OT: Why do NBA players make so much more money than soccer players?

[swaelo]

Soccer is easily the most popular sport in the world and its top players are more known than the NBAs top players and the top soccer teams are more valuable than the top NBA teams yet the top paid soccer players get as much as role players in the NBA?

[Drop Shot]

How many players are there on each roster? How many games do they play?

[swaelo]

How many players are there on each roster? How many games do they play?

Yeah but i bet you Barcelona makes much more money off of Messi than the Cavs make off of Lebron in terms of merchandising and such, i dont get how soccer players havent brought this up already, the top soccer players should be getting paid much much more than they currently are

[rumdiary]

In the English Leagues there's like 150 teams, England is the size of California...

To be honest the NBA would be great with promotion/relegation!

[Soupman]

Collective bargaining keeping owners from taking advantage of players.TV rights deals with multiple TV networks.Ads on uniforms. League sponsorship contracts(gatorade,kia). Major sport in the US. Revenue sharing. Minimum salary.etc. etc.

[Duke4life831]

Messi makes around 40+ million a year. Reports are Neymar's (just turned 24) new contract is even going to be bigger

[swaelo]

In the English Leagues there's like 150 teams, England is the size of California...

To be honest the NBA would be great with promotion/relegation!

Yeah but im not talking about the second or third division, not even the lower table teams, im talking about teams like Utd, Barça, Real, Bayern, that are richer than the top NBA teams

[ckman]

Because in soccer you need to pay transfer fee to secure the service of the players from the other team. You're not going to pay the players as much as NBA when you need to keep big chuck of your budget in transfer market

[zimpy27]

Messi makes 80 mill a year. I don't know what you are talking about.

[rumdiary]

In the English Leagues there's like 150 teams, England is the size of California...

To be honest the NBA would be great with promotion/relegation!

Yeah but im not talking about the second or third division, not even the lower table teams, im talking about teams like Utd, Barça, Real, Bayern, that are richer than the top NBA teams

I think what I meant to say was it's all to do with supply/demand.

There's just as many players trying to be pro ballers, but only a few make it to the top and that's where all the wealth is also concentrated. Player salaries are pegged to BRI. Hence big contracts.

[swaelo]

Messi makes around 40+ million a year

Not from Barça directly though, you're taking into account sponsor and stuff, his salary is less than 20 mil a year

[Soupman]

International football is really not owner friendly as the NBA/NFL/MLB.

Even MLS with its substandard play is more owner friendly because of the salary cap and lack of relegation.

[Duke4life831]

Messi makes around 40+ million a year

Not from Barça directly though, you're taking into account sponsor and stuff, his salary is less than 20 mil a year

No I'm talking about just from Barca and his recent pay bump. He was making about 20 mil a year up until this summer where reports are he is getting payed between 36-39 million euros

[swaelo]

Messi makes around 40+ million a year

Not from Barça directly though, you're taking into account sponsor and stuff, his salary is less than 20 mil a year

No I'm talking about just from Barca and his recent pay bump. He was making about 20 mil a year up until this summer where reports are he is getting payed between 36-39 million euros

Where u read that? I dont think its true, Neymar just signed a contract extension and its supposed to be the biggest contract extension of all time

[Chuck Everett]

The United States is huge. European soccer players play in different countries and different leagues. There's no European equivalent to the NBA in terms of servicing areas.

I.e. UFL (united futbol league) - Madrid, London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Zagreb, Brussels, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Marseilles, Munich, Lisbon, Milan, Zurich.

Now imagine if there was. Then you'd see it be something akin to the NBA.

[Pew_Pew_Pew]

Well this is an interesting question. There was a timely article I read on r/MLS the other day that lays this out in pretty clear terms.

The NBA generates about as much revenue as the English Premier League and over twice as much as the Spanish League.

http://howmuch.net/

So let's just focus on the English league vs the NBA as the other leagues aren't on the NBA's level.

English v NBA, about same revenue. NBA about 480 players the English Premier league has about 500 players (only 20 teams).

What has to be factored into though is, the NBA is the beginning and end of the world... the alpha and omega.

With the English Premier League,

-- they have no one coming close to challenging them from money from outside prospects for player's salaries (whereas as we see here, if one team threw 7 million a year at anyone... they'd be pushed out by every team in 2 hours offering 20 million a year for a second round player that sucks).

-- Their teams are comprised of the knowledge that 3 or so of them will drop to a lower league, with earth shattering lower money coming in. So many of the players for these teams are not full of players they signed with their new money... but with the salaries of leagues with financials that aren't even in the top 100 of revenue. Miniscule money.

-- The lack of a salary cap hurts these teams. Right now, if the Pelicans go and do Pelicans things... what is really the risk for the owner? ZERO, zilch, nothing. If the Pelican management went and did Pelican things in the English Premier League, they would be relegated with salary locked into crap players no one wants, for many years... it would actually result in the team going bankrupt, the owner having to sell... or worse the team folding. Ceasing to exsist... this bring an air of caution to all but maybe 6 teams in the entire continent of Europe knowing the consequences of the players they sign are real. The owner can lose his team, the team itself can cease to exsist.

-- Transfers for players are not free. In the NBA we allow trades in a salary capped world that cost 0 dollars. This is not how it works for soccer players. They are slaves that you own, and as your property as long as you own their slave contracts the other teams have to PAY you a certain sum for that asset. This is a dramatic drain on clubs salary that happens every 6 months or more... and all that money changing hands... goes into building new stadiums, facilities, marketing for the team to travel around the world... and worst of all is taxed at a high rate and just stolen by the Spanish, English, German governments. But most of all not into the players Salaries. Again, NBA teams have the absurd demands giving into by local poor cities to foot the bill to build THEIR own stadiums. Despite being outrageously wealthy. All that hundreds of millions of dollars changing hands adds up to lower salaries.

[Beffiosa]

The top "soccer" players make more money than the highest paid basketball players.

[Novocaine]

In the English Leagues there's like 150 teams, England is the size of California...

To be honest the NBA would be great with promotion/relegation!

Yeah but im not talking about the second or third division, not even the lower table teams, im talking about teams like Utd, Barça, Real, Bayern, that are richer than the top NBA teams

But when you say soccer is the most popular sport, you're counting with all those different leagues and such. If you instead look at leagues individually, none of them has a NBA level of revenue.

Actually soccer players make a larger percentage of the revenues generated by the sport than NBA ones.

Then they have much larger rosters. 24 players or so in the first roster, plus reserve team, plus plenty of players in youth teams already with professional contracts. They also have higher labor costs because they need to pay a lot more to acquire players.

[Slava]

Soccer wages reported are usually post tax.

[Bolivar]

The top "soccer" players make more money than the highest paid basketball players.

Yes, but that's only the top6 or so in the world. If you take rank10 or rank20 or rank 30, the NBA players make more. Guys like DeRozan or Conley or whoever gets thrown a max contract these days.