They'd face disastrous consequences if they did abandon the CBA. NBA teams cannot afford to pay anyone $50 million for one season. If that's what they'd have to compete against (which they don't), they absolutely couldn't win.
Just on financing such a move..... A rugby union team in France gets crowds of 3,000 a game. They just signed a Rugby League player from New Zealand for $1.5 million a season. Thats just one of the players in their squad. Finances mean nothing to these European team owners. I don't know how they can happily lose so much money to run these clubs, but they do it!
Rugby is actually a major sport in France. They have 80K-75K record crowd figures for club games. It's not like a bush league. These videos feat. Toulon who signed that player: <object width="380" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ka-7K0yZ-A&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3ka-7K0yZ-A&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="380" height="300"></embed></object> <object width="380" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mN3WWbojfhc&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mN3WWbojfhc&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="380" height="300"></embed></object>
Rugby is not even close to soccer or many other sports in France. My point is that these European teams dont care about balancing the books. The Australian League and club this player left do, they get MUCH bigger crowds, sponsorships, tv deal, tv coverage, they are a top sport in Australia, they make far more money. But they have to balance the books....and they don't care about that in Europe and thats how they spend so much money on players that cant really afford.
http://www.rugby365.com/tournaments/top14/news/984568.htm That's why Toulon can afford a $1.5M player.
LOL, take a good look at the crowd averages! They doesn't cover player payments, and once again, thats my point. If it did the Brisbane Broncos, who average 30,000+ per game would be paying players tens of millions of dollars. European owners done care about sustainability. They will spend over the top amounts of money just to sooth their egos. They will buy a club, pour money into it, and cast it aside when they become bored with it. One thing any NBA player that takes big money in Europe will have to deal with is the fact European owners will tear up a contract on very short notice. Say Lebron signs for that much money, if he gets injured a couple of games into the season, he shouldnt expect to get the rest of the money for the contract as he would with an NBA team. Its a very different way things are run over there.
i think he will have to if they are going to throw 50 mils at kobe because not many owners can afford to lose that much money every year.
Thats true, but when you look at what some soccer clubs lose season to season....its not too far off. I think what you'd find is that a team owner would pony up a large chunk of the money, and then get other investors to top up the rest of the salary. As I said before, the money is there, buts is VERY risky. Players would not have the protections they do in the NBA. 50 million I don't think will happen. But I do think they will at least look to offer what the NBA can, even if they cant sustain it.
No basketball team here in Italy can pay a player 50M $ / 33M €. The biggest soccer team pays his best players max 10M $ / 7M €, so even if Kobe change his sport he can't play here in Italy!
this amazes me. there is no 50 million dollar offer, and neither are going to europe. i ask anybody here, i defy you to answer, WHO specifically is going to pay this? it is not happening. and christopher, you have reiterated like 40 times your point that 'european teams don't care about finances.' you are both wrong and right. true, they may not care about turning a profit as a top priority like american franchises almost invariably do, but the money has to come from somewhere. you are implying that they will pay kobe what they can afford and then some magical investors will just pick up the tab. it doesn't work like that on the 50 million dollar scale. they may not care about PROFIT like some organizations, but they have to make ends meet. period. and let's assume that some european mark cuban exists and has the 50 mil ready to throw at LBJ or Kobe. why would you spend 10x what the average 'star' makes on ONE player, not matter how good, when you could spend the 50 mil more 'wisely' among multiple players? spending say 25 mil on two superstars would not only dramatically increase the odds of guaranteeing a successful, titanic squad but could increase the marketability of that team (as compared to a LBJ only team). it doesn't make business sense, there are better ways to spend 50 mil. there is not enough substance for this to see itself to fruition. i am baffled at how many people can't recognize this.
$50 million a year?!? Thats not even realistic... Laughable is more like it. No one with the money to pay that type of salary would do that. Because if they made those type of decisions, then they wouldn't have that much money in the first place. Not even realistic. In my own opinion of course...
why is that not realistic? beckham makes that much + incentives and MLS is a much much weaker league than the Euroleagues, with smaller revenue and much smaller potential market/ financially there are billionaire owners who could foot the bill without difficultly, the question is who wants to win badly enough to do that even if they paid Lebron or Kobe 50 million they'd get large chunks of that back in new TV deals and jersey, merchandising revenue from the US and Asia where Euroleague has a very small footprint, not to mention increased attendance, TV and merchandise from their existing European markets. esp a guy like kobe, if he becomes aware that winning a title isn't likely, he'd set himself apart by going to europe (early mover advantage as the guy above said). he already has rings and an MVP, he wont be GOAT in america even if he wins another ring... he's gonna need like 2-3 more. going to europe he could very well become the guy who "built" an entirely new league. even jordan didn't do that... only magic and bird can claim that title. there's a lot of potential for personal glory if kobe in particular goes to europe. kobe's a bum but I'd respect kobe a lot more if he was able to go over there and deliver a bunch of rings w/o the corrupt NBA officiating. it would be like yao ming in reverse
Beckham's salary is not even close to that much, the Galaxy pays him about $5 to 7 million. The $250 million contract is a fraud cooked up by his agent based on shadowy numbers and including endorsements: http://blogs.payscale.com/ask_dr_salary/2007/10/salaries-of-pro.htm Increased attendance in stadiums that seat less than 5000 is not going to pay a lot of bills. Nor would the negligible additional TV money - and the promise of additional TV money from abroad is laughable. Kobe bryant might be a big star - but when he's playing for Bologna against a bunch of nobodies at 2 PM on a Thursday afternoon, that is worth about as many TV dollars as World Series of Poker reruns on ESPN. As far as Asia - dude I just got back from Asia - there would be approximately the zero interest in that content. NBA is already a backseat to EPL. Italian Serie A basketball ranks somewhere below the X games (which are actually shown in Asia) in terms of interest. You would have to find somebody willing to lose $50 million on the encounter. (actuallly more since they'd have to pay the taxes too, so lose $70-80 million on the deal)
I wonder if China would become a possibility. They would obviously have the TV audience, sponsors would love to have that outlet in China....and I'm sure if an NBA player said they were open to the highest offer they could, China would find a way to cover the rest of the money a player would need.
Nope. I mean look, at the end of the day the country of Bangladesh could cough up $100 million, but just because they have it doesn't mean it's going to be forthcoming.
I just don't understand why an NBA superstar would go over to Europe. They already have more money than they can spend with salary and endorsements. Why would they not want to play against the best?
How many rich people stop making money because they have enough already? If players cared about being the best, beating the best and being winners teams like the Clippers and Jazz wouldn't be able to attract any talent!
I highly doubt a team would offer $50mil a year for any of these guys. Remember, LeBron is the one up brought up the 50mil so its not like this is a rumored price that those teams are willing to put up. I could see Kobe going to Italy after he retires but not now. His ego is way too big to leave the NBA at this stage of his career.
