£300k a week...

[crowie]

Ballacks reputed Chelsea salaray (£120k p/w??) pales into insignifigance with NYY top earners.

Liked the idea of the bloke on the "sick" who could be putting away £200k a week as well

NEW YORK -- The average major league salary jumped nearly 9 percent to $2.87 million on Opening Day, and the three highest-paid players were -- you guessed it -- all on the New York Yankees.

Opening Day Average Salary
Year Average Pct. Change
2006 $2,866,544 8.9
2005 $2,632,655 5.9
2004 $2,486,609 -2.7
2003 $2,555,476 7.2
2002 $2,383,235 5.2
2001 $2,264,403 13.9
2000 $1,988,034 15.6
1999 $1,720,050 19.3
1998 $1,441,406 4.2
1997 $1,383,578 17.6

Alex Rodriguez topped the list at $25.7 million and was No. 1 for the sixth straight year, according to a study of major league contracts by The Associated Press. Derek Jeter was next at $20.6 million, followed by Jason Giambi at $20.4 million.

San Francisco's Barry Bonds was fourth at $20 million, and Houston's Jeff Bagwell -- who might not play because of a shoulder injury -- was next at $19.3 million.

"Baseball had record crowds last year," Giambi said. "Probably with Barry going to break the [home run] record, it will bump it up and more people will come out and watch it. That makes players more popular, and in turn guys make more money."

This year's $2,866,544 average was up 8.9 percent from last year's figure of $2,632,655.

The Yankees' payroll dropped a bit to $198.7 million from $205.9 million on Opening Day last year. Boston was second again at $120.1 million, followed by the Los Angeles Angels ($103.6 million), the World Series champion Chicago White Sox ($102.9 million) and the New York Mets ($100.9 million).

Payroll figures don't include cash transactions, such as money the Yankees are receiving from Texas for Rodriguez and the White Sox are getting from Philadelphia for Jim Thome.

At the other end were the Florida Marlins at just under $15 million, including 17 players making the $327,000 minimum. It's the lowest figure for any team at the start of a season since Pittsburgh and Montreal in 1998. It's also less than the top 12 players make and 1/13th of what the Yankees pay their roster.

While the biggest spenders kept their payrolls pretty much at the same levels as last year, many teams at the bottom made boosts. Toronto added free-agent pitchers A.J. Burnett and B.J. Ryan, and catcher Bengie Molina, among others, hiking its payroll to $71.9 million from $45.4 million.

Eleven of the bottom 15 teams increased spending. Baseball's labor contract expires Dec. 19, and the sport's economic system will be negotiated again by players and owners.

"There are still concerns at both the top and the bottom," said Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer. "The goal would be to get a tighter range that would ensure that even more than 20 clubs at Labor Day still have a chance to compete for playoff spots, that playoff spots are based on skill and talent and blossoming stars and not just on plugging holes with economics."

Oakland, 21st at $62.3 million, still has little margin for error. Some of the high-spending clubs, such as the Yankees, complain that the smaller-market franchises haven't spent their revenue-sharing money on major league payrolls.

"Certain teams are funneling it back in the right ways and there are some teams that aren't," Athletics outfielder Mark Kotsay said. "I think this club in the last couple of years has definitely shed that. They've used the money in revenue sharing and put it back into players' salaries."

In a sign that the money is being spread out, the number of players making $1 million or more rose from 390 to 409 -- still shy of the record 425 in 2001. The median salary -- the point at which an equal amount of players fall above and below -- rose to $1 million from $850,000, breaking the previous high of $975,000 set in 2001.

Figures for the study included salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses and other guaranteed income for the 813 players on Opening-Day rosters and disabled lists. For some players, parts of salaries deferred without interest or with minimal interest were discounted to present-day value.

[keemanan]

At the other end were the Florida Marlins at just under $15 million, including 17 players making the $327,000 minimum.

That's some minimum wage that is!

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Aye the Americans pay out ridiculous sums of money in wages to their stars don't they. The footballers must feel hard done by when seeing something like this.

Anyone know who is on the biggest weekly wage in the world in any sport?

[aliensyndm]

Think it depends if you are counting sponors as well or not. I think Michael Jordan was the highest paid sportsmen for a while but this was counting all the sponsor deals from Nike etc as well. If it's just straight wages from the club it's probably the top earners in the yankees I would imagine. They are the biggest sporting "brand" in the world so to say.
Thing I quite like about the american sports is you can get tickets for games at very reasonable prices compared to some of the rip off footy prices.

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Originally Posted by aliensyndm

Think it depends if you are counting sponors as well or not. I think Michael Jordan was the highest paid sportsmen for a while but this was counting all the sponsor deals from Nike etc as well. If it's just straight wages from the club it's probably the top earners in the yankees I would imagine. They are the biggest sporting "brand" in the world so to say.
Thing I quite like about the american sports is you can get tickets for games at very reasonable prices compared to some of the rip off footy prices.

Aye i was meaning straight wages without the sponsorship deals they have going.

I agree about American sports prices. Many people i have known that have gone to some couldn't believe how cheap tickets were to games.

Puts shame to the ridiculous prices for football games over here doesn't it

[crowie]

When we were in San Francisco a few years ago I just missed going to the baseball. I basically fcked up my dates and thought the Oakland A's were on a 3 game home run Tues - Thurs, we were going to go Thurs but it turned out it was Mon - Wed. I had looked at ticket prices and fair enough it was a midweek afternoon game but they were something like $6-8 for a normal seat.

[aliensyndm]

Aye £3. What footy ground could you get into for £3 ? What does it cost for to go watch a non-league or conference game ? More than £3 I bet.

[GaNgStA kEeKs]

Originally Posted by aliensyndm

Aye £3. What footy ground could you get into for £3 ? What does it cost for to go watch a non-league or conference game ? More than £3 I bet.

Some local junior games are £4 to get into for the "big games"

[Burt Saddo]

Conference matches are about £12 on average or £14 to sit. I read somewhere that Tiger Woods was going to become the worlds first billionaire sportsman but obviously that would include endorsements. I also read that Schumacher gets something like £2 million for every race, so with his deals he must be worth some serious money.

[stereoman]

Courtside seats at the Staples Center to watch the LA Lakers is $2,000 a pop. I don't think MLB or NHL has anything that comparable with the NBA (executive boxes?),

Thinking about the number of games they play plus the huge insular market that the US is, it's pretty good to be a high-profile athlete over there.