Planet Swans ArchivesOne thing that has changed for us as a club since we came into the Premier League is the wages that we pay players. As we become more competitive and stay longer in the division then the wage demands go up and now contracts in excess of £2.5m per year will be commonplace.
And, of course, we know that we will not be the highest paying employers in the division with the cash rich clubs paying potentially four times that to their real stars as well as not really blinking at paying over £20m for one player.
But a look at the NBA in America almost seems to put that in the shade. When we were looking at the figures yesterday for the most watched teams in the States we came across this Tweet which I think sums it all up in less than 140 characters
Think there's a lot of money flying around in transfer window? Yesterday (first day of free agency), NBA players signed £900m worth of deals
— Jake Cohen (@JakeFCohen) July 2, 2015
£900m worth of deals is a huge amount of money so we went searching to see what kind of deals were being struck on the first day and came across this
1. Power forward Anthony Davis accepted a five-year, $145 million extension to stay with the Pelicans.
2. Power forward Kevin Love accepted a five-year deal, $110 million deal to stay with the Cavaliers.
3. Small forward Jimmy Butler accepted a five-year, $90 million deal to stay with the Bulls.
4. Point guard Goran Dragic accepted a five-year, $90 million deal to stay with the Heat.
5. Power forward Draymond Green accepted a five-year, $85 million deal to stay with the Warriors.
Those 5 deals alone are worth over $500 million over varying periods but the top one at $29 million per year will earn Mr Davis a cool £350k per week over the term of the deal. Not bad work if you can get it.
And it certainly puts some of the deals done in the Premier League into perspective – not to say that they couldn’t come down a bit but proof that the money these days is in professional sport.
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