Figured this might be interesting to some of you, really putting into perspective just how much superior and more fair the NBA is than its European counter-part. These are the total team budgets for the 2019-20 season, not just salaries (salaries usually amount for 60-80% of the total budget): 1. Barcelona (Spain) - 41M Euros 2. CSKA (Russia) - 40.7M Euros 3. Real Madrid (Spain) - 40M Euros 4. Khimki (Russia) - 33.3M Euros 5. AX Milan (Italy) - 31M Euros 6. Fenerbahce (Turkey) - 30M Euros 7. Zenit (Russia) - 26.7M Euros 8. Anadolu Efes (Turkey) - 24M Euros 9. Maccabi (Israel) - 24M Euros 10. Bayern (Germany) - 23M Euros 11. Baskonia (Spain) - 16M Euros 12. Olympiacos (Greece) - 16M Euros 13. Valencia (Spain) - 15M Euros 14. Panathinaikos (Greece) - 14M Euros 15. Zalgiris (Lithuania) - 11.9M Euros 16. ASVEL (France) - 11.4M Euros 17. ALBA (Germany) - 11M Euros 18. Crvena Zvezda (Serbia) - 8.3M Euros Interestingly enough, Crvena Zvezda (the team with the 8M budget) is currently ahead of Fenerbahce (30M) and Zenit (26.7M) in the standings.
Barca and Real be like 1.20 billion euro in soccer each. Bayern around 800 million. Crazy differential.
I do wonder how much it has grown over the years though, is it a gradual increase or has it stagnated recently?
Depends on a team. Just 5-7 years ago, a lot of the Turkish teams were spending crazy money trying to get instant results, and some of them got into some serious debt. While some smaller teams like Zalgiris are really trying to adopt the moneyball strategy, either signing less known players with potential or getting undrafted guys right after they finish college and coach them to adjust to the Euroleague style of basketball. That's how Zalgiris managed to make it to the Euroleague's Final Four in 2017-18 with a budget of only 8M Euros. All in all, I think the Euroleague is slowly growing, and the conditions too (I believe most if not all teams are using private jets for travel). Also, I think Mirotic choosing the Euroleague over the NBA was pretty huge and perhaps will start some type of trend. Some percentage of players might prefer becoming a star in Europe over being a 10 mpg journeyman role player in the NBA.
Spanoulis never really made it, though. Mirotic on the other hand, while not a star player in the NBA, was a very effective role player and would have gotten a pretty nice contract if he had chosen to stay in the US.
I think the true mark of Euroleague competing with the NBA is if they can sign young prospects and keep them in the Euroleague. Producing a lot of world quality players but they can't keep them, the all go to the NBA. I could see this happening as the sport continues to grow, not all of them can go to the NBA and the talent pool is only going to continue to be deeper. Right now, world quality talent only comes from two continents, N.American and Europe. Australia is getting there too though...but NA and EU are the only continents constantly producing talent. But really, I think two things would really immediately benefit the Euroleague... 1.) The sport has to continue to grow in South America and Africa for it to get to that level where soccer is at. Once it does, the talent pool is going to be so much deeper then, going to make it harder for the NBA to horde all of the talent like it has. 2.) Some kind of international club competition. This is a long ways out, although I know its been discussed. I know the NBA wants to make itself a global league (discussing having teams in other countries) and so is kind of blocking this from happening, from what I understand Euroleague officials aren't too keen on the idea right now either...but if it were to happen it instantly adds credibility to the Euroleague as you can become world champion playing for Barcelona. So many hurdles here though, but I know FIBA would love for this to happen.
