)$276,450 ($5,316)$275,277 ($5,294)$274,791 ($5,284)$268,271 ($5,159)$259,657 ($4,993)$253,398 ($4,873)$252,480 ($4,855)$252,179 ($4,850)$249,309 ($4,794)$246,461 ($4,740)$246,257 ($4,736)$244,530 ($4,703)$239,975 ($4,615)$238,355 ($4,584)$238,028 ($4,577)$235,371 ($4,526)$235,263 ($4,524)$235,263 ($4,524)$234,168 ($4,503)$233,954 ($4,499)$230,852 ($4,439)$229,581 ($4,415)$229,510 ($4,414)$228,391 ($4,392)$228,382 ($4,392)$226,553 ($4,357)$226,553 ($4,357)$225,263 ($4,332)$224,918 ($4,325)$224,696 ($4,321)$224,668 ($4,321)$224,659 ($4,320)$224,659 ($4,320)$223,800 ($4,304)

303 (263)
Hawthorn
AFL
304 (289)
Jubilo Iwata
J.League
305 (-)
Shimizu S-Pulse
J.League306 (294)
Omiya Ardija
J.League307 (-)
Minnesota United
MLS
308 (269)
Montreal Impact
MLS
309 (300)
DC United
MLS
310 (299)
Kashiwa Reysol
J.League
311 (309)
Sagan Tosu
J.League
312 (302)
Houston Dynamo
MLS
313 (304)
Aberdeen
Scot Prem
314 (-)	Consadole Sapporo
J.League
315 (312)
Yanbian Funde	CSL
316 (314)
HeartsScot Prem
317 (313)
Vegalta Sendai
J.League
318 (-)
Hibernian
Scot Prem
319 (310)
Albirex Niigata
J.League
320 (317)
Ventforet Kofu
J.League
321 (318)
Ottawa Redblacks	CFL
322 (319)	Calgary Stampeders	CFL
323 (316)
Edmonton Eskimos	CFL
324 (322)
Winnipeg Blue Bombers	CFL
325 (320)
Saskatchewan Roughriders	CFL
326 (321)
Hamilton Tiger-Cats	CFL
327 (-)
Atlanta Dream
WNBA
328 (323)
BC Lions	CFL
329 (326)
Montreal Alouettes	CFL
330 (324)
Toronto Argonauts	CFL
331 (-)
Minnesota Lynx
WNBA
332 (-)
Phoenix Mercury
WNBA
333 (-)
Los Angeles Sparks
WNBA
334 (325)
DundeeScot Prem
335 (-)
Washington Mystics
WNBA
336 (-)	Connecticut Sun
WNBA
337 (332)
Partick Thistle
Scot Prem
338 (330)
Ross County
Scot Prem
339 (-)New York Liberty
WNBA
340 (-)San Antonio Stars
WNBA
341 (329)
Kilmarnock
Scot Prem
342 (-)
Indiana Fever
WNBA
343 (-)
Dallas Wings
WNBA
344 (-)
Seattle Storm
WNBA
345 (-)	Chicago Sky
WNBA
346 (331)
St Johnstone
Scot Prem
347 (328)
Motherwell
Scot Prem
348 (333)
Hamilton
Scot Prem£169,957 (£3,268)£155,869 (£2,997)£153,974 (£2,961)£153,680 (£2,955)£151,649 (£2,916)£150,843 (£2,901)£150,212 (£2,889)£144,789 (£2,784)£141,947 (£2,730)£139,869 (£2,690)£136,382 (£2,623)£113,005 (£2,173)£99,048 (£1,905)£95,514 (£1,837)£89,461 (£1,720)£87,100 (£1,675)£81,866 (£1,574)£78,498 (£1,510)£74,504 (£1,433)£69,685 (£1,340)£68,117 (£1,310)£66,630 (£1,281)£66,614 (£1,281)£66,082 (£1,271)£65,663 (£1,263)£65,374 (£1,257)£63,140 (£1,214)£62,043 (£1,193)£61,324 (£1,179)£61,279 (£1,178)£60,938 (£1,172)£59,904 (£1,152)£59,724 (£1,149)£58,604 (£1,127)£58,175 (£1,119)£56,394 (£1,085)£56,163 (£1,080)£55,187 (£1,061)£55,100 (£1,060)£54,730 (£1,052)£54,414 (£1,046)£52,438 (£1,008)£50,531 (£972)£47,992 (£923)£42,662 (£820)£41,488 (£798)$220,944 ($4,249)$202,629 ($3,897)$200,166 ($3,849)$199,784 ($3,842)$197,143 ($3,791)$196,097 ($3,771)$195,276 ($3,755)$188,225 ($3,620)$184,532 ($3,549)$181,829 ($3,497)$177,296 ($3,410)$146,906 ($2,825)$128,762 ($2,476)$124,168 ($2,388)$116,299 ($2,237)$113,230 ($2,178)$106,426 ($2,047)$102,047 ($1,962)$96,855 ($1,863)$90,591 ($1,742)$88,551 ($1,703)$86,619 ($1,666)$86,599 ($1,665)$85,906 ($1,652)$85,362 ($1,642)$84,986 ($1,634)$82,082 ($1,579)$80,656 ($1,551)$79,721 ($1,533)$79,663 ($1,532)$79,219 ($1,523)$77,875 ($1,498)$77,641 ($1,493)$76,185 ($1,465)$75,628 ($1,454)$73,312 ($1,410)$73,011 ($1,404)$71,743 ($1,380)$71,630 ($1,378)$71,149 ($1,368)$70,738 ($1,360)$68,169 ($1,311)$65,691 ($1,263)$62,389 ($1,200)$55,461 ($1,067)$53,934 ($1,037)

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NBA Analysis

Average first-team pay, NBA, 2017-18 season

National Basketball Association20172018

30
TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£2,430,053,694$3,159,069,802£5,497,859$7,147,217

PLAYERS442

No1 league£2,934,149$3,814,394

The state of play

The NBA remains the best paid sports league in the world by average salary, and Oklahoma City Thunder are now
the best paid sports team in the world, bar none. How they reached No1 is explained in the introductory essay. The
NBA’s dominance continues a trend.

Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player,$		
1
Oklahoma City Thunder£7,150,388$9,295,504
2
Cleveland Cavaliers£6,919,714$8,995,628
3Golden State Warriors£6,877,528$8,940,786
4Charlotte Hornets£6,445,974$8,379,766
5
Portland Trail Blazers£6,434,440$8,364,772
6
LA Clippers£6,408,537$8,331,098
7
New Orleans Pelicans£6,063,867$7,883,028
8
Toronto Raptors£6,041,065$7,853,384
9
Detroit Pistons£6,039,324$7,851,121
10
Boston Celtics£6,031,926$7,841,504
11
Houston Rockets£5,980,476$7,774,619
12
Milwaukee Bucks£5,873,909$7,636,082
13
San Antonio Spurs£5,807,031$7,549,140
14
Minnesota Timberwolves£5,706,740$7,418,763
15Washington Wizards£5,652,968$7,348,859
16
Utah Jazz£5,645,592$7,339,269
17Memphis Grizzlies£5,586,599$7,262,578
18
Denver Nuggets£5,360,994$6,969,292
19
Los Angeles Lakers£5,235,333$6,805,932
20
Miami Heat
£5,221,321$6,787,718
21
Orlando Magic£5,027,759$6,536,087
22
Indiana Pacers£4,980,303$6,474,394
23
New York Knicks£4,819,353$6,265,159
24
Brooklyn Nets
£4,626,771$6,014,803
25
Sacramento Kings£4,545,112$5,908,646
26
Phoenix Suns
£4,423,622$5,750,709
27
Dallas Mavericks£4,423,111$5,750,044
28
Atlanta Hawks£4,395,440$5,714,072
29
Philadelphia 76ers£4,229,340$5,498,142
30
Chicago Bulls£3,300,623$4,290,810

A year ago we explored how the new 9-year $24 billion TV deals from 2016-17 had delivered huge average pay
rises, from $4.6m per season to $6.4m. This year, NBA salaries have leapt by another 10.6 per cent, or by $757,006
on average.
One significant structural change for 2017-18 is the addition of so-called ‘two-way (TW) contracts’ between NBA
teams and their affiliates in the NBA G League. (The latter is the NBA’s development league, rebranded from thisseason with a ‘G’ as a part of a sponsorship deal with Gatorade.)
TW players - in effect development players - earn $75,000 for their G League season plus a pro rata sum of an NBA
contract for a maximum of 45 days, if called up. The upshot: TW players can earn just under $300,000 per year; or
small beer by NBA standards.
The TW contracts potentially open up two new roster spots per team, increasing maximum player numbers from 15
to 17. ‘Potentially’ is the operative word; not all teams are using both TW players. Roster sizes on opening day varied
from 15 to 17 players.
Our NBA figures for 2017-18 include only the 442 ‘full-time’ NBA players on opening day, and not the 49 TW
players. For the sake of completeness, even if we had included all the ‘low paid’ TW players in the NBA sums,
average salaries year-on-year would still have risen.

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NBA Analysis

National Basketball Association
Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 2.2 to 1

Six of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; 11 of 17 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the NBA should be relatively competitive

On balance

The difference between the average Thunder salary at the top of the NBA pay list (£7.15m) and the average Bulls
salary at the bottom (£3.3m) is huge. The total payrolls for their respective 14 and 15 ‘full-time’ players add up to£100.1m and £49.5m. It doesn’t bode well for the Bulls and the handful of lowest payers around them. There is aconsistent pattern in recent years of teams at the bottom of the list having woeful seasons.
Yet a ratio of 2.2 to 1 from top to bottom in pay terms is fairer than in most of the leagues in this study. And over thelast decade of completed NBA seasons (at the time of writing), there have been seven different Finals winners, eight
different finalists, and no team had won more than twice in that period.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199The NBA is less ‘top heavy’ than most of the GSSS leagues, with the top 10 per cent of earners making ‘only’ 34 percent of the money. Almost three in 10 of the players (or 120 from 442) are earning $10 million or more this season,with 70 of them making $15m+ and 39 of those making $20m+.

The money talkIf the money talks, then the Thunder will be expecting to break up the Warriors / Cavaliers duopoly of the past
three seasons, or at least make an impact, and the other two there or thereabouts, followed by Charlotte’s Hornets,
Portland’s Trail Blazers and LA’s Clippers, all averaging $8m+ per player wage bills. At the other extreme, the Bulls,
76ers, Hawks, Mavericks, Suns and Kings are the six teams averaging below $6m per man, which, extraordinarily,
might be ‘flop’ territory.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed NBA
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

21,997,875

Average 17,884 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
NBA season£110.47 each

£2,430,053,694

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MLB Analysis

Average first-team pay, MLB, 2017 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		

Major League baseball

2017

30
TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£2,983,295,419$3,878,284,045£3,436,976$4,468,069

PLAYERS868

No2 league£1,201,923$1,562,500

The state of play

Major League Baseball players had average pay that climbed by almost two per cent in 2017, by almost $81,000 per
man to nearly $4.5m. The median salary climbed above last year’s $1.5m by more than four per cent to sightly morethan $1.56m. The MLB as a whole has cemented its place as the second best paying league in the world - by average
first-team pay - behind the NBA.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Detroit Tigers
Chicago Cubs
New York Yankees
San Francisco Giants
Washington Nationals
LA Dodgers
Baltimore Orioles
New York Mets
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays
Texas Rangers
Seattle Mariners
St Louis Cardinals
LA Angels
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals
Atlanta Braves
Cleveland Indians
Miami Marlins
Chicago White Sox
Pittsburgh Pirates
Minnesota Twins
Philadelphia Phillies
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Cincinnati Reds
Oakland Athletics
Milwaukee Brewers
Tampa Bay Rays
San Diego Padres£5,332,858£5,032,204£4,854,393£4,849,760£4,814,857£4,664,760£4,441,873£4,374,310£4,324,742£4,306,455£4,036,909£3,851,308£3,759,744£3,691,432£3,630,880£3,628,899£3,521,526£3,186,570£3,168,909£3,010,746£2,799,936£2,673,408£2,586,343£2,492,596£2,440,230£2,044,064£1,810,299£1,805,328£1,682,272£857,926$6,932,715$6,541,865$6,310,711$6,304,689$6,259,314$6,064,187$5,774,435$5,686,603$5,622,164$5,598,392$5,247,982$5,006,701$4,887,667$4,798,861$4,720,144$4,717,568$4,577,984$4,142,542$4,119,582$3,913,970$3,639,917$3,475,431$3,362,245$3,240,375$3,172,299$2,657,283$2,353,389$2,346,927$2,186,954$1,115,303

Yet something notable has happened in this year’s list that highlights how the NBA’s dominance not just continues but
grows. There is a not a single MLB team in this year’s top 20 teams, whereas there had been between two and six every
year in the previous seven editions of the GSSS. And the New York Yankees - the MLB’s No1 brand in terms of global
recognition - are not even in the top 30 this year.
In every GSSS before this year, the Yankees have been inside the top 10, from the top of the pile at No1 in the inaugural study in 2010 to No3 the following year, No6 in 2012, then No5, No2, No9 and then No2 last year behind the NBA’s
Cleveland Cavaliers. The highest placed MLB team this year are the Detroit Tigers at No22.
MLB has more individual players earning $10m+ each than any sports league in the world. The figure for 2017 was 135,or more than one player in every seven. That was up from 125 in 2016. The league has become ever so slightly less ‘top
heavy’ with the top 10 per cent of players earning just below 43 per cent of all salaries, down from just above 43 percent last year.

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MLB Analysis
Major League baseball

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 6.2 to 1

Eleven of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; six of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, MLB will tend to favour rich teams but not hugely

On balance

Two phenomena appear to be at play in MLB - first that money does talk to an extent, as you would expect with
big disparities between the best and worst payers. Yet over time, success is spread. To be clear about terms, by‘over time’ we mean for this exercise the past 10 years and by ‘spread’, we mean different teams winning the World
Series, or finishing as runners-up.
Eight different teams have won in the past 10 seasons. In reverse order: the Astros, Cubs, Royals, Giants, Red Sox,
Cardinals, Yankees and Phillies. The Giants are the only multi-winners in the period (2010, 2012, 2014). A further
six teams have been runners-up: the Dodgers, Indians, Mets, Tigers, Rangers and Rays. So a maximum possible 20
winners and runner-up slots have been filled by 16 different teams. You might argue that is 80 per cent of the ‘peak
spread’ possible.
The reason why this might be the case is more complex. On one level, an individual team’s payroll can go up anddown dramatically from one season to the next, and that does happen (decreasingly). Another might be that MLB‘competitive balance’ tools, including but not only the luxury tax, have had an effect. Big-spending teams pay a tax
over a certain payroll and some of that money gets redistricted to other teams. The Yankees alone have paid morethan $300m luxury tax since 2003.

The money talkIf the money talked, then No1 payers Detroit Tigers would have been looking at the World Series having been
joined in the League Championship Series (in effect the season semi-finals) by the Chicago Cubs, Yankees and San
Francisco Giants. In fact the Tigers and Giants both bombed, finishing rock bottom of their respective leagues withjoint-worst 64-98 win-loss records. The Yankees and Cubs did both make the last four, losing respectively to theeventual winners, the Houston Astros, and runners-up, the LA Dodgers. Five of the top nine MLB payers in 2017
reached the season’s ‘last eight’ (Division Series) and none of the bottom five made the post-season.

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sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Total attendance,
most recent
completed MLB
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

72,670,423

Average 30,042 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
MLB season£41.05 each

£2,983,295,419

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IPL Analysis

Average first-team pay, IPL, 2017 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $Indian Premier League

2017

8

TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£51,666,666$67,166,666£2,998,512$3,898,065

PLAYERS

128

1

Royal Challengers Bangalore£4,022,500$5,229,250

2

Rising Pune Supergiants£3,430,952$4,460,238

3

Mumbai Indians£3,164,286$4,113,571

4Sunrisers Hyderabad£2,990,119$3,887,155

5Kolkata Knight Riders£2,951,667$3,837,167

6Delhi Daredevils£2,938,214$3,819,679

7

Gujarat Lions£2,332,203$3,031,863

8

Kings XI Punjab£2,158,155$2,805,601

No3 league£2,031,428$2,640,857

The state of play

Arguably the biggest event in the IPL in 2017 happened away from a cricket pitch when a new five-year TV rights deal wasconcluded for $2.55bn (£1.96bn) for 2018-2022. That made it the biggest cricketing broadcasting contract in history and guarantees the medium-term future of an event that has struggled for certainty. The uplift in the rights value is extraordinary, from$100m per year for the first decade to more than five times as much under the new deal with Star India - for all rights globally.
IPL league sponsorship income (for the competition, let alone individual teams) is up almost sevenfold to around $50m.
Such was the allure of the product that social network giant Facebook bid $600m for digital rights - and lost out. Those buying into the IPL - broadcasters and companies alike - are doing so on the basis they can monetise a ballooning Indian market
for live coverage of a national obsession, cricket, increasingly via mobile devices, in the world’s second most populous country. Early forecasts suggest the new TV deal will (at last) be the solution that turns the IPL’s long-term loss-making franchises
into businesses that profit. The conglomerate owners tended to be able to soak up losses, but no doubt the millions in profits
will be welcome. Whether player budgets rise, or by how much, remains to be seen.
Uniquely in the GSSS, IPL salaries are pro-rated from weekly pay to annual pay because, again uniquely, IPL players typicallyhave multiple different employers concurrently. The vast majority of teams in other leagues contract players for at least 12
months; you simply do not get NFL stars playing a season in the USA then another in Germany in the same year; or a Premier
League player appearing freelance for six different teams in a campaign.
A gun-for-hire cricketer example: the West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard has been paid to play for his country in 2017 as
well as for teams in Australia (Adelaide), Pakistan (Karachi), India in the IPL (Mumbai, earning more than $1m for eight weeks’play), Bangladesh (Dhaka) and South Africa (Bloemfontein).

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IPL Analysis
Indian Premier League

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 1.9 to 1
Five of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; 12 of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the IPL should be relatively competitive

On balance

The difference between the average Bangalore salary at the top of the IPL pay list (just over £4m annually when prorated from weekly sums) and the average Kings XI Punjab salary at the bottom (£2.2m) is wider than usual at a ratioof 1.9 to one - but still nowhere near as unbalanced as most of the GSSS leagues.
In some senses this short-form competition (in more senses than one), with its star-heavy but largely transient staff is
an excellent canvas on which to build a competitive event. The salary cap assists that as does the player auction, witha play-off phase adding randomness.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Six different winners in 10 seasons represents a reasonable spread of success, while a seventh team, Bangalore,
have finished as runners-up on three occasions. All of the teams playing in the 2017 season have either won the
IPL or finished as runners-up at least once, aside from Gujarat Lions. They played just two seasons, 2016 and 2017,as one of the replacements for the Chennai Super Kings and and Rajasthan Royals, suspended for alleged betting
infringements. Chennai and Rajasthan will return in 2018 while stand-ins Gujarat and Pune will make way.

The money talk

In a small league with half the eight teams reaching the play-off phase, the winners from Mumbai and runners-up
from Pune were two of the top three payers in average salaries, while the other two of the last four were the fourthand fifth best payers, from Kolkata and Hyderabad. Biggest payers Bangalore had the worst points record (7), and awin loss record of 3-10 with one ‘no result’.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed IPL
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

1,440,768

Average 25,728 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
IPL season£35.86 each

£51,666,66676 			

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EPL Analysis

Average first-team pay, Premier League, 2017-18
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $English Premier League football

20172018

20
TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£1,379,389,312$1,793,206,106£2,642,508$3,435,261

PLAYERS522

No4 league£1,963,000$2,551,900

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Man Utd
Man City
ChelseaArsenalLiverpool
TottenhamWest Ham
Everton
LeicesterSouthampton
Crystal Palace
West Brom
Stoke
Swansea
Newcastle
Bournemouth
WatfordBurnley
Brighton
Huddersfield£5,241,185£5,235,917£4,451,200£4,037,222£3,649,862£3,154,667£2,936,870£2,806,207£2,499,120£2,271,286£2,250,857£2,221,304£2,064,400£1,712,880£1,710,222£1,577,333£1,457,857£1,371,500£1,346,429£1,024,012$6,813,541$6,806,692$5,786,560$5,248,389$4,744,821$4,101,067$3,817,930$3,648,069$3,248,856$2,952,671$2,926,114$2,887,696$2,683,720$2,226,744$2,223,289$2,050,533$1,895,214$1,782,950$1,750,357$1,331,216

The state of play

The Premier League’s status as the world’s wealthiest football league has been underpinned in 2017 by headline-grabbing numbers. The three-year TV deals in place from 2016-19 led to ‘TV cash’ payments of £2.4 billion to the 20 clubs
in May 2017, at an average of £120m per club - before a ticket or shirt was sold.
The 20 clubs in the 2017-18 season then spent £1.4 billion gross on new players in the summer, a world record for one
division in a transfer window. Title favourites Manchester City, managed by Pep Guardiola, spent more than £200m, or£161m net according to their financial records.
Figures from the CIES Football Observatory in Switzerland show the current City squad are the most expensive, ever, inthe history of global football, in prices paid for the first-team squad collectively. They cost €853m to buy (£762m). Twoother English clubs were in the top four most expensive squads currently - Manchester United (£700m) and Chelsea(£575m) - with another three in the top 10: Liverpool (£390m), Arsenal (£371m) and Tottenham (£322m).
In recent years, the average Premier League salary has been about twice that in the next best paying league (La Liga).
While the gap has closed in this edition of the GSSS (PL pay is now ‘only’ 60 per cent bigger than in Spain), that is partly
down to currency fluctuations, and partly down to some huge new individual contracts in Spain.
Richest does not equate to ‘best’, of course, in technical terms or European trophies. La Liga has been ahead for awhile on those measures. But the Premier League - monied because of its cosmopolitan array of playing and managerial stars, and soap opera narratives - make it the most popular in the world. It might be starting to close the gap again.

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EPL Analysis

English Premier League football
Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 5.1 to 1

Ten of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; seven of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the Premier League will tend to favour a rich cohort

On balance

The two Manchester clubs, United and City, are neck and neck in basic salary terms at a little more than £5.2m eachper player this season according to our calculations. It’s highly likely in our view that whichever of the pair achieves
the most on the pitch this season will end up with the larger of the two overall wage bills (all staff) for 2017-18. That
will be down to bonuses.
It seems entirely plausible that the same ‘success factor’ defined last seasons’s bills (total club bills). United had
higher basic pay (see GSSS 2016), and after domestic and European trophy wins, had total club pay (all staff) of£263.5m. City won nothing and had a 13-month wage bill (new accounting adjustment) of £264m, or £244m for 12months. If United had won nothing last season and City had won two trophies, City’s total would have outstripped
United’s.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199The Manchester pair are clear of the rest of the big six (Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and then a gap to Tottenham)and in turn they are ahead of everyone else. Across the board, the average basic salary in the division is up about 6.7
per cent, or by about £217,000 per man per year.
It is at the smaller clubs, not least at two of the promoted teams, Huddersfield and Brighton, where relative leaps will
be greatest, year on year. The resultant ratio of 5 to 1 from top to bottom in average wage spending is not as big as
in some recent years.
Four different winners in five years (and seven different teams in the top two) indicates slight movement to greater
competitiveness. The same four and same seven are applicable to 10 years.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed EPL
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

13,612,316

Average 35,822 per gameThe money talkIf the money talks, then Manchester will have a 1-2 finish with Chelsea and Arsenal third and fourth ahead ofLiverpool in fifth and Tottenham sixth. Nobody would be surprised to see the ‘big six’ finish in the top six places,in some order. The intrigue lies with who will be most successful applying non-financial resources - coaching andtactical nous; motivational skills; dietary, fitness and recovery techniques - to add a place or more. Wages alone
would see Huddersfield, Brighton and Burnley drop - and if they don’t then that is testament to managers punching
above their weight.

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Total first-teamsalaries, current
EPL season£101.33 each

£1,379,389,312

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NHL Analysis

Average first-team pay, NHL, 2017-18 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $National Hockey League

20172018

31
TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£1,706,239,055$2,218,110,771£2,393,042$3,110,955

PLAYERS713

No5 league£1,730,769$2,250,000

The state of play

The 2017-18 season is the 100th in NHL history and includes 31 teams, up from 30, with the addition of newcomers
the Vegas Golden Knights, who have their home on the Strip. Despite the extra team, the season remains an 82-gamecampaign from October to April followed by the Stanley Cup play-offs and then an ultimate shot at glory for two
franchises.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

Washington Capitals
New York Islanders
Boston Bruins
Dallas Stars
Detroit Red Wings
Chicago Blackhawks
Pittsburgh Penguins
Minnesota Wild
St Louis Blues
Los Angeles Kings
New York Rangers
Vancouver Canucks
Montreal Canadiens
Calgary Flames
San Jose Sharks
Tampa Bay Lightning
Toronto Maple Leafs
Anaheim Ducks
Buffalo Sabres
Nashville Predators
Philadelphia Flyers
Florida Panthers
Ottawa Senators
Winnipeg Jets
Vegas Golden Knights
Edmonton Oilers
New Jersey Devils
Colorado Avalanche
Columbus Blue Jackets
Carolina Hurricanes
Arizona Coyotes£2,823,328£2,667,475£2,650,000£2,639,538£2,609,779£2,598,913£2,596,916£2,575,753£2,559,030£2,529,013£2,516,137£2,492,893£2,488,040£2,451,923£2,434,866£2,421,990£2,418,701£2,400,744£2,398,227£2,375,418£2,370,903£2,334,833£2,334,448£2,207,871£2,163,907£2,143,227£2,128,512£2,071,739£2,051,839£1,923,161£1,805,181$3,670,326$3,467,717$3,445,000$3,431,399$3,392,713$3,378,587$3,375,991$3,348,478$3,326,739$3,287,717$3,270,978$3,240,761$3,234,452$3,187,500$3,165,326$3,148,587$3,144,312$3,120,967$3,117,696$3,088,043$3,082,174$3,035,283$3,034,783$2,870,232$2,813,080$2,786,196$2,767,065$2,693,261$2,667,391$2,500,109$2,346,735

Before the season began, there were two exhibition games between the LA Kings and the Vancouver Canucks in China- the first time NHL teams had played there. The NHL’s rationale was an attempt to expand its global footprint, in an
Olympic season, while exploiting interest in winter sports following the decision to send the Winter Olympics of 2022 to
Beijing. Some fans in Shanghai turned up hoping to see basketball star Kobe Bryant. And in fact they did get to see him;
the NBA is huge in China and he had taped a message in support of his home team, the Kings.
Once the season began the early running was being made by the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs and New
Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference and in the Western Conference by the St Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings andWinnipeg Jets. Continuing the expansion theme (internationally), there were two regular season games in November
between the Ottawa Senators and the Colorado Avalanche in Stockholm, Sweden.
The NHL officially marked its centenary in the 2016-17 season, marking 100 years since formation, but the celebrations
are continuing into the present term as 2017-18 is the 100th season of actual play. The league will stage an outdoor gamebetween the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens in mid-December to formally mark the 100th anniversaryof their first NHL Game. And the Toronto Maple Leafs will mark the centennial of the first NHL game – in which theirpredecessor the Toronto Arenas played – during their game against the Carolina Hurricanes on 19 December.

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NHL Analysis
National Hockey League

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 1.6 to 1
Four of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; 13 of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the NBA should be relatively competitive

On balance

Wages across the league have grown by almost seven per cent, year on year. The difference between the average
Washington Capitals salary at the top of the NHL pay list (£2.8m) and the average Arizona Coyotes salary at thebottom (£1.8m) is relatively small. The distribution of money among the individual players is also ‘fair’ - with thehighest earning 10 per cent of players making ‘only’ 28 per cent of all the money. In the most ‘top heavy’ league inthis survey, it’s 75 per cent.
The spread of winners has been reasonable rather than excellent, with five different Stanley Cup winners over the
past decade, and three teams multiple champions in that time: the Penguins on three, Blackhawks on three andKings on two. But then there have been an addition seven different runners-up, so 12 teams contesting the Cup froma theoretical maximum of 20.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL	82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199The money talkIf the money alone talks, then the Washington Capitals, New York Islanders, Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars will beleading the charge come April, while the Colorado Avalanche, Columbus Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes andArizona Coyotes will experience the play-offs from the outside. Last season, for the record, nine of the top 10 bestpaid teams made the play-offs, and just three of the 10 worst-paid teams.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed NHL
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

21,525,777

Average 17,501 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
NHL season£79.26 each

£1,706,239,055

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NFL Analysis

Average first-team pay, NFL, 2017-18 season
Rank	

National Football League

20172018

32
TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£3,523,462,880$4,580,501,744£2,077,513$2,700,768

PLAYERS

1,696

No6 league£828,846$1,077,500

The state of play

Super Bowl 51 was sheer drama: the New England Patriots completed a stunning comeback in Houston to overhaul a
25-point deficit to the Atlanta Falcons in the biggest such win in Super Bowl history. At the time of writing, with Super
Bowl 52 - and Justin Timberlake’s half-time show - lying in wait in February in Minneapolis, the standings after nine or 10
games per team were starting to paint a clear direction of travel, for some at least.

Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		
1
Oakland Raiders£2,297,689$2,986,996
2
Atlanta Falcons£2,288,342$2,974,845
3Washington Redskins£2,261,432$2,939,861
4
Carolina Panthers£2,256,303$2,933,194
5
New York Giants£2,254,297$2,930,586
6
Arizona Cardinals£2,240,698$2,912,908
7
Seattle Seahawks£2,230,023$2,899,031
8
Jacksonville Jaguars£2,226,583$2,894,558
9
Kansas City Chiefs£2,226,583$2,894,558
10
Pittsburgh Steelers£2,206,011$2,867,815
11Tennessee Titans£2,185,950$2,841,735
12Green Bay Packers£2,177,713$2,831,027
13
Houston Texans£2,177,713$2,831,027
14
Denver Broncos£2,146,444$2,790,377
15
Los Angeles Rams
£2,132,283$2,771,968
16
Philadelphia Eagles£2,112,022$2,745,628
17
Chicago Bears£2,090,873$2,718,135
18
New England Patriots£2,067,829$2,688,177
19
Detroit Lions£2,060,116$2,678,150
20
Tampa Bay Bucs
£2,053,874$2,670,036
21
Cincinnati Bengals£2,036,583$2,647,558
22
Buffalo Bills£2,027,868$2,636,228
23
Los Angeles Chargers£1,996,637$2,595,629
24
Dallas Cowboys£1,989,289$2,586,075
25
Minnesota Vikings£1,977,773$2,571,105
26
Indianapolis Colts£1,971,297$2,562,686
27
Baltimore Ravens£1,954,576$2,540,949
28
New Orleans Saints£1,945,983$2,529,778
29
Miami Dolphins£1,893,727$2,461,845
30
New York Jets
£1,757,952$2,285,338
31
Cleveland Browns£1,644,663$2,138,062
32
San Francisco 49ers£1,591,304$2,068,695

The Falcons initially struggled to make their presence felt in the NFC South with a 5-4 record after nine games leaving
them trailing the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers. In stark contrast, the Pats were sitting pretty in the AFC Eastwith a 7-2 record keeping them clear of the chasing Buffalo Bills. Only the Pittsburgh Steelers in the whole AFC had arecord to match that by mid-November.
In the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles were strolling along with an 8-1 record after nine games tally to their name – albeit
with the New Orleans Saints, Minnesota Vikings and LA Rams all hot on their heels with 7-2 records.
At the other extreme of the performance scale, the Cleveland Browns in the AFC North and the San Francisco 49ers in the
NFC West both began with nine straight losses. For the Browns it was a continuation of a dire 1-15 record in 2016 and willlead to their play-off absence hitting 15 years. The 49ers had only a marginally better 2016, with a win-loss of 2-14, andfinally won their first game of 2017 at the 10th attempt, against the New York Giants.
If there was one unifying factor to the 2017 NFL, then it was arguably President Donald Trump, who alienated many as heurged owners to sack any ‘son of a bitch’ who took a knee at the national anthem, called the NFL ‘boring’ and ‘failing’ andurged supporters to boycott games where players exercised their democratic right to peaceful protest.

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NFL Analysis
National Football League

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 1.4 to 1
Three of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; 14 of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the NFL should be relatively competitive

On balance

If you believe some of the naysayers, like President Trump, that the NFL is on a downer, then some balance isrestored when you learn that even the 2017 draft was attended by a quarter of a million people in Philadelphia in
April. That was an all-time high - for a meeting to select new players. The draft, along with the salary cap, and analgorithm-based scheduling formula that makes Legendre’s conjecture seem straightforward, all contribute to assist
competitive balance, as does the randomness-enhancing play-off system.
Eight different teams have won the Super Bowl over the past 10 years, with the Patriots and Giants the only ones
to win twice in the period. Another five teams have been runners-up at least once in the period for a total of 13
different finalists of a maximum possible 20.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL	16£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Only three leagues of 18 have a ‘fairer’ pay ratio between the best paid and worst paid teams, and while averagesalaries in the NFL still trail the other major US leagues (NBA, MLB and NHL), average pay has risen almost 11 percent in a year, which is higher than in baseball and ice hockey.
A figure of ‘only’ 5.5 per cent of NFL players are earning $10m+ this season (against 27 per cent in the NBA and 16
per cent in MLB) but given the larger number of NFL players that still means 94 NFL players on active rosters at kickoff were on $10m+ contracts for 2017.

The money talkIf the money talks, the Oakland Raiders, the Atlanta Falcons, the Washington Redskins, the Carolina Panthers and the
New York Giants would be among those feeling confident about a berth in the post-season. At the other end, theSan Francisco 49ers and the Cleveland Browns would be fretting for their campaigns before a game was played.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed NFL
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

17,788,671

Average 69,487 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
NFL season£198.07 each

£3,523,462,880

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La Liga Analysis

Average first-team pay, La Liga, 2017-18 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		Spanish top-division football

20172018

Total salaries:£821,551,263$1,068,016,642
Average salary Per player:£1,680,064$2,184,083

20
TEAMs

PLAYERS

489

Average salary ranking:No7 league
Median salary:£839,930$1,091,909

1Barcelona£6,597,500$8,576,750

2Real Madrid£6,224,833$8,092,283

3

Atletico Madrid£3,849,130$5,003,870

4Valencia£2,429,818$3,158,764

5Sevilla£2,343,490$3,046,537

6Athletic Bilbao£1,419,500$1,845,350

7Real Sociedad£1,335,750$1,736,475

8Villarreal£1,326,115$1,723,950

9Espanyol£1,046,175$1,360,028

10Real Betis£978,504$1,272,056

11

Celta Vigo

£968,032$1,258,442

12

Deportivo La Coruna£881,608$1,146,090

13

Malaga£856,060$1,112,878

14

Eibar

£648,185$842,641

15

Girona£617,283$802,468

16

Alaves£560,444$728,578

17

Getafe£544,781$708,215

18

Las Palmas£537,863$699,222

19

Leganes£523,274$680,25620

Levante£490,750$637,975

The state of play

La Liga 2017-18 was supposed to have been Real Madrid’s to lose. Barcelona, apparently in crisis after the departure of
Neymar and a lacklustre transfer window, should have been there for the taking. But after 11 games played before theNovember international break, the league table was telling a different story.
Barcelona sat a whopping eight points clear of their great rivals, who had recently been turned over 2-1 by thequintessentially Catalan Girona before being stunned by a rampant Tottenham Hotspur in a Champions League match at
Wembley. (Girona, incidentally, now co-owned by the City Football Group empire that includes Manchester City and New
York City FC) are in their first ever season in Spain’s top division).
Barcelona, meanwhile, won 10 out of their first 11 games, lost none, scored 30 goals and appeared to have shrugged
off the loss of Neymar and a long-term injury to their star recruit Ousmane Dembélé. The latter, age 20, had joined from
Dortmund in a deal worth at least €105 million.
However, Ernesto Valverde’s side, while clear of Madrid, were only half as far ahead (four points) of a reborn Valencia.
After years of underachieving, the former La Liga giants appeared to have stumbled upon the magic formula with theappointment of Marcelino, also unbeaten after 11 games (eight wins).
Real’s city rivals Atletico started the season expected to challenge, and were the third unbeaten side after 11 games, but an
oddly lethargic start to the season was even more pronounced in Europe. Six league wins and five draws was fine if not super;
three Champions League draws from the first four games (one at home to minnows Qarabag) and a defeat, also at home, wasfar from fine. That left them staring down the barrel of elimination from Europe’s top competition before Christmas. One otherdevelopment of note was Atletico began life in their new home, the 67,700-capacity Wanda Metropolitano.
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La Liga Analysis
Spanish top-division football

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 13.4 to 1

Thirteen of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; four of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, La Liga is relatively uncompetitive, dominated by a few

On balance

The gulf between Spain’s two giants and the rest is well known but if there were any doubt than you need only lookat the official prescribed budget maximums for each club. Taking into account the forecast income for each club, the
LFP, aka La Liga, makes an announcement each Autumn setting limits on spending. This year the list was publishedon 19 September. At one extreme Barcelona are allowed to spend £453m this season. At the other, Las Palmas canspend £26m. That is the competitive balance in a nutshell.
This budget includes all spending ‘in relation to players, the manager, assistant manager and fitness coach … andon the reserves, the youth system and other areas [including] fixed and variable wages, social security, collective
bonuses, acquisition costs (including commissions for agents).’

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Barcelona’s allowable spending (and Real are just £7m behind) is bigger than that of Real Sociedad, Espanyol,
Malaga, Celta Vigo, Deportivo, Alaves, Leganes, Eibar, Levante, Getafe, Girona and Las Palmas, combined.
On this basis it is almost a surprise there have been as many as three La Liga winners over the past decade, Atletico
winning from Barca in 2013-14. In the nine other seasons it was either a Barca-Real Madrid 1-2, or vice versa.

The money talkIf the money talks then Barcelona will win the title from Real Madrid with Atletico Madrid in third and Valencia andSevilla engaged in a ding-dong scrap for fourth and fifth. At the other end, you could expect to perm three from nine
to be relegated from 12th place down in the pay ranks: from Deportivo, Malaga, Eibar, Girona, Alaves, Getafe, Las
Palmas, Leganes and Levante.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed LA LIGA
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

10,557,782

Average 27,784 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
LA LIGA season£77.81 each£821,551,263

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Serie A Analysis

Average first-team pay, Serie A, 2017-18 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		

Italian top-division football

20172018

Total salaries:£706,541,333$918,503,733
Average salary Per player:£1,325,593$1,723,272

20
TEAMs

PLAYERS

533

Average salary ranking:No8 league
Median salary:£741,667$964,1671

Juventus£4,853,467$6,309,507

2

Milan

£3,135,877$4,076,640

3Internazionale£2,637,754$3,429,080

4

Roma

£2,598,580$3,378,154

5Napoli£2,414,867$3,139,327

6

Lazio

£1,488,278$1,934,761

7

Torino£1,052,596$1,368,375

8

Sampdoria£1,039,981$1,351,976

9

Fiorentina£974,605$1,266,986

10

Genoa

£848,679$1,103,282

11

Bologna£821,538$1,068,000

12Sassuolo£769,214$999,979

13

Atalanta£769,136$999,877

14

Cagliari£653,903$850,074

15

Hellas Verona£597,728$777,047

16

SPAL£576,218$749,083

17

Udinese£534,511$694,865

18

Chievo£522,019$678,625

19

Benevento£427,885$556,250

20

Crotone£292,575$380,347

The state of play

Juventus landed a record-setting sixth consecutive Serie A title in 2016-17 to take their all-time tally of titles to 33 and extend their lead as Italy’s most frequent champions over Milan and Inter (both on 18). Whether they will make it to seventh
heaven is less certain after a rivetingly competitive opening dozen games of the 2017-18 season, before the November
international break. At that stage just two points separated the top three, headed by Napoli, a point ahead of Juve andthey in turn a point ahead of Inter. Lazio and Roma at that stage each had a game in hand that could could have taken
either of them into the top three.
Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli side have come to be regarded as one of the most exciting teams in European football, playing ahigh tempo game of devastating quick passing, showcasing the talents of Slovakian maestro Marek Hamsik and the stunning goalscoring form of the Belgian Dries Mertens.
But Juventus remain favourites at the time of writing, able to call upon the deadly finishing of Gonzalo Higuain and thelethal set pieces of Miralem Pjanic while relying on Gianluigi Buffon between the posts.
The anti-climax team of the early season were undoubtedly Milan, who spent almost €200m on new players, an outlay thatdwarfed their rivals. New Chinese owners had pledged to invest whatever was necessary to return Milan to the glories ofpast years but despite the high profile capture of Leonardo Bonucci from Juve, and huge sums spent on Andre Silva, Andrea Conti and others, they were as close to the relegation zone after 12 games (13 points away) as they were to the top.
Among the smaller clubs, SPAL started robustly in their first season in the top flight since 1968 but the fate of Benevento
looked sealed after 12 games, 12 straight defeats, no points, and 31 goals conceded.

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Serie A Analysis
Italian top-division football

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 16.6 to 1

Fourteen of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; three of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, Serie A is among the least competitive

On balance

The difference between the average Juventus salary at the top of the Serie A pay list (£4.86m) and the average
Crotone salary at the bottom (£292,000) is huge. Juventus could take their basic first-team pay budget and pay thewages of every player in the bottom eight teams and still have £5m to spare.
Serie A salaries are up around 18 per cent on average over the year (in terms of pounds), and while about half of thatis down to currency fluctuation, a lot of it is down to increased spending at the top end of the division, including by
Juve, Milan (hugely), Inter and Napoli.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A	

38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Serie A has had three different winners in the past 10 years, with Milan winning the title before Juve’s six in a row,then Inter winning five in a row before that. That trio have won all the titles in the past 16 years between them. And
only two others, Roma and Napoli, have finished in the top two in the same period. So five teams have split the
combined 32 top-two places available since 2001-02.

The money talkIf the money talks, then Juventus will claim a record-extending seventh straight title with Milan as runners-up,
followed by Inter, Roma, Napoli and Lazio. It really would not be a surprise to see a final top six comprising thatgroup in some order. On wages alone then Crotone, Benevento and Chievo would go down but Udinese, SPAL andVerona are not spending much more and another half a dozen could be vulnerable.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed SERIE A
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

8,113,386

Average 21,351 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
SERIE A season£87.08 each£706,541,333

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SKINS COLLECTIONSKINS.NET

SKINS COLLECTIONSKINS.NET99

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Bundesliga Analysis
German top-division football

20172018

Total salaries:£623,914,904$811,089,375
Average salary Per player:£1,255,362$1,631,971

18
TEAMs

PLAYERS

497

Average salary ranking:No9 league
Median salary:£738,400$959,920

Average first-team pay, Bundesliga, 2017-18 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		
1

Bayern Munich£5,184,038$6,739,250

2

Borussia Dortmund£2,739,148$3,560,893

3

Wolfsburg£1,778,261$2,311,740

4

Schalke£1,654,052$2,150,268

5

Bayer Leverkusen£1,518,400$1,973,920

6

RB Leipzig£1,269,382$1,650,197

7

Hoffenheim£1,125,415$1,463,039

8

Borussia Monchengladbach£1,076,586$1,399,561

9Hamburg£1,014,018$1,318,223

10Hertha Berlin£1,000,350$1,300,455

11

FC Koln£992,250$1,289,925

12Eintracht Frankfurt£638,471$830,013

13

Werder Bremen£621,214$807,579

14

Mainz

£562,855$731,712

15

Stuttgart£538,400$699,920

16

Augsburg£517,021$672,127

17

Hannover 96£449,966$584,956

18

Freiburg£448,718$583,334

The state of play

The sacking of Carlo Ancelotti after a slow start to Bayern Munich’s season, the slump culminating in a 3-0 Champions
League battering at the hands Paris Saint-Germain, prompted talk of a Dortmund resurgence. Peter Bosz took charge at
the Westfalenstadion over the summer after an impressive run to the Europa League final with his young Ajax side and theearly running pointed to a vintage season for his club. But an alarming downturn in form from mid-October, domesticallyand in the Champions League, left a reinvigorated Bayern under the experienced Jupp Heynckes back at the summit after
11 games before the November international break.
Indeed, 72 year-old Heynckes led his charges to an impressive 3-1 at Dortmund, sparking concerns that Bosz’s tactical inflexibility will spell the end of a title run. Other serious challenges to the Bavarian juggernaut Bayern would seem
most likely to come from Ralph Hasenhuettl’s RB Leipzig - the team that so many German football fans love to hate - with
Schalke and Hoffenheim starting steadily behind them. The Red Bull-bankrolled Leipzig will hope the pacey goal threat of
Timo Werner and the wing trickery of Sweden’s Emil Forsberg can help their push.
At the foot of the Bundesliga in the early months, FC Koln and their fabulous travelling fans looked in danger of being cut
adrift with the once reliable Werder Bremen also struggling.
The season kicked-off against a healthy financial backdrop (not that they’d want to talk it up, when that’s what the crass
English do), as a new four-year €4.64bn TV deal came online, worth 85 per cent more than the previous deal and giving
clubs more to invest across the board to challenge richer Euro rivals.

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Bundesliga Analysis
German top-division football

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 11.6 to 1
Twelve of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; five of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the Bundesliga is among the least competitive

On balance

The difference between the average Bayern Munich salary at the top of the Bundesliga pay list (£5.2m) and theaverage Freiburg salary at the bottom (£458,000) is the starkest sign of a great divide. But the new TV money is one
reason that top-to-bottom ratio is now ‘only’ 11.6 to one, against almost 14 to 1 last season, as each club has moreto spend, with the poorest clubs relatively better off.
Our survey shows no fewer than 10 of the 18 Bundesliga clubs now having average first-team pay of £1m or more,
up from five last season with a sixth almost there. None of the three lowest spenders last season averaged morethan £350,000 per year per player while this year the bottom figure is £448,718 and the third bottom more than halfa million. The average salary is up almost 19 per cent year-on-year (in pounds) and while some of that is currency
fluctuation, the new TV deal is making a difference.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Enough difference to topple Bayern? They have won seven of the last 10 Bundesliga titles and all of the last five,with only Dortmund in 2011 and 2012, and Wolfsburg, in 2009, interrupting their decade of dominance. Leipzig,
Leverkusen, Schalke and Werder Bremen have in addition been runners-up in the period.

The money talkIf the money talks, then it’s Bayern for six in a row ahead of Dortmund, Wolfsburg and Schalke, with Leverkusen,
Leipzig and Hoffenheim in the top seven. Finances alone would dictate that Freiburg, Hannover, Augsburg, Stuttgart,
Mainz and Werder Bremen will be scrapping - although the season hasn’t conformed to expectation.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed BUNDESLIGA
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

12,704,627

Average 41,518 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
BUNDESLIGA season£49.11 each£623,914,904

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Ligue 1 Analysis

Average first-team pay, Ligue 1, 2017-18 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		

French top-division football

20172018

Total salaries:£492,979,272$640,873,054
Average salary Per player:£944,405$1,227,726

20
TEAMs

PLAYERS

522

Average salary ranking:No10 league
Median salary:£429,000$557,700

1

PSG£6,472,355$8,414,061

2

Monaco£2,067,929$2,688,307

3Marseille£1,769,700$2,300,610

4

Lyon

£1,354,704$1,761,115

5

Nice

£915,007$1,189,510

6

Bordeaux£643,032$835,942

7

Lille£620,691$806,8988Saint-Etienne£568,341$738,843

9

Toulouse£536,500$697,450

10Rennes£520,686$676,892

11

Montpellier£464,500$603,850

12

Nantes£458,081$595,506

13

Caen£416,770$541,801

14

Amiens£409,067$531,787

15

Strasbourg£378,393$491,91116

Metz£366,889$476,956

17

Dijon

£365,100$474,630

18

Guingamp£355,500$462,150

19

Angers£346,900$450,970

20

Troyes£300,541$390,703

The state of play

Paris Saint-Germain stunned football in August when they obliterated the world transfer record by paying €222m forthe transfer of Neymar from Barcelona. To say it was acrimonious is to understate it - Barcelona tried to prevent it, but
PSG had triggered a release clause so couldn’t be stopped. Then Javier Tebas, the president of the Spanish league,
insisted that he would take PSG to court. His argument was PSG were in flagrant breach of UEFA’s ‘financial fair play’(FFP) rules - designed to stop clubs spending money they don’t legitimately generate themselves.
PSG’s potential wealth, unprecedented in French football, or any football, via their Qatari owners, hadn’t prevented
them from losing the title in 2016-17. So in addition to Neymar they doubled down and did a deal to buy French
teenage wonder kid, Kylian Mbappé, from their closest rivals (and reigning champions) Monaco. Cue more controversy.
If they paid the agreed €180m for him in summer 2017, they would inevitably break the FFP rules so they concocteda loan deal instead. Cue more opprobrium, and an official investigation by UEFA into whether PSG are gaming thesystem - or blatantly trying to ‘buy’ success in contravention of FFP. That probe is ongoing at the time of writing.
What isn’t in doubt is that such lavish spending allowed PSG to gather some stellar talents who immediately became
odds-on favourites to romp to the title. And in their first dozen games of 2017-18, they began with 10 wins, two draws,
no defeats and scored 39 goals. The Edinson Cavani-Neymar-Mbappé trio had scored 24 of those between them. The
questions seemed to be not whether PSG would be crowned Ligue 1 winners, but how early they’d confirm it - andwhether UEFA would allow it.

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Ligue 1 Analysis
French top-division football

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 21.5 to 1

Seventeen of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; None of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, Ligue 1 is the least competitive

On balance

The difference between the average PSG salary at the top of the Ligue 1 pay list (£6.5m) and the average Troyessalary at the bottom (£300,000) is bigger in relative terms than the difference between the best and worst paid teams
in any league in this report. Troyes happen to have come out bottom but it might well have been Amiens if they
didn’t have loanees from much richer clubs bumping their average pay: Nathan from Chelsea, Gael Kakuta from the
CSL and Lacina Traore to name but three. (Average first-team pay accounts for the players’ earnings, not specifically
who pays what proportionate of it. Pay in this regard is a proxy for talent).
Actually for Troyes, read Angers, Guingamp, Dijon, Metz or Strasbourg, all ‘small budget’ teams compared to PSG,
who dwarf them all. Their squads are each operating on basic wage bills of under £10m - as PSG spend closer to£160m, with potentially big bonuses on top.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199PSG will spend about as much on wages as the 14 smallest Ligue 1 budgets combined. The best paid 10 per cent ofLigue 1 players (dominated by PSG players) earn 52 per cent of the division’s wages.
Money doesn’t guarantee success: last season showed that. But if influences it hugely. In the five seasons before theoil wealth flowed into PSG, Ligue 1 had five different winners: in reverse order Montpellier, Lille, Marseille, Bordeaux,
Lyon. In the five seasons since? PSG, PSG, PSG, PSG, and Monaco (a.k.a, a blip).

The money talkIf the money talks, then PSG will win the title. And three from those six ‘small budget teams’ will go down.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed LIGUE 1
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

7,822,966

Average 20,587 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
LIGUE 1 season£63.02 each£492,979,272

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CSL Analysis

Average first-team pay, CSL, 2017 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		

Chinese Super League football

20172018

Total salaries:£387,081,999$503,206,599
Average salary Per player:£781,984$1,016,579

16
TEAMs

PLAYERS

495

Average salary ranking:No11 league
Median salary:£153,333$199,333

1

Shanghai SIPG

£1,853,942$2,410,125

2

Tianjin Quanjian£1,612,198$2,095,857

3

Hebei China Fortune£1,551,731$2,017,250

4Shanghai Shenua£1,375,986$1,788,781

5

Guangzhou Evergrande£1,149,117$1,493,852

6

Shangdong Luneng£1,066,564$1,386,533

7

Jiangsu Suning£914,904$1,189,375

8Beijing Guoan£724,938$942,419

9

Changchun Yatai£457,308$594,500

10

Tianjin Teda

£442,382$575,097

11

Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng£323,623$420,710

12

Guangzhou R&F£314,543$408,906

13

Henan Jianye£296,490$385,437

14

Chongqing Lifan£248,923$323,600

15Liaoning Whowin£180,129$234,168

16

Yanbian Funde£99,048$128,762

The state of play

The CSL has braced for financial recalibration after the Chinese government via the nation’s football association (the CFA)
effectively applied the brakes to the rampant spending starting to take hold. Big names on salaries of tens of millions ofdollars continued to move to China in 2017, with Brazil’s Oscar (to Shanghai SIPG) and Argentinean forward Carlos Tevez(to Shanghai Shenua) among them. Both expressed regret within months, but that is another issue.
It seemed obvious a group of CSL clubs must be haemorrhaging money; there is no evidence that current revenues fromtickets, TV or commercial deals can pay the ballooning wage bills. A remarkable document, recently published, allows
some insight into this theory and vindicates it.
The document is the official 2016 financial report of Guangzhou Evergrande, who have won the seven most recent CSL
seasons (2011 to 2017) and two AFC Champions Leagues (2013, 2015). Evergrande are co-owned by the EvergrandeGroup (whose chairman is Xu Jiayin, one of China’s richest multi-billionaires) and the Alibaba Group (exec chair, Jack Ma,
ditto), companies with stupendous resources. The report, in Chinese, can be found in the resources section of
the Sporting Intelligence website. CLICK HERE
It is long, complex and fascinating and the upshot is this: China’s wealthiest and most successful club by a mile hadrevenue in 2016 of about £64m (of which £46m was from commercial deals, £12m from TV, £5.5m from tickets and thebalance from merchandise), operating costs of around £157m (with ‘employee benefits’, mainly wages for all staff, being
more than £100m) and losses of around £93m. The GSSS 2016 had Evergrande as one of five clubs paying more than £1m
per year per first-team player in average, and one of four paying £1.4m to £1.5m per man. The GSSS 2017 calculates theirwage bill has fallen as others have risen. Evergrande’s accounts describe an ‘arms race’ of spending. It is not sustainable inany rational economic environment.
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CSL Analysis

Chinese Super League football
Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 18.7 to 1

Sixteen of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; one of 18 is less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the CSL has been uncompetitive

On balance

The imbalance in wage spending from top to bottom makes it virtually impossible for the lesser clubs to compete.
The richest teams have some of the most successful managers in the world and multiple major players typically from
Brazil or Argentina. The “stars” in poorer teams are relatively unheralded players from lower-ranked European and
African nations.
Evidently the authorities in China saw lavish spending by some clubs to be a potential problem, if not for competitive
reasons then for financial stability. A crisis seemed imminent when the CFA wrote to 18 Chinese clubs in the summer,
13 of them in the CSL, to threaten bans if they did not settle outstanding debts and pay late wages and bonuses.
The clubs mostly claimed all was well; lack of transparency means that cannot be independently verified.
The CFA introduced a new rule that a maximum of three foreign players could appear per team in a game (to deter
big-name, high-cost imports) and that two ‘young’ (under 23) local players should be in each 18-man match day
squad.
This may or may not level things up. But the CSL remains by far the most ‘top heavy’ league in pay terms with the
top 10 per cent of players (led by the big foreign names) earning 75 per cent of all wages. The CSL has more players
earning $10m+ in basic pay than any football league in the world bar the Premier League.

The money talkIf the money talked, then Shanghai SIPG would have won the title from Tianjin Quanjian, Hebei China Fortune,
Shanghai Shenua, Guangzhou Evergrande and Shangdong Luneng. In fact they respectively finished 2nd, 3rd,
4th, 11th, 1st and 6th. Money alone would have dictated that Yanbian Funde, Liaoning Whowin, Chongqing Lifanand Henan Jianye would finish in the bottom four. Three of them did fill the bottom three, and Lifan were 10th - orseventh from bottom.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481

CSL	30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Total attendance,
most recent
completed CSL
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

5,703,824

Average 23,766 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
CSL season£67.86 each

£387,081,999

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NPB Analysis

Average first-team pay, NPB, 2017 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		Nippon Professional Baseball2017

Total salaries:£235,683,662$306,388,761
Average salary Per player:£654,677$851,080

12
TEAMs

PLAYERS360

Average salary ranking:No12 league

1

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks£1,310,563$1,703,732

2

Yomiuri Giants£1,051,486$1,366,932

3Hanshin Tigers£686,549$892,514

4Tokyo Yakult Swallows£626,432$814,362

5

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters£623,592$810,669

6

Orix Buffaloes£615,634$800,324

7

Saitama Seibu Lions£611,385$794,800

8

Chiba Lotte Marines£490,423$637,549

9

Hiroshima Toyo Carp

£488,979$635,673

10

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles£465,023$604,531

11

Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars£455,869$592,629

12

Chunichi Dragons£430,188$559,244

Median salary:£352,113$457,747

The state of play

Arcane as the NPB’s league and play-off structure is, the 2017 Japan Series was nonetheless won by the outstanding
team of the regular season. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, who had a 65.7 per cent win rate, beat the sixth-best team
(Yokohama DeNA BayStars, 52.9 per cent) in the six-game final series, 4-2.
After 143 games of the regular season, the Hawks were comfortable winners of the Pacific League – with 94 wins and 49
losses they were clear winners from the Saitama Seibu Lions. Their opponents in the Japan Series did not, however, enjoy
such dominance in their league. Indeed, the BayStars could only finish third in the Central League behind the Hirsoshima
Toyo Carp and Hanshin Tigers.
The Hawks’ ultimate success must, in part, be attributable to Cuba’s Alfredo Despaigne who led the way in the Pacific
League with 35 home runs and 103 RBIs. His snappy nickname is ‘El Caballo de los Caballos’ or ‘The Stallion of theStallions’. He was one of seven Hawks players among the best-paid dozen players in the NPB in 2017, earning around£2.8m. Another overseas player and team-mate, pitcher Dennis Sarfate of the USA, won the Japan Series MVP award andwas the joint highest paid player in the NPB in 2017, earning just over £3.5m.
At the conclusion of the regular season, the three top-placed teams in each league enter the climax series for theirrespective leagues. It was here that the BayStars would belie their third place finish to come out on top. The Hawks
enjoyed a more sedate route to the Japan series, beating the Tohoku Golden Eagles 4-2 before seeing off the BayStars by
the same margin.

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NPB Analysis
Nippon Professional Baseball

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 3.1 to 1
Seven of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; 10 of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the NPB is relatively competitive

On balance

The difference between the average Hawks salary at the top of the NPB pay list (£1.3m) and the average Dragonssalary at the bottom (£430,000) is more significant when you note only two teams (the Hawks and Giants) pay morethan £1m per man, and the rest drop off from there. In relatively recent times, the Giants and the Hanshin Tigers
have been trading places as top spenders although the Hawks were No1 in 2016.
Given that it’s a small league and the structure lends itself to randomness in results, you might expect decent
variation of the spoils. Six different teams have won the Japan Series in the past decade, although the Hawks have
won four of those and three of the last four. Eleven of the current 12 teams have either won the Japan Series or beenrunners-up in the same period, with only the Orix Buffaloes not doing either.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199The money talkIf the money talked then the Hawks would have won, and did, comfortably, after having the best season all round.
The Yomiuri Giants’ money should have seen them contending but they didn’t even make a play-off period that half
the teams contest. The Tigers should have finished in their league final (or third, in effect) but actually finished joint
fifth, in effect. The BayStars punched most above their weight - 11th in pay and second in the end.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed NPB
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

25,139,463

Average 29,300 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
NPB season£9.38 each

£235,683,662

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mls Analysis

Average first-team pay, MLS, 2017 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		

Major League Soccer

2017

Total salaries:£154,058,729$200,276,348
Average salary Per player:£251,730$327,249

22
TEAMs

1

PLAYERS

612

Average salary ranking:No13 league
Median salary:£104,040$135,252

Toronto FC£638,171$829,623

2

New York City FC£492,592$640,370

3

Chicago Fire

£369,011$479,714

4

LA Galaxy£347,091$451,218

5

Orlando City

£338,954$440,640

6Seattle Sounders£317,112$412,246

7

Portland Timbers£308,380$400,894

8

Colorado Rapids£237,888$309,255

9

Atlanta United£223,518$290,573

10

Real Salt Lake

£211,378$274,791

11Sporting Kansas City

£194,922$253,398

12

Vancouver Whitecaps£194,216$252,480

13

New England Revolution£193,984$252,179

14

New York Red Bulls£189,428$246,257

15

San Jose Earthquakes£184,596$239,975

16

FC Dallas£181,055$235,371

17

Philadelphia Union£176,601$229,581

18

Columbus Crew

£173,014$224,918

19

Minnesota United£151,649$197,143

20

Montreal Impact£150,843$196,097

21

DC United£150,212$195,276

22

Houston Dynamo£139,869$181,829

The state of play

The league expanded in 2017 to embrace two new clubs, Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United. Atlanta made an
immediate impact in attendance terms alone, topping the crowd tables with an average of 48,200 fans per game, and also
made the play-offs in their inaugural campaign. Minnesota were among the top 10 best-attended clubs with more than
20,000 fans per game on average and while not stellar on the pitch, still outperformed three former MLS Cup champions
in LA Galaxy, DC United and Colorado Rapids.
The season is getting towards the business end at the time of writing, with the 12-team play-offs producing a final four ofToronto FC against Columbus Crew in one conference final and Seattle Sounders against Houston Dynamo in the other.
Toronto have been the biggest wage spenders by a margin in 2017, averaging more than $800,000 per man. Three of
their players are among the top 10 best paid individuals in MLS: Sebastian Giovinco on more than $7m, Michael Bradley
on $6.5m and Jozy Altidore on $4.9m. Giovinco and Altidore both made it into the top 10 scorers list for the season.
Columbus reached the last four by stunning Patrick Vieira’s New York City FC in the conference semis, prompting theretirement from all forms of football of the legendary Andrea Pirlo. The Manchester City-owned NYC franchise, the biggest
payers after Toronto, had become a ‘glamour’ team via Pirlo and David Villa, whose 22 goals helped them to second in
the overall table. Pirlo and Villa both earned approaching $6m each for the season.
Seattle and Houston had the play-off structure to thank for their shots at glory, having finished respectively seventh and11th in the overall table. Neither of them could dislodge the Portland Timbers at the top of the Western Conference(although the Sounders came close) but Houston upset the Timbers in the conference semis to reach the last four.

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mls Analysis
Major League Soccer

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 4.6 to 1

Nine of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; eight of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, MLS has middling competitivenessOn balance

The difference between the average Toronto salary at the top of the MLS pay list (£638,171) and the average
Houston salary at the bottom (£139,869) didn’t preclude both of them making the last four. But the total payrolls fortheir respective squads of £17.2m and £3.9m highlight the gulf when some teams splurge on designated players andothers don’t.
Play-offs are part and parcel of American sporting culture, and the randomness introduced by this lottery keeps moreteams involved for a lot longer. Eight different MLS Cup winners in 10 years indicates something works.
By regular season performance alone, or the overall table in other words, there is a strong link between pay andperformance. Of course some teams bucked the trend: La Galaxy and Orlando City did much worse than theirfinancial outlay would expect and Columbus better, to name three.
But the top three payers using our metric of average first-team salary in 2017 were Toronto, NYC and Chicago Fire,and they also finished 1-2-3 in the overall table. Seattle and Portland were sixth and seventh best payers and finishedseventh and sixth. Sporting Kansas City were 11th on expenditure and in the table, New England were 13th/15th,
San Jose were 15th/12th, FC Dallas were 16th/13th, Philadelphia were 17th/16th, Minnesota were19th/19th,Montreal were 20th/17th and DC United were 21st/21st. The pattern is clear.
What any of that means as MLS and its critics continue to debate the evolution of the format, and whether the USA
needs promotion and relegation adding to its top division, remains to be seen. After the USA failed to qualify forthe 2018 World Cup, the soccer community began a post-mortem bordering on existential crisis. But that is anotherissue for another day.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Total attendance,
most recent
completed MLS
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

8,269,919

Average 22,112 per gameThe money talkIf the money talks, then Toronto would be champions as NYC FC, Chicago Fire and LA Galaxy make the final four.
Three of them made the play-offs. At the other end, Houston, DC United, Montreal and Minnesota would struggle
relatively. In fact Houston went far and the others finished close to the bottom of the table and missed the play-offs.

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Total first-teamsalaries, current
MLS season£18.63 each£154,058,729

119sportingintelligencesportingintelligence

AFL Analysis

Average first-team pay, AFL, 2016 season

Australian Football League, Aussie Rules

2017

Total salaries:£126,863,623$164,922,710
Average salary Per player:£176,690$229,697

18
TEAMs

PLAYERS

718

Average salary ranking:No14 league
Median salary:£160,087$208,113

Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		
1Gold Coast£189,586$246,461

2

Western Bulldogs£188,100$244,530

3

Melbourne£180,971$235,263

4

North Melbourne£180,971$235,263

5

Greater Western Sydney£179,964$233,954

6

Sydney Swans£177,579$230,852

7

Richmond£176,546$229,510

8

Collingwood£175,686$228,391

9

Brisbane Lions£175,679$228,382

10

Fremantle£174,271$226,553

11

St Kilda£174,271$226,553

12

Geelong£173,279$225,263

13

West Coast Eagles£172,843$224,696

14

Carlton£172,821$224,668

15

Adelaide Crows£172,814$224,659

16

Port Adelaide£172,814$224,659

17

Essendon£172,154$223,80018Hawthorn£169,957$220,944

The state of play

The AFL’s annual report comes highly recommended for the granular detail on many aspects of the way the competition
is run - including salary expenditure - and the latest editions are available here: http://www.afl.com.au/afl-hq/annual-reports.
One reason we include the 2016 AFL season in this report (and not the recently finished 2017) is the annual reportprovides an excellent corroboratory source for the survey material we gather; the other reason is related and more prosaic- some league information takes longer to piece together than others.
The AFL remains outstanding in one respect in this report - its ‘fairness’ as measured by the difference between the clubwith the highest average first-team pay and the lowest. A salary floor and ceiling for player payments helps with this.
Debate continues into other amendments that need to be made, including the extent to which total football department
spending should be regulated, as opposed to solely player payments.
Clubs with the biggest overall spending (the extra, in effect, being on more or better coaches, facilities and other auxiliary
spending) tend to win more. That’s too complex an issue for these few paragraphs and further reading on the AFL’s
Competitive Balance Policy is recommended.
But the cap model overall has been a demonstrable success since its introduction in 1987. The traditionally three richestand most successful clubs from Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon had appeared in 75 Grand Finals of 90 up to then (83per cent) and won 41 of them (46 per cent of all titles). In the 32 Grand Finals since 1987, the ‘big three’ have appeared in
11 (or 34 per cent) and won six (19 per cent).
This isn’t to say the AFL is perfect; far from it. But a league that so consistently pushes itself to consider competitivebalance issues is a ‘fairer’ league than most.
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AFL Analysis

Australian Football League, Aussie Rules
Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 1.1 to 1

None of the 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; 17 of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the AFL should be the most competitive

On balanceSix different Grand Final winners in 10 years include four wins for Hawthorn and two for Geelong. A further four
different teams have been runners-up, making 10 different teams filling 20 places. That’s not as good as the more
obviously ‘unfair’ MLB (in pay terms), with 16 in 20; but the AFL has had six different teams filling six berths over the
past three years, seven over four and eight over five.
Our research suggests the various competitive balance mechanisms at least serve to spread the ‘star’ players aroundthe league. To grossly simplify, the best of those command the biggest money, and the salary cap limits the amountof ‘top stars’ playing at any one club.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL	22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199Only two players earned $1.2m or more (Australian dollars) in 2016, two more earned $1.1m to $1.2m, two earned$1m to $1.2, three earned $900,000 to $1m and five earned $800,000 to $900,000. Only Geelong had two players
among that group of 14, while six teams had none. Every team had at least one player earning $700,000-plus.

The money talkIf the money alone talked, then Gold Coast and Western Bulldogs would have contested the Grand Final; thelatter did, winning against Sydney, but Gold Coast didn’t even make the finals series. And the other finals series
competitors would have been Melbourne (yes, they were), North Melbourne (no), Greater Western Sydney andSydney (both yes), Richmond and Collingwood (no). But this is financially competitive league, and money thus talks
less.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed AFL
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

6,734,062

Average 34,010 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
AFL season£18.84 each

£126,863,623

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J-League Analysis
Japanese top-division football

20172018

Total salaries:£88,883,099$115,548,029
Average salary Per player:£168,339$218,841

18
TEAMs

PLAYERS

528

Average salary ranking:No15 league
Median salary:£105,634$137,324

Average first-team pay, J.League, 2017 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		
1

Urawa Red Diamonds£289,185$375,941

2

Vissel Kobe

£236,037$306,848

3

Cerezo Osaka£212,654$276,450

4FC Tokyo£211,752$275,277

5

Kashima Antlers£206,362$268,271

6

Gamba Osaka£199,736$259,657

7

Kawasaki Frontale£191,776$249,309

8

Sanfrecce Hiroshima£183,350$238,355

9

Yokohama F Marinos£183,099$238,028

10

Jubilo Iwata£155,869$202,629

11

Shimizu S-Pulse£153,974$200,166

12

Omiya Ardija£153,680$199,784

13

Kashiwa Reysol£144,789$188,225

14

Sagan Tosu

£141,947$184,532

15

Consadole Sapporo£113,005$146,906

16

Vegalta Sendai£89,461$116,299

17

Albirex Niigata£81,866$106,426

18

Ventforet Kofu

£78,498$102,047

The state of play

As the J-League came to a conclusion as November unfolded, Kashima Antlers looked home and hosed. Go Oiwa’s
team sat at the top of the table with two games left, seven points clear of Kawasaki Frontale who had three games togo. Kashima had already qualified for the Champions League.
This season’s J-League marked a return to a simpler league structure after a two-year experiment with a two-phase
tournament that culminated in a play-off round. Urawa Red Diamonds might well have felt aggrieved at the way
things transpired in this experiment in 2016. They carried all before them in the second phase to top the aggregate
table 15 points clear of a team - the Antlers - who subsequently conquered them in a two-legged final.
Whether jaded by that experience or just off their game, Urawa had a disappointing 2017. Even an end-of-season
surge would not be enough to see the league’s best supported side snatch the consolation of qualification for theChampions League.
At the bottom, six teams entered the final three games in a scramble to avoid relegation. Albirex Niigata had thefaintest of hopes as they sat nine points from safety with only nine to play for. Omiya Ardija, Sanfrecce Hiroshima,
Ventforet Kofu, Shimizu S-Pulse and Consadole Sapporo were in that mix.
Sapporo counted former Coventry and Perugia striker Jay Bothroyd among their foreign contingent - Bothroyd beinga relatively rare Englishman abroad. J-League clubs have to abide by foreign player limits of five per club and four forany match day squad. The overwhelming foreign nationality of choice is Brazilian players. Only two of the 18 clubs
did not have at least one Brazilian in 2017 (Yokohama and Sagan Tosu) while a majority of clubs had at least three,
and two had four.
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J-League Analysis
Japanese top-division football

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 3.7 to 1

Eight of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; nine of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the J-League is of middling competitivenessOn balance

The difference between the average Urawa Red Diamonds salary at the top of the J-League pay list (£289,185) andthe average Ventforet Kofu salary at the bottom (£78,498) is not quite fourfold. The total basic payrolls for theirrespective squads was £8.1m and £2.4m. The gap between top and bottom, when the same teams held thosepositions last year, has closed a little. Urawa are paying virtually the same and Ventforet just a bit more.
The spread of honours in the past decade - up to and including 2016 - was reasonable but not great. Five different
J-League winners in 10 years include four wins for the Kashima Antlers and three for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and one
each for Gamba Osaka, Kashiwa Reysol and Nagoya Grampus. A further four different teams have been runners-up,
meaning nine teams have filled the 20 top-two places.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199The money talkIf the money talked, then Urawa Red Diamonds would have won the title from Vissel Kobe, Cerezo Osaka and FCTokyo. Only Cerezo were in the shake-up for Champions League places as the season moved to a conclusion. Thereseems to be a stronger link between lack of resources and a lower finish with the four bottom payers struggling to
get as high as halfway, or worse.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed J-LEAGUE
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

5,501,386

Average 17,978 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
J-LEAGUE season£16.16 each

£88,883,099

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Average first-team pay, Scottish Premiership,2017-18 season

Scot Prem Analysis
Scottish top-division football

Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		
120172018

12
TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£44,137,348$57,378,552£148,611$193,194

PLAYERS

297

No16 league

Celtic£735,040$955,552

2

Rangers£329,600$428,4803

Aberdeen£136,382$177,296

4Hearts£95,514$124,168

5Hibernian£87,100$113,2306

Dundee£59,904$77,875

7

Partick Thistle£58,175$75,628

8

Ross County£56,394$73,3129

Kilmarnock£55,100$71,630

10

St Johnstone£47,992$62,389

11

Motherwell£42,662$55,461

12

Hamilton£41,488$53,934£62,400$81,120

The state of play

Celtic underlined their status as the overwhelmingly dominant force in contemporary Scottish football by setting a new
all-time unbeaten domestic record on 4 November. By thrashing St Johnstone 4-0 they went 63 straight domestic games
without losing (all competitions) to top their own mark of 62 games - set 100 years previously.
Surpassing a record that has stood for a century is a noteworthy achievement. Clubs in supposedly ‘one-team leagues’
lose games now and again. They sometimes lose the league - just ask PSG in France. So Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers
deserved significant credit.
It should also be uncontroversial, however, to accept that the small community who comprise the Scottish Premiership - a
12-team division - range from bona fide giants (by history, crowds, honours, you name it) to clubs half the size of some ofthose in England’s fifth division.
The resources are spread across just as wide a range, from Celtic capable of having a total club wage bill of £40m-plus toothers closer to a million. As Motherwell manager Steve Robinson said in an interview with The Times recently: ‘I’ve got
first-team squad guys earning £250 [basic] a week. I’ve got three or four boys on that kind of money.’
Of course that’s just a few players, and just basic pay (our metric) that will inevitably rise with appearances and results thatin turn generate income that becomes performance-related pay. But £250 a week is still just £13,000 a year in a league
where the biggest names at Celtic could gross seven figures, all told.
One housekeeping note on this year’s Scottish figures: first-team squad sizes were so diverse last year (from 21 to 34) that,given the sums in play, there was a risk of misinterpretation. So a maximum of 26 players have been counted this time perclub, selected on the basis of frequency of use, and hence ‘first-team’ status in the most meaningful sense.
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Scot Prem Analysis
Scottish top-division football

Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 17.7 to 1

Fifteen of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; two of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the Scottish Premiership is uncompetitive

On balance

The difference between the average basic Celtic salary at the top of the Scottish Premiership pay list (£735,000) andthe average Hamilton salary at the bottom (£41,000) is even larger than last season, when it was ‘only’ 16.9 times
bigger. To put this into context, there is less of a resource gulf between Celtic and their 2017-18 Champions League
group stage opponents Paris Saint-Germain than between Celtic and most clubs in their domestic division. Using our
GSSS numbers from this report, PSG’s players earn ‘only’ 8.8 times as much as Celtic’s.
Celtic are paying substantially more than double the amount even of their closest rivals Rangers, and almost as muchby themselves as their 11 division rivals combined. So it isn’t a shock that Celtic began the season with expectations
they would win a seventh league title in a row. It is 32 years since any team other than Celtic or Rangers won the title:
Aberdeen in 1985. It is difficult to see how this will change any time soon, not least with Celtic increasingly locked
in to the virtuous cycle that is regular Champions League football - and the extra money it brings, and the extra
advantage that provides.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA

34£1,691$2,199The money talkIf the money alone talked, then the title will be Celtic’s with Rangers as runners-up ahead of Aberdeen, Hearts andHibernian. St Johnstone, Motherwell and Hamilton would be scrapping it out to avoid the drop. But as has alreadybeen amply demonstrated in Scotland in 2017-18 so far, financial advantage can be wasted - not least via woefulbosses - while good managers can turn lesser resources into a greater sum than their parts.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed SCOT PREM
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

3,184,955

Average 13,969 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
SCOT PREM season£13.86 each

£44,137,348

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CFL Analysis

Average first-team pay, CFL, 2016 season
Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		

Canadian Football League, gridiron

2016

9

TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£26,496,264$34,445,143£66,910$86,983

PLAYERS

396

1

Ottawa Redblacks£74,504$96,855

2

Calgary Stampeders£69,685$90,5913

Edmonton Eskimos£68,117$88,551

4

Winnipeg Blue Bombers£66,630$86,619

5

Saskatchewan Roughriders£66,614$86,599

6

Hamilton Tiger-Cats£66,082$85,906

7

BC Lions£65,374$84,9868Montreal Alouettes£63,140$82,082

9Toronto Argonauts£62,043$80,656

No17 league£44,669$58,682

The state of play

The Canadian Football League in 2016 was a breakthrough season for the Ottawa Redblacks who won a first championship for the capital for 40 years. The winners held off a furious comeback from the Calgary Stampeders to clinch whatmany branded the biggest upset in the Grey Cup. The Ottawa quarterback Henry Burris - formerly a 10-year Stampeders
veteran with two Grey Cups for them - was named the league’s MVP. Brad Sinopoli, the capital side’s wide receiver andanother Stampeders alumnus, was handed the award for the Most Valuable Canadian.
In off-field developments, drug testing resumed after a season of none, with a possible two-game ban for using performance-enhancing substances. In economic shenanigans, Saskatchewan were adjudged to have breached CFL rules onpracticing with ineligible, injured and free agent players. They were fined $60,000 and had $26,000 deducted from theirsalary cap. The CFL launched an investigation after a Stampeders quarterback suggested impropriety by his rivals via
social media.
The Redblacks carried their 2016 form into the 2017 season to make this year’s play-offs. They met the Roughriders for theright to play the Toronto Argonauts for a place in the division final. And lost. Elsewhere, the Edmonton Eskimos beat theWinnipeg Blue Bombers to progress to a meeting with the Stampeders in the quest for the other Grey Cup final berth.
Saskatchewan started 2017 with hope they could run all the way to the Grey Cup final in Ottawa after moving to a newhome stadium. The franchise upped sticks at the beginning of the new term after 95 years at the Mosaic Stadium at Taylor
Field. The newly built Mosaic Stadium boasts a capacity of 33,000 and is expandable to 40,000 when the championshipgame pays a visit.
It was a season to forget for the Montreal Alouettes, who had a 3-15 win-loss record that broke the team record for defeatsin a season.
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CFL Analysis

Canadian Football League, gridiron
Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 1.2 to 1
One of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; 16 of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the CFL should be vying for most competitive

On balance

The CFL has always been the toughest league from which to garner reliable numbers and that is down to the almost
religious secrecy of everyone involved, not least the teams and team owners. No source that could be describedas even vaguely public exists that tells us about player pay, and we can speculate why; certainly some players are
unhappy with their lot. But pointers from agents and insiders do allow insight.
What’s remarkable, in a sport where team incomes vary hugely (50 per cent or more) and one team’s footballoperations budget can be 25 per cent bigger than the next, is the slender difference in pay, at 1.2 to 1 from top
to bottom; the small difference between the cap floor and ceiling explains it. Other metrics highlight economic
competitive balance, including the top 10 per cent of earners making ‘only’ 22.6 per cent of all salaries; and the
median salary being a high percentage of the average.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084

CFL	18£3,717$4,832

WNBA£1,691$2,19934

Seven different winners of the Grey Cup in 10 years points to a decent spread of honours; seven different winners
in the last seven years to 2016 is remarkable. So too is the fact that all nine current teams have either won or beenrunners-up at least once each in the past seven years.

The money talkIt’s a small league and comes with the randomness of play-offs and a tiny pay differential but average first-team pay
leaders and runners-up in 2016 were Grey Cup winners and runners-up the Redblacks and Stampeders. Third biggest
spenders Edmonton were also in the last four and the two lowest spenders were among three teams who failed tomake the play-offs.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed CFL
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

4,000,019

Average 24,691 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
CFL season£6.62 each

£26,496,264

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WNBA Analysis

Average first-team pay, WNBA, 2017 season

Women’s National Basketball Association

2017

12
TEAMs

Total salaries:

Average salary ranking:

Average salary Per player:

Median salary:£8,280,998$10,765,297£57,507$74,759

PLAYERS

144

No18 league

Rank	
Team	AVG annual 	AVG annual			per player, £	per player, $		
1Atlanta Dream£65,663$85,362

2

Minnesota Lynx

£61,324$79,7213

Phoenix Mercury£61,279$79,663

4

Los Angeles Sparks£60,938$79,219

5

Washington Mystics£59,724$77,6416

Connecticut Sun£58,604$76,185

7

New York Liberty£56,163$73,011

8

San Antonio Stars£55,187$71,743

9

Indiana Fever£54,730$71,149

10

Dallas Wings£54,414$70,738

11

Seattle Storm£52,438$68,169

12

Chicago Sky£50,531$65,691£53,965$70,155

The state of play

The WNBA in 2017 attracted crowds at a six-year high, both on aggregate (almost 1.6m paying fans) and per match(7,716) with double-digit increases in Los Angeles, Connecticut and Minnesota, where the Lynx had their highest averageattendance (10,407) since their debut season in 1999.
Yet it was on social media that the league made genuinely ground-breaking progress, becoming the first women’s professional sport to have games screened live on Twitter. Twenty games per season from 2016 to 2018 will be shown this way
under a deal between Twitter and the WNBA, and an average of 613,000 unique viewers watched each match via thismethod in 2017. Some games topped a million viewers, led by the Phoenix Mercury vs the Dallas Wings, the San Antonio
Stars vs the Wings, and the Mercury vs the Minnesota Lynx.
In a competitive sports market where leagues want to reach and retain new audiences, the WNBA had its stature affirmed by
the announcement that the 2018 EA Sports basketball game would include full rosters of WNBA teams for the first time.
On the court, the Lynx beat the defending champions from Los Angeles Sparks 3-2 in the finals, securing a fourth title inseven years and reversing the outcome of 2016.
The 12-team league is split across Western and Eastern conferences – with the top eight sides across the two progressing to theplay-offs. The Lynx were the best team in the regular season with 27 wins and seven losses, closely followed by the Sparks (26-8).
The Lynx dominated the end of season awards with center Sylvia Fowles taking the league MVP and finals MVP awards.
Fowles was one of more than 80 players who headed from the WNBA season to an off-season assignment with a foreign
team, in her case in Beijing. While the WNBA is the pinnacle of women’s basketball in quality terms, considerable financial
rewards are available elsewhere, especially at a few teams in Russia and Turkey.

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WNBA Analysis

Women’s National Basketball Association
Ratio between highest paid team and lowest paid: 1.3 to 1
Two of 18 leagues have a ‘fairer’ spread, with a lower gap; 15 of 18 are less ‘fair’Among the leagues in this survey, the WNBA is among the most competitive

On balanceSix different teams have won the WNBA finals in the past 10 seasons, with the Lynx winning four and the Mercury
two. A further three teams have reached the finals. If the ratio between the best paid team in average pay (ourunique metric in the GSSS) is small at 1.3 to one, and only two leagues are ‘fairer’, then it becomes more so if you
take total player payroll figures.
Official figures for the 2017 season obtained by Sporting Intelligence for this report show the differential between
the Atlanta Dream at one extreme (total final salaries $938,983) and the Chicago Sky at the other end ($788,291) is
1.19 to 1.

sportingintelligence

Average first-team pay per game
League 	Games per 	AVG £ per 	AVG $ per		regular season 	player per game 	player per gameNFL

16

£129,845$168,798

Premier League

38£69,540$90,402

NBA

82£67,047$87,161

La Liga

38£44,212$57,476

Bundesliga

34£36,922$47,999

Serie A38

£34,884$45,349

NHL

82£29,183$37,938IPL

14£28,832$37,481CSL

30£26,066$33,886

Ligue 1

38

£24,853$32,309MLB

162£21,216$27,581

AFL

22£8,031$10,441

MLS

34£7,404$9,625

J-League34£4,951$6,436NPB

143£4,578$5,952

Scottish Premiership38£3,911$5,084CFL

18£3,717$4,832WNBA	34£1,691$2,199The 12 total payrolls in 2017, for the record, were: Dream $938,983; Lynx, $956,653; Mercury, $955,960; Sparks,$950,625; Mystics, $931,697; Sun, $914,221; Liberty, $876,136; Stars, $860,911; Fever, $924,936; Wings, $848,852;
Storm, $818,032; Sky $788,291.

The money talkIf the money alone talked, then the Atlanta Dream would have been 2017 champions having beaten the Lynx inthe finals. The Sparks and the Mercury would have been in the semi-finals. On the flip side, the Sky, Storm, Wings
and Fever would have missed the play-offs. In fact the Lynx did reach the final and won, against the Sparks, and theSparks and Mercury were both top-four finishers. The Sky and the Fever did miss the play-offs but the Storm andWings reached them then fell at the first hurdle.

Total attendance,
most recent
completed WNBA
seasonFor those fansalone to meet thatsalary bill, every
ticket would cost:

1,574,078

Average 7,716 per game

Total first-teamsalaries, current
WNBA season£5.26 each

£8,280,998

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The compilation of this report would not have been possible without the assistance of specialists across a numberof sports and countries featured. Our thanks go to all of them, and those who helped in the wider production ofthis report, not least (in alphabetical order): Jonnie Baker, Katie Brazier, Jasmine Collette, Alex Dandanis, Arijana
Demirovic, John Didulica, Magnus Erlingmark, David Gerty, Ian Herbert, Sonja Hernandez, Terri Jackson, Chyloe
Kurdas, Shaun Martyn, Scott Mann, Nick Pelekanos, Roger Pielke Jr, Robin Scott-Elliot, Annette Seitz, Clea Smith, Eriko
Takahashi, H.T Torres, Pete Wilson, Zhang Yi. There are dozens of other people who gave freely of their time andadvice from inside clubs and leagues to help make this survey as accurate as possible but contributed on the basisof anonymity. Thanks to all of them; you know who you are.

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