By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Money is not playing basketball, but in any case, it helps. Three out of the four most expensive teams in Euroleague ended up in Madrid and only Olympiacos can be considered relatively “cheap”.
Eurohoops tried to find out exactly how much each of the four contenders cost and that proved to be not easy at all. Only CSKA announced according to VTB rules the money which was spend this year and it’s the incredible number of 42 millions euros. This number includes also operating costs and taxes, so we tried to find out what was spend from the other three contenders.
Official numbers are not announced, but according to Eurohoops sources, Fenerbahce/ Ulker spend around – to be exact probably a little above – 30 millions euros, Real Madrid is around the 25 millions mark and Olympiacos something less than 15 millions euros. The exact number for Olympiacos will be released in public next year, according to Greek company tax laws, however it’s a well known fact that Olympiacos after 2010 is trying to keep under control its budget.
Real Madrid is quite a strange animal, since the money spend for the basketball section are a part of the total multimillion club bugdet. So, it’s very hard, unless you get the full club bugdet, to get the exact numbers. However Real and Barcelona are well under the 30 millions mark. Fenerbahce/ Ulker on the other hand, has really money to spend and that’s evident in every aspect. The Turks, together with the two Spanish clubs and CSKA have the bigger bugdets for this season. The money spend by Olympiacos are around the mark that most playoffs contenders spend. It will be interesting to see if this summer with the new Financial Fairplay rule in action, Euroleague will be announcing in the future the team bugdets, like it happens in VTB.