The world’s top paying sports teams

In a survey conducted on 17 leagues in 13 countries that involved more than 300 teams in seven different professional sports, the top ten major spenders were six teams from the National Basketball Association, one from Major League Baseball, and three from the football clubs of the English Premier League and the Spanish League.

One basketball team on this list never made it to the finals, the rest on the list had either won championships or had contended for it.  It means that you can be spending shiploads of money yet you continue to languish in mediocrity. 

We don’t have to wonder why players jump from one team to another when they playing contracts had ended because these teams have obscene amounts of cash to lure the best talents available.  On the players’ end, it’s all about economics.  You go where the pasture is much greener.

Topping the world’s list on big spending sports teams is the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.  They have an average annual salary of $8.65 million per player but most of that is gobbled up by their highest paid player and we all know who that is.  LeBron James gets an annual take home pay of $31 million.  Compare that amount to his teammate Dahntay Jones who gets the least money at $5,767.

New York Yankees – The tradition-rich and most valuable baseball team in Major League Baseball spends an average of $7.7 million per player. Pitcher CC Sabathia gets the biggest slice of cake at $25 million. 

Los Angeles Clippers – The Clippers is owned by the world’s wealthiest sports team owner in Steve Balmer.  With a net worth of over $25 billion, he can afford to pay each Clipper an average of $7.65 million a year.  They sent to Houston their highest paid player Chris Paul, who received $22.9 million last season.

Manchester United – This is an iconic EPL team but of late, wins are getting hard to come by.  Defeats aside, they rank at number 4 on the world’s big spending teams giving an average annual salary to each Red Devil $7.6 million.  Central midfielder Paul Pogba, who also plays for the French national team gets the biggest paycheck with $18 million. 

Barcelona – The Spanish football giant spends an average of $7.46 million per player and they have on their payroll the world’s top money making footballer in Lionel Messi with a $21.5 million salary.  He gets a slightly bigger pay than Cristiano Ronaldo.

Portland Trailblazers – Damian Lillard’s huge 5-year $140 million deal takes the bulk of the Blazers’ payroll.  Average annual pay per Blazer is $7.39 million.  For the coming season, Portland needs to find other options aside from their backcourt and lure some frontcourt players for them to reach the later stages of the playoffs.  Besides, they have the money.

Memphis Grizzlies – Memphis gave point guard Mike Conley a massive 5-year $153 million deal.  Never an All-Star, the team was aware of his overall value that they made sure he won’t be going anywhere for a few more years.  Their average yearly pay is $7.3 million per player.

Dallas Mavericks – Mark Cuban gave his players an average of $7.27 million per season making Dallas the 8th top paying team.  The bulk went to Dirk Nowitzki’s $25 million.  The German took a massive pay cut and agreed to a 2-year $10million deal that would allow the Mavericks to pursue free agents and younger talents to build around for the future.

Manchester City – Another EPL team cracks the big spenders.  The team spends an average of $7.16 million for each of their players.  Central midfielder and former Ivory Coast team captain Yaya Toure gets the highest share at $18 million a year.  The team did better than their cross town rivals United in this season’s EPL.

Orlando Magic – Disney World must be making really good money.  The Magic paid Bismack Biyombo and Evan Fornier a combined $34 million this past season.  With $7.12 given to each player on average, it placed Orlando on the top ten list of the world’s highest paying sports teams.  They should consider paying good money to impact players.