By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Speaking in Russian newspaper “Sport-Express” Vatutin was quite clear for what the future of European basketball should be.
He repeated that the new EuroLeague format is a success by any measure and also presented the general structure of the a EuroLeague club’s revenues: “The clubs began to make money. The numbers do not lie. There’s an initial bonus of 200.ooo euros. Approximately 37.000 are paid for each win; if we assume that you need 16 wins to get to the playoffs, a team has already received at least 600.000 euros before the start of the post season. A win in the playoffs gives a bonus of 70.000 euros, so that means 210.000 euros if you get to the Final Four. The winner of the trophy gets one million euros as a bonus, the finalist gets 500.000 euros, third place means 300.000 euros and the fourth 150.000 euros. Thus, the champion will receive almost 2 million euros. From this amount 150.000 euros will be deducted for officiating costs. And also you get money from the television rights. For CSKA this amount is 178.000 euros and it’s determined by the value of Russia’s television contract with the Euroleague, but in comparison with clubs from other countries, it is extremely small. For example Maccabi Tel Aviv gets from the Israeli television deal 3,5 million euros”.
With this kind of money on the table, it’s obvious that the top European teams are still light years away from the NBA, but they see the EuroLeague as the vehicle for more revenues: “We have to increase the salaries of our star players in order to remain in Europe instead of moving overseas. I am sure that the expension will come as the League is financially attractive but on the other hand there are few teams who can afford expenses like charter flights in this kind of schedule. In my estimations and in terms of financial viability two Russian teams, one Spanish and Bayern Munich can be added. We have to pay attention to many things and specially on the recovery of the players. We have more games and less practices. We plan this summer to send out doctors for training in San Antonio. We have already talked about it with Ettore Messina (ed.note: Former CSKA coach)”.
And with this kind of schedule and money involved, Vatutin believes that even a closed league will be the ideal model and that means adjustements in the national leagues: “Experience and figures show that a professional league should be independent and closed. Only this model brings real profits. At the same time I understand that the interests of the big clubs and a commercial league may not be a priority for everyone. Such decisions are not made on club level and should not take into account only the economic interests of the team, but also many other factors. In this regard, I argue as club president, who wants to give the fans a better product and to increase revenues. Today it’s unlikely in European basketball to dare and completely withdraw the best clubs from the national championships. Probably, it is not necessary. However it is important to quickly and more accurately respond to, adjust to the current realities”.
Vatutin also repeated that CSKA Moscow is in favor of changing the EuroLeague format from the Final Four to full playoffs semifinals and finals series.