By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Money makes the world go round and this is true also in basketball. As the four contenders are heading to Berlin for the Final Four, Eurohoops found their budgets – which are officially announced in two cases – and presents you the details.
What’s obvious in all four cases is that the budgets are pretty much the same with last season, or they have been reduced a little. Still the money spend on European basketball compared to the revenues of the clubs is much more than expected and the best case scenario for every club at this point is to break even.
CSKA Moscow €37.08M
There’s no club spending more in Europe than CSKA Moscow and this is confirmed the last two years by the official announcement of the VTB league. The money spend this season is almost one milllion less than last year but you have to take into account that those are the total expenses of the team. The money spend for salaries without including taxes, in most cases, is approximetaly half of the bugdet. In CSKA the percentage of money spend for salaries is even smaller because the total expenses are more compared to the average European club. For example, CSKA is the only team in Euroleague which has its own custom made Boeing 737 since 2012…
Fenerbahce €25M
After the end of the collaboration with Ulker, many believed that Fenerbahce will be in trouble. When the dust settled, the difference in the bugdet compared with last season is four millions. The president of the club, Aziz Yıldırım said last summer:”This season (ed. note 2014-15) our budget was €29m and we need to have at least €25m (all included) for the next season”. Fenerbahce found enough revenues to hit the target as team manager Omer Onan said with half of the money going to net salaries. This number makes Fenerbahce the second “richest” team of the Final Four and probably keeps them at least in the Top5 of this season’s Euroleague budgets.
Lokomotiv Kuban €14.81M
Lokomotiv Kuban gets third place in monetary issues from the Berlin quartet. Like in CSKA’s case, due to the VTB League policy, this number is official and it’s 2,4 millions less than last year. Still, traveling from Krasnodar all over Europe – and all over Russia – takes its toll on the bugdet, even if you don’t have your own private plane. According to coach Bartzokas who spoke on the matter after the road game against Panathinaikos in Top16, the money spend on salaries – probably without including taxes – in Lokomotiv is just 5,5 millions, approximately a third of the total budget.
Laboral Kutxa €8.5 M
The number is not official, but it’s accurate. It’s a well known fact that the club of Vitoria is affected by the economic crisis in Spain and was forced to lose during last summer its longtime captain Fernando San Emeterio who got a bigger contract in Valencia. What’s really surprising is the net amount of salaries in the team which is less than 4 million euros! After all Laboral has to include in its bugdet payments for past debts and that’s an extra burden for the club, which makes its season even more admirable.