Archive for the ‘Basketball’ Category

NFL remains by far the best attended domestic sports league in the world

Friday, January 4th, 2013

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By Sportingintelligence

4 January 2013

The NFL has increased its attendance levels from an average of 67,394 fans per regular season game in 2011 to 67,591 in 2012, Sportingintelligence can reveal on the eve of the 2012-13 season NFL play-offs.

As our updated global attendances league table shows (also below), the new figure keeps the NFL comfortably in the No1 place as the best attended professional domestic sports league in the world, by average attendance per game.

There are better attended sports leagues in US College football, as a previous feature on this site explored.

But the NFL holds sway in the world of professional sports.

The German Bundesliga’s top division keeps the No2 spot thanks to a new seasonal record of 45,116 fans per game in 2011-12, up from 42,673 the season before.

The English Premier League has leapfrogged Australian’s Aussie Rules AFL league into third place. Both those leagues saw season-on-season declines but the decline was sharper in the AFL.

The top 10 leagues are shown below, as are the two biggest indoor leagues, the NBA and NHL, with the NHL overtaking the NBA in 2011-12.

Big crowds don’t always mean big paydays for the stars involved. The NBA is the best-paid league in the world by average earnings per player.

Sportingintelligence’s Global Sports Salary Survey in 2012 showed that MLB baseball players, Premier League football players, Bundesliga footballers and NHL ice hockey stars all had average annual salaries higher than NFL players.

MLB baseball attracts more fans in total per season than any pro league in the world (almost 75 million in 2012), but fewer on average per game than the NFL.

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Tags: AFL, baseball, basketball, Bundesliga, CFL, cricket, football, IPL, La Liga, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NPB, Premier League, Serie A, soccer
Posted in Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Football, News, NFL | No Comments »

Openly gay Olympians won six times as many golds as their peers. Why?

Thursday, August 23rd, 2012

By Nick Harris

SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year

22 August 2012

There were 23 openly gay athletes across all sports at the London 2012 Olympic Games according to observers who monitor such trends closely, notably Outsports.com.

Ten of them won medals (43 per cent) and seven of them won gold medals (30.4 per cent), including the British equestrian rider Carl Hester, in the team dressage. Hester was the only openly gay athlete among the 451 men and women in Team GB.

By definition, 23 people is a small sample size, but the fact that it’s so small is part of the story. The success rates of those athletes puts the success rates of London Olympians overall in the shade.

Of the 10,820 athletes across all sports, Sportingintelligence has calculated that 595 separate individuals won a gold medal.

There were 302 gold medal events but in many of those events multiple people helped to win the gold, for example in all the team sports, in the non-solo rowing crews and in all the relay squads in athletics and swimming.

With 595 people going home with gold, that means one in 18 of London’s Olympians went home with gold (or 5.5 per cent).

Among the openly gay athletes – 20 of who were women and three were men – one in three went home with gold (or 30.43 per cent).

Openly gay Olympians in London therefore won six times as many gold medals per head as the total athletic population at the Games.

They also won more than twice as many medals per head of all colours than average. Around 1,800 individuals won medals of one colour or another (or 16.6 per cent of all athletes), whereas 43.4 per cent of the openly gay athletes won medals.

Are gay athletes better at sport? Almost certainly not, but we’ll come back to that shortly.

“It’s an absurdly low number,” said Jim Buzinski, the co-founder of Outsports, of the 23 openly gay Olympians. He was quoted in an Associated Press report carried by ESPN and the Huffington Post among others.

Estimates of the percentage of gay people vary widely but even at the low end of those estimates (1.5 per cent of people), one might expect around 160 gay athletes among the 10,820 participating at London 2012, or seven times as many as the 23 known to be gay.

Buzinski points out that considering the small ratio of openly gay sports people when set against, say, the ratio of openly gay people in the arts, politics or business, then “sports is still the final closet in society.”

What is staggering, statistically speaking, is the success of those 23 openly gay Olympians in London.

It is notable that the three men appeared in two sports – dressage and diving – that are anecdotally “gay friendly”. A spokeswoman for British Dressage, for example, said having gay riders “is the norm. Don’t get me wrong, there are straight riders too, but whether someone is gay or not in our sport is simply not an issue.”

In alphabetical order, the 23 openly gay London 2012 Olympians:

Marilyn Agliotti, Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel, Kim Lammers and Maartje Paumen, all members of the Dutch women’s hockey team who won gold.
Judith Arndt, a German cyclist who won silver in London in the time trial.
Seimone Augustus, an American who won basketball gold.
Natalie Cook, an Australian beach volleyball player.
Lisa Dahlkvist, Jessica Landström and Hedvig Lindahl, all Swedish football players who reached the quarter-finals.
Imke Duplitzer, a German fencer who was part of a team coming fifth in the women’s team epee.
Edward Gal, a Dutchman who won bronze in the team dressage.
Jessica Harrison and Carole Péon, French triathletes who finished ninth and 29th respectively in London.
Carl Hester, a Briton who won dressage team gold.
Karen Hultzer, a South African archer.
Alexandra Lacrabére, a French handball player who reached the quarter-finals.
Matthew Mitcham, an Australian 10m platform diver who was the only openly gay male Olympian in Beijing, where he won gold. In London he reached the semi-final.
Mayssa Pessoa, a Brazilian handball player.
Megan Rapinoe, an American who won football gold.
Lisa Raymond, American tennis player who won bronze in the mixed doubles.
Rikke Skov, a Danish handball player.
Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, a German cyclist who missed bronze in the road race by 0.25seconds.

A person’s sexuality is, of course, of no relevance in terms of how they do their job, or live their life. Or rather it shouldn’t be.

Yet while being openly gay in many areas of public life (be it politics, the police, the arts, the clergy, banking, whatever) in many countries is no issue, gay people – at least openly gay – remain hugely under-represented in many professional sports, and that’s even in ‘liberal’ countries across Europe and North America.

Whether you think this matters or not possibly depends on whether you think there is a wider social significance of societies being open and free. In large parts of the world, same-sex sexual activity is an offence punishable by years in prison, and in seven countries the death penalty remains in force for active homosexuality. See country by country laws for details.

In sport, particularly in football, openly gay professional players are rare. In British football they are non-existent in the men’s game since Justin Fashanu.

The Football Association’s only openly gay councillor, Peter Clayton, has said gay players have been told to stay in the closet or risk damaging their clubs’ commercial interests. Publicist Max Clifford has admitted that he has advised gay Premier League clients to keep their sexuality secret.

Evidently this is one area where sport, particularly football, needs to evolve.

One of a very small number of experts who have studied and researched sexuality in sport in any detail is Professor Eric Anderson, an American who is a professor of sports studies at the University of Winchester in England. In his work as a sociologist he has studied why gay men and women pursue professional sport (or not) and cites a large-scale study of tens of thousands of college students in the USA that found “gay men are more likely [than straight men] to drop out of competitive sport, and follow other pursuits instead.”

Those that don’t drop out, Anderson says, often find themselves in an environment that does not encourage them to come out. “Cultural homophobia is dropping at a rapid rate, so this isn’t an issue with the fans,” he says, citing a study of British football supporters where 93 per cent (of 3,500 surveyed) said they would have no problem with a player coming out.

Neither, he says, is a player being gay an issue with team-mates, although gay players might fear coming out because a coach or manager, who will often holds a player’s career in their hands, may react adversely.

Rather, Anderson contests, it is the “gate keepers” of sport, or “alpha males” who hold key roles in governing bodies and commercial entities around sport, that create an atmosphere not conducive to coming out. “Homophobic men like Sepp Blatter,” he says, a reference to Blatter’s infamous statement that gay fans daunted at going to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (where homosexuality is illegal) might refrain from sex while there.

As to why the openly gay Olympians won proportionately so many medals, Anderson is in no doubt that “openly” is the operative word, and that many times as many gay athletes took part, quite possibly winning no more or less than the overall London 2012 population.

His reseach has also shown, he says, that “gay male athletes are more likely to come out of the closet when they are good” and that “they have the sporting capital to negate the problems they encounter.”

Or in other words, a gay sportsman is much more likely be open about it when they know they’re got a great chance of winning – leaving little room for questions – from homophobes - over whether they should be involved in the first place.

So 10 medals, seven of them gold, among 23 gay Olympians in 2012 isn’t so anomalous – or rather it wouldn’t seem so if only one could see the whole picture.

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Posted in Basketball, Football, News, Olympics, Tennis, The Editor | No Comments »

London 2012: Better for Great Britain than 1908 despite fewer gold medals

Monday, August 13th, 2012

By Nick Harris

SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year

13 August 2012

The past few days we’ve heard that Great Britain has enjoyed its best Olympic medal haul since 1908 but in relative terms London 2012 was much better for the hosts.

In 1908, there were only 2,008 competitors from 22 nations competing, and Britain provided a third of those by herself.

So one might reasonably have expected Britain to win a lot of the 110 gold medals on offer, on home turf and in home water, in events as varied as tug of war and motorboat racing.

Britain did indeed win lots of golds, 56 of them, or just more than half on offer. So that’s 51 per cent of golds with 34 per cent of the athletes, so Britain did 151 per cent as well as she should have done.

Here’s another way of thinking about it. If the 110 medals had been split fairly between all the 2,008 competitors, then each nation should have won 5.48 golds for each 100 athletes. Which means Britain, with 676 athletes, should have won 37 gold medals. Instead GB won 51 medals – again, that’s 151 per cent of what would be expected.

At London 2012, when the size of the competition is factored in, Great Britain thrashed that performance by doing 192 per cent as well as should be expected.

Sportingintelligence has analysed the host nations’ performances at all 27 Summer Games to date.

We consider:

1: the number of golds on offer.

2: the amount of athletes at the Games from all nations.

3: how many golds each nation should have won per 100 athletes if divided equally. Golds available per athlete have got harder and harder to win. There were 18 golds per 100 people in Athens in 1896 and now that figure is fewer than three golds per 100 competitiors.

4: how many competitors the host nation had, and how many golds they won.

5: the percentage performance rating.

The graphic below – click to enlarge – includes every host at every Games since the first modern Olympic in Greece in 1896 and allows us to see at a glance how times have changed.

The key columns are the amount of golds the host should expect (given the size of their teams) against the amount they got, and the ratio.

(Article continues below)

Great Britain’s performance at London 2012 rates as the sixth best host nation performance at any Summer Games by these measures (see blue column on the right-hand side above for rankings 1-27 of the 27 Games).

The five better performers were the USA (1984), Soviet Union (1980), Germany (1936), China (2008) and the USA (1996) and the first four of those can arguably be seen as political and / or propaganda Games, where huge tallies for the host were influenced by one or more of boycotts, state backing for political reasons or other interference.

At the other end of the scale, Canada in 1976 remain the only hosts never to win a gold medal at their own Games, while London in 1948 saw Britain perform 23 per cent as well as she should have done if the medals had been dished out fairly.

There is a twist in this tale of Britain at the Games, however.

London 2012 was much better than the first-glance glory of 1908 but has not been Britain’s most successful Games to date, relatively. That was in 2008, when GB performed 221 per cent as well as expected.

This was because Team GB had ‘only’ 311 competitors in Beijing, against the army of 541 in London, an increase of 230 in four years.

The graphic below shows how Britain has performed in the 27 Games to date, ranking those performances.

Only eight times has Britain done as well as should be expected, and 19 times has failed to hit 100 per cent of a ‘fair share’ gold.

It is no accident that the last four Games, since Sydney in 2000, all fall within Britain’s six best Games by relative performance.

Money talks, and Lottery cash investment in British sport came on line ahead of Sydney 2000.

Home advantage – a well documented effect of hosting a Games – also helped to boost Britain this past fortnight.

. .

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Posted in Basketball, Major events, News, Olympics, Sailing, Swimming, Tennis | No Comments »

Graphically speaking: the world’s best paid sports teams from Barca to the Crew

Friday, May 4th, 2012

By Nick Harris

SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year

4 May 2012

As revealed earlier this week, Sportingintelligence’s Global Sports Salaries Survey 2012 has again found Barcelona to be the world’s best paid sports team.

CLICK HERE to read more detail about the 278 featured teams from 14 leagues in 10 countries from seven sports, employing 7,925 first-team sportsmen earning £10bn a year between them.

This project, in association with ESPN The Magazine in America, has natural ‘accounting lag’ in some sports: seasons finish at different times in the calendar year. The wages we’ve considered include the current ongoing seasons in the NBA, NHL, MLS and MLB and the 2011-12 NFL, as well the most recently completed seasons in all the other leagues, no further back than seasons ending in summer or autumn 2011.

One significant reason for compiling our annual report is to explore the relationship between money and success in different sports.

Regular readers will know this is a recurring theme, and we will publish more in-depth league-by-league analysis in the coming weeks and months, as well as a 10-year breakdown of precisely how money has fueled on-pitch success (or not) in the English Premier League, and a special feature on the global sports tycoons who are increasingly becoming multi-sport owners of major clubs.

To illustrate how different leagues are polarised by money, or not, below are the wage distribution graphs of the 14 featured leagues.

In crude, general terms, where the distribution is flat, the league should tend towards ‘fairness’, because most teams get similar sorts of money.

So the flatter the line between the best paid and worst, the fairer. And the sharper the descent from left to right, the more dominant the best-paid teams are likely to be.

And on that theme, this is …

… Spanish La Liga football

The SPL in Scotland.

Serie A in Italy

The Premier League in England

The MLS in North America

The Bundesliga in Germany

The MLB in North America

The NPB (baseball) in Japan

The NHL in North America

The NFL in America

The NBA in North America

The IPL (cricket) in India

The CFL (gridiron) in Canada

The AFL (Aussie Rules) in Australia

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Posted in Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Football, News, NFL | No Comments »

REVEALED: The world’s best paid teams, Man City close in on Barca and Real Madrid

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

By Nick Harris

SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year

1 May 2012

Barcelona remain the best paid team in global sport measured by average first-team wages, with Real Madrid in second place but Manchester City of the Premier League have stormed into the top three and continue to close the gap on the Spanish giants according to the Sportingintelligence Global Sports Salaries Survey 2012, published this week.

The average first team pay at Barcelona – employees of the world’s best player, Lionel Messi – has been calculated at £101,160 per player per week, or £5,260,313 per year in the period under review. That represents a year-on-year increase of 10 per cent at the Nou Camp as Barca hold their No1 spot.

Real Madrid’s players in No2 place earned £90,859 per week (£4.7m per year, a rise of six per cent).

First-team stars at City, at No3, earned an average of £86,280 per man per week, or £4.5m per year, the highest salaries ever paid in the English Premier League, the world’s richest football league. City’s numbers represent a 26 per cent year-on-year increase in average first-team pay and demonstrate the depth of the pockets of oil-rich owner Sheikh Mansour.

Another Premier League team, Chelsea, climb from No6 to No4 this year, with average first-team pay of £4.1m per player, a reminder they are hardly paupers, despite a perception in some quarters that their Russian petrodollar billionaire owner Roman Abramovich has eased off his spending recently.

Chelsea’s progress to the 2012 Champions League final at the expense of Barcelona was a shock in footballing terms but not unsurprising set against the reservoirs of cash Abramovich has spent on players, managers and salaries since 2003.

Click on graphic (above) to enlarge to see the top 12 in detail. The full list is below. AND IN GRAPHICS BY LEAGUE HERE

This year’s report has been again been compiled in association with ESPN The Magazine in America, for a special ‘All About the Money’ issue, on sale this week.

The salaries report (available as a PDF here) features average salary information from 278 teams in 14 leagues in seven sports across 10 countries. It includes information from the dozen most popular sports leagues in the world (by average attendance per game) plus the MLS and SPL as examples of smaller leagues from the world’s most popular sport, football.

Figures are from the in-progress seasons in NBA basketball, NHL ice hockey, MLB baseball and MLS football, and from the most recently completed seasons for all the other teams, including the major leagues of European football to IPL cricket, AFL Aussie Rules, CFL Canadian football and NPB Japanese baseball.

The full list is below, while ESPN The Magazine also carries details online at this link, where there are more links to other content and details about the special issue of the magazine.

Sportingintelligence’s first global salaries report was published in 2010, to compare average first-team pay on a like-for-like basis for the first time at clubs in the world’s richest and most popular sports leagues. The New York Yankees were No1 that year, and the top 10 included seven American sports teams, six of them from the NBA.

By last year, the Yankees had been knocked off their perch by Barca and Real, and Manchester City had soared from No86 in the 2010 list into the No10 spot in 2011. The top 10 in 2011 had five American teams and five from European football.

This year’s top 10 has three American teams (the Yankees and Phillies from baseball and the LA Lakers from the NBA) and seven European football teams.

As the introduction to the main report notes: “This is a function of the unrelenting growth in football income – and expenditure – among the elite clubs in European football, which is also unhindered by any wage caps, and the relative stability and restraint in America’s major sports leagues.

“It is possible but by no means certain that some wage restraint at some European football clubs is on the horizon as a result of new ‘Financial Fair Play’ rules (FFP) being introduced by Uefa, the governing body of football across Europe … But the effectiveness of Uefa’s policing remains to be seen. And in any case, the biggest, richest clubs will almost certainly continue to generate massive sums, and therefore continue to fund growing salary bills.”

The top 20 in the 2012 review includes six teams from the NBA, five from the Premier League, four from MLB baseball, two each from La Liga and Serie A and one from the Bundesliga.

The full report includes an overview of average salaries across each league, and considers the pay differential between the best-paid team in each league and the lowest-paid team.

The NBA remains the best-paid league overall per man, with average annual salaries of £2.65m a year, or £50,883 per player per week on average. The LA Lakers are the highest paying team in the NBA and the Indian Pacers the lowest, and the difference between the two is a ratio of 1.86 to 1.

This is tiny compared the ratio between the best paid and worst paid in Spain: 22.81 to 1. That is why Barcelona and Real Madrid are way head of everyone else in that league. Even the Scottish SPL is no longer as stretched as that (with a ratio of 19.18 to 1 between top and bottom).

This year’s full 18-page report, available as a PDF, includes introductory analysis on trends, has the full list of average salaries, contains the summary information about leagues as a whole. More in-depth league-by-league analysis will be published over time on this website.

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Global Sports Salaries Survey 2012: the richest teams by average first-team pay

The sports are colour-coded: football, basketball, baseball, cricket, gridiron, ice hockey, Aussie rules football

* Highest paid in that league. NB: IPL annual figures extrapolated, pro rata, from weekly figures.

Rank (last year) – Team – League – Ave player pay, £ per year (week) - Ave player pay $ per year (week)

1 (1) Barcelona * La Liga £5,260,313 (£101,160) $8,680,569 ($166,934)

2 (2) Real Madrid La Liga £4,724,662 (£90,859) $7,796,637 ($149,935)

3 (10) Manchester City * EPL £4,486,580 (£86,280) $7,403,754 ($142,380)

4 (6) Chelsea EPL £4,118,227 (£79,197) $6,795,899 ($130,690)

5 (4) LA Lakers * NBA £3,804,441 (£73,162) $6,278,088 ($120,732)

6 (3) New York Yankees * MLB £3,748,831 (£72,093) $6,186,322 ($118,968)

7 (14) Milan * Serie A £3,699,411 (£71,143) $6,104,769 ($117,399)

8 (12) Bayern Munich * Bundesliga £3,579,961 (£68,845) $5,907,652 ($113,609)

9 (13) Philadelphia Phillies MLB £3,525,612 (£67,800) $5,817,965 ($111,884)

10 (7) Internazionale Serie A £3,454,681 (£66,436) $5,700,915 ($109,633)

11 (16) Manchester United EPL £3,345,911 (£64,344) $5,521,423 ($106,181)

12 (43) San Antonio Spurs NBA £3,302,712 (£63,514) $5,450,135 ($104,810)

13 (28) LA Angels MLB £3,228,139 (£62,080) $5,327,075 ($102,444)

14 (42) Chicago Bulls NBA £3,226,329 (£62,045) $5,324,088 ($102,386)

15 (15) Boston Celtics NBA £3,224,721 (£62,014) $5,321,435 ($102,335)

16 (22) Arsenal EPL £3,199,678 (£61,532) $5,280,108 ($101,541)

17 (58) Miami Heat NBA £3,188,496 (£61,317) $5,261,657 ($101,186)

18 (20) Liverpool EPL £3,169,631 (£60,954) $5,230,525 ($100,587)

19 (8) Boston Red Sox MLB £3,086,731 (£59,360) $5,093,724 ($97,956)

20 (27) Memphis Grizzlies NBA £3,040,693 (£58,475) $5,017,751 ($96,495)

21 (21) Dallas Mavericks NBA £2,989,371 (£57,488) $4,933,060 ($94,867)

22 (24) Atlanta Hawks NBA £2,933,753 (£56,418) $4,841,280 ($93,102)

23 (19) Philadelphia 76ers NBA £2,909,924 (£55,960) $4,801,957 ($92,345)

24 (52) LA Clippers NBA £2,874,816 (£55,285) $4,744,022 ($91,231)

25 (38) Juventus Serie A £2,845,701 (£54,725) $4,695,976 ($90,307)

26 (66) Texas Rangers MLB £2,808,773 (£54,015) $4,635,037 ($89,135)

27 (47) Detroit Tigers MLB £2,764,555 (£53,165) $4,562,069 ($87,732)

28 (5) Orlando Magic NBA £2,757,779 (£53,034) $4,550,887 ($87,517)

29 (123) Miami Marlins MLB £2,650,139 (£50,964) $4,373,259 ($84,101)

30 (£6) Portland Trail Blazers NBA £2,641,418 (£50,797) $4,358,869 ($83,824)

31 (39) Phoenix Suns NBA £2,608,333 (£50,160) $4,304,271 ($82,774)

32 (35) Milwaukee Bucks NBA £2,594,772 (£49,899) $4,281,893 ($82,344)

33 (37) New Orleans Hornets NBA £2,543,396 (£48,911) $4,197,111 ($80,714)

34 (56) Schalke Bundesliga £2,537,706 (£48,802) $4,187,722 ($80,533)

35 (31) Detroit Pistons NBA £2,528,854 (£48,632) $4,173,115 ($80,252)

36 (29) Kolkata Knight Riders * IPL £2,525,129 (£48,560) $4,166,968 ($80,134)

37 (49) NY Knicks NBA £2,524,456 (£48,547) $4,165,858 ($80,113)

38 (11) Utah Jazz NBA £2,517,627 (£48,416) $4,154,588 ($79,896)

39 (44) Mumbai Indians IPL £2,509,657 (£48,263) $4,141,436 ($79,643)

40 (34) Golden State Warriors NBA £2,474,790 (£47,592) $4,083,898 ($78,537)

41 (51) Aston Villa EPL £2,464,831 (£47,401) $4,067,464 ($78,220)

42 (9) Denver Nuggets NBA £2,463,222 (£47,370) $4,064,809 ($78,169)

43 (53) New Jersey Nets NBA £2,417,102 (£46,483) $3,988,701 ($76,706)

44 (48) St Louis Cardinals MLB £2,387,175 (£45,907) $3,939,317 ($75,756)

45 (55) Washington Wizards NBA £2,385,681 (£45,878) $3,936,851 ($75,709)

46 (33) San Francisco Giants MLB £2,375,887 (£45,690) $3,920,689 ($75,398)

47 (62) Roma Serie A £2,361,932 (£45,422) $3,897,660 ($74,955)

48 (23) Chicago White Sox MLB £2,349,279 (£45,178) $3,876,780 ($74,553)

49 (32) Charlotte Bobcats NBA £2,339,193 (£44,984) $3,860,136 ($74,233)

50 (-) Pune Warriors IPL £2,326,765 (£44,745) $3,839,628 ($73,839)

51 (110) Tottenham EPL £2,308,494 (£44,394) $3,809,476 ($73,259)

52 (87) Minnesota Timberwolves NBA £2,296,463 (£44,163) $3,789,623 ($72,877)

53 (18) Houston Rockets NBA £2,292,551 (£44,088) $3,783,167 ($72,753)

54 (73) Milwaukee Brewers MLB £2,276,040 (£43,770) $3,755,921 ($72,229)

55 (26) Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL £2,262,072 (£43,501) $3,732,872 ($71,786)

56 (46) Toronto Raptors NBA £2,222,318 (£42,737) $3,667,270 ($70,524)

57 (50) Oklahoma City Thunder NBA £2,220,345 (£42,699) $3,664,013 ($70,462)

58 (-) Kochi Tuskers Kerala IPL £2,186,099 (£42,040) $3,607,500 ($69,375)

59 (60) Delhi Daredevils IPL £2,184,618 (£42,012) $3,605,056 ($69,328)

60 (54) Chennai Super Kings IPL £2,154,524 (£41,433) $3,555,396 ($68,373)

61 (69) Sacramento Kings NBA £2,118,801 (£40,746) $3,496,445 ($67,239)

62 (25) Minnesota Twins MLB £2,111,641 (£40,608) $3,484,630 ($67,012)

63 (30) New York Mets MLB £2,095,234 (£40,293) $3,457,555 ($66,491)

64 (59) Cleveland Cavaliers NBA £2,056,330 (£39,545) $3,393,356 ($65,257)

65 (17) Chicago Cubs MLB £2,055,626 (£39,531) $3,392,194 ($65,234)

66 (41) Indiana Pacers NBA £2,050,492 (£39,433) $3,383,722 ($65,072) <<<<< NBA lowest paid

67 (45) Deccan Chargers IPL £1,990,571 (£38,280) $3,284,840 ($63,170)

68 (126) Rajasthan Royals IPL £1,968,040 (£37,847) $3,247,660 ($62,455)

69 (57) Los Angeles Dodgers MLB £1,921,859 (£36,959) $3,171,453 ($60,989)

70 (86) Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga £1,892,391 (£36,392) $3,122,824 ($60,054)

71 (68) Valencia La Liga £1,857,660 (£35,724) $3,065,511 ($58,952)

72 (109) Buffalo Sabres * NHL £1,833,553 (£35,261) $3,025,729 ($58,187)

73 (78) Chicago Blackhawks NHL £1,826,261 (£35,120) $3,013,696 ($57,956)

74 (40) Kings XI Punjab IPL £1,785,180 (£34,330) $2,945,904 ($56,652) <<<<< IPL lowest paid

75 (105) Pittsburgh Steelers * NFL £1,779,939 (£34,230) $2,937,255 ($56,486)

76 (92) Cincinnati Reds MLB £1,779,083 (£34,213) $2,935,843 ($56,459)

77 (71) Seattle Mariners MLB £1,774,203 (£34,119) $2,927,789 ($56,304)

78 (65) Baltimore Orioles MLB £1,701,549 (£32,722) $2,807,897 ($53,998)

79 (64) Atlanta Braves MLB £1,682,825 (£32,362) $2,776,998 ($53,404)

80 (85) Oakland Raiders NFL £1,673,000 (£32,173) $2,760,784 ($53,092)

81 (76) Werder Bremen Bundesliga £1,657,329 (£31,872) $2,734,924 ($52,595)

82 (84) Stuttgart Bundesliga £1,648,984 (£31,711) $2,721,154 ($52,330)

83 (158) Cleveland Indians MLB £1,638,888 (£31,517) $2,704,493 ($52,009)

84 (139) Toronto Blue Jays MLB £1,633,767 (£31,419) $2,696,043 ($51,847)

85 (61) Colorado Rockies MLB £1,631,350 (£31,372) $2,692,054 ($51,770)

86 (100) Washington Capitals NHL £1,623,137 (£31,214) $2,678,500 ($51,510)

87 (98) New York Rangers NHL £1,619,638 (£31,147) $2,672,727 ($51,399)

88 (77) Boston Bruins NHL £1,610,158 (£30,965) $2,657,083 ($51,098)

89 (142) Arizona Diamondbacks MLB £1,607,702 (£30,917) $2,653,030 ($51,020)

90 (88) Vancouver Canucks NHL £1,606,647 (£30,897) $2,651,288 ($50,986)

91 (122) Washington Nationals MLB £1,589,957 (£30,576) $2,623,747 ($50,457)

92 (135) LA Kings NHL £1,566,792 (£30,131) $2,585,521 ($49,722)

93 (106) Hamburg Bundesliga £1,563,389 (£30,065) $2,579,904 ($49,614)

94 (91) Atletico Madrid La Liga £1,560,739 (£30,014) $2,575,531 ($49,529)

95 (119) Carolina Panthers NFL £1,543,485 (£29,682) $2,547,059 ($48,982)

96 (104) Sevilla La Liga £1,542,974 (£29,673) $2,546,216 ($48,966)

97 (117) Tampa Bay Lightning NHL £1,538,324 (£29,583) $2,538,542 ($48,818)

98 (82) Dallas Cowboys NFL £1,531,603 (£29,454) $2,527,451 ($48,605)

99 (67) Detroit Red Wings NHL £1,530,481 (£29,432) $2,525,600 ($48,569)

100 (81) Philadelphia Flyers NHL £1,530,009 (£29,423) $2,524,821 ($48,554)

101 (121) New York Jets NFL £1,520,909 (£29,248) $2,509,804 ($48,265)

102 (118) Toronto Maples Leafs NHL £1,501,726 (£28,879) $2,478,148 ($47,657)

103 (124) New York Giants NFL £1,481,698 (£28,494) $2,445,098 ($47,021)

104 (136) Fulham EPL £1,469,616 (£28,262) $2,425,160 ($46,638)

105 (97) Detroit Lions NFL £1,457,934 (£28,037) $2,405,882 ($46,267)

106 (93) Montreal Canadiens NHL £1,454,370 (£27,969) $2,400,001 ($46,154)

107 (101) Pittsburgh Pengiuns NHL £1,451,914 (£27,921) $2,395,948 ($46,076)

108 (120) Everton EPL £1,437,370 (£27,642) $2,371,948 ($45,614)

109 (128) St Louis Rams NFL £1,436,546 (£27,626) $2,370,588 ($45,588)

110 (130) Sunderland EPL £1,434,654 (£27,590) $2,367,467 ($45,528)

111 (83) San Jose Sharks NHL £1,429,269 (£27,486) $2,358,580 ($45,357)

112 (151) Bolton EPL £1,419,805 (£27,304) $2,342,962 ($45,057)

113 (94) West Ham EPL £1,417,310 (£27,256) $2,338,844 ($44,978)

114 (103) Houston Astros MLB £1,413,605 (£27,185) $2,332,731 ($44,860)

115 (96) Calgary Flames NHL £1,410,498 (£27,125) $2,327,604 ($44,762)

116 (148) Arizona Cardinals NFL £1,410,405 (£27,123) $2,327,451 ($44,759)

117 (90) Green Bay Packers NFL £1,402,088 (£26,963) $2,313,725 ($44,495)

118 (125) Columbus Blue Jackets NHL £1,391,807 (£26,766) $2,296,759 ($44,168)

119 (164) Tampa Bay Rays MLB £1,388,868 (£26,709) $2,291,911 ($44,075)

120 (114) Indianapolis Colts NFL £1,386,641 (£26,666) $2,288,235 ($44,005)

121 (113) Miami Dolphins NFL £1,385,453 (£26,643) $2,286,275 ($43,967)

122 (108) Houston Texans NFL £1,381,888 (£26,575) $2,280,392 ($43,854)

123 (165) Bayer Leverkusen Bundesliga £1,380,595 (£26,550) $2,278,258 ($43,813)

124 (75) Minnesota Vikings NFL £1,378,324 (£26,506) $2,274,510 ($43,741)

125 (102) Baltimore Ravens NFL £1,373,571 (£26,415) $2,266,667 ($43,590)

126 (138) Anaheim Ducks NHL £1,364,380 (£26,238) $2,251,500 ($43,298)

127 (63) Newcastle EPL £1,357,295 (£26,102) $2,239,808 ($43,073)

128 (115) Philadelphia Eagles NFL £1,353,371 (£26,026) $2,233,333 ($42,949)

129 (95) New Jersey Devils NHL £1,352,382 (£26,007) $2,231,700 ($42,917)

130 (129) Carolina Hurricanes NHL £1,350,663 (£25,974) $2,228,864 ($42,863)

131 (74) New Orleans Saints NFL £1,346,242 (£25,889) $2,221,569 ($42,722)

132 (127) Dallas Stars NHL £1,336,333 (£25,699) $2,205,217 ($42,408)

133 (133) San Diego Chargers NFL £1,329,607 (£25,569) $2,194,118 ($42,195)

134 (80) Seattle Seahawks NFL £1,327,231 (£25,524) $2,190,196 ($42,119)

135 (168) Pittsburgh Pirates MLB £1,325,482 (£25,490) $2,187,310 ($42,064)

136 (116) Minnesota Wild NHL £1,312,836 (£25,247) $2,166,442 ($41,662)

137 (132) Blackburn EPL £1,311,509 (£25,221) $2,164,252 ($41,620)

138 (146) Florida Panthers NHL £1,295,717 (£24,918) $2,138,192 ($41,119)

139 (-) Nuremberg Bundesliga £1,291,892 (£24,844) $2,131,880 ($40,998)

140 (141) Buffalo Bills NFL £1,288,020 (£24,770) $2,125,490 ($40,875)

141 (155) Jacksonville Jaguars NFL £1,273,761 (£24,495) $2,101,961 ($40,422)

142 (137) Phoenix Coyotes NHL £1,247,955 (£23,999) $2,059,375 ($39,603)

143 (134) Fiorentina Serie A £1,244,543 (£23,934) $2,053,745 ($39,495)

144 (150) Edmonton Oilers NHL £1,233,521 (£23,722) $2,035,556 ($39,145)

145 (111) Cleveland Browns NFL £1,232,174 (£23,696) $2,033,333 ($39,103)

146 (180) Kansas City Royals MLB £1,230,482 (£23,663) $2,030,541 ($39,049)

147 (99) San Francisco 49ers NFL £1,222,668 (£23,513) $2,017,647 ($38,801)

148 (140) New England Patriots NFL £1,210,192 (£23,273) $1,997,059 ($38,405)

149 (79) Chicago Bears NFL £1,209,598 (£23,261) $1,996,078 ($38,386)

150 (157) Denver Broncos NFL £1,203,657 (£23,147) $1,986,275 ($38,198)

151 (145) Wolfsburg Bundesliga £1,198,642 (£23,051) $1,977,999 ($38,038)

152 (172) San Diego Padres MLB £1,195,628 (£22,993) $1,973,025 ($37,943)

153 (112) Atlanta Falcons NFL £1,190,587 (£22,896) $1,964,706 ($37,783)

154 (169) Winnipeg Jets NHL £1,189,916 (£22,883) $1,963,600 ($37,762)

155 (178) Stoke EPL £1,182,425 (£22,739) $1,951,237 ($37,524)

156 (89) Ottawa Senators NHL £1,175,918 (£22,614) $1,940,500 ($37,317)

157 (161) Tampa Bay Bucs NFL £1,175,140 (£22,599) $1,939,216 ($37,293)

158 (170) Lazio Serie A £1,166,737 (£22,437) $1,925,350 ($37,026)

159 (143) Nashville Predators NHL £1,166,059 (£22,424) $1,924,231 ($37,004)

160 (171) Athletic Bilbao La Liga £1,157,231 (£22,254) $1,909,662 ($36,724)

161 (156) St Louis Blues NHL £1,155,202 (£22,215) $1,906,314 ($36,660)

162 (149) Kansas City Chiefs NFL £1,138,305 (£21,890) $1,878,431 ($36,124)

163 (70) Washington Redskins NFL £1,120,482 (£21,548) $1,849,020 ($35,558)

164 (107) Oakland Athletics MLB £1,118,501 (£21,510) $1,845,750 ($35,495) <<<<< MLB lowest paid

165 (152) Wigan EPL £1,107,821 (£21,304) $1,828,126 ($35,156)

166 (179) Eintracht Frankfurt Bundesliga £1,102,140 (£21,195) $1,818,751 ($34,976)

167 (131) Tennessee Titans NFL £1,101,471 (£21,182) $1,817,647 ($34,955)

168 (147) Genoa Serie A £1,095,317 (£21,064) $1,807,493 ($34,759)

169 (-) Kaiserslautern Bundesliga £1,067,753 (£20,534) $1,762,005 ($33,885)

170 (173) Hoffenheim Bundesliga £1,067,138 (£20,522) $1,760,991 ($33,865)

171 (154) Cologne Bundesliga £1,066,511 (£20,510) $1,759,956 ($33,845)

172 (163) Celtic * SPL £1,065,304 (£20,487) $1,757,964 ($33,807)

173 (177) Hannover 96 Bundesliga £1,040,069 (£20,001) $1,716,322 ($33,006)

174 (-) Birmingham EPL £1,036,592 (£19,934) $1,710,585 ($32,896)

175 (159) Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga £1,020,423 (£19,624) $1,683,902 ($32,383)

176 (160) Napoli Serie A £1,011,577 (£19,453) $1,669,305 ($32,102)

177 (-) Mainz Bundesliga £1,009,291 (£19,409) $1,665,531 ($32,029)

178 (-) Zaragoza La Liga £1,004,964 (£19,326) $1,658,391 ($31,892)

179 (-) St Pauli Bundesliga £1,003,707 (£19,302) $1,656,318 ($31,852)

180 (185) West Bromwich Albion EPL £1,000,064 (£19,232) $1,650,305 ($31,737)

181 (167) Colorado Avalanche NHL £999,771 (£19,226) $1,649,821 ($31,727)

182 (162) Villarreal La Liga £994,812 (£19,131) $1,641,640 ($31,570)

183 (188) Sampdoria Serie A £987,458 (£18,990) $1,629,504 ($31,337)

184 (144) Cincinnati Bengals NFL £957,697 (£18,417) $1,580,392 ($30,392) <<<<< NFL lowest paid

185 (189) New York Islanders NHL £921,185 (£17,715) $1,520,140 ($29,233) <<<<< NHL lowest paid

186 (-) Wolverhampton Wanderers EPL £887,146 (£17,061) $1,463,969 ($28,153)

187 (-) Freiburg Bundesliga £836,167 (£16,080) $1,379,842 ($26,535) <<<<< BUNDESLIGA lowest paid

188 (181) Rangers SPL £821,484 (£15,798) $1,355,612 ($26,069)

189 (166) Palermo Serie A £748,211 (£14,389) $1,234,698 ($23,744)

190 (187) Espanyol La Liga £730,883 (£14,055) $1,206,102 ($23,194)

191 (196) Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks * NPB £724,013 (£13,923) $1,194,766 ($22,976)

192 (183) Hanshin Tigers NPB £707,976 (£13,615) $1,168,302 ($22,467)

193 (192) Mallorca La Liga £675,051 (£12,982) $1,113,970 ($21,422)

194 (186) Yomiuri Giants NPB £670,758 (£12,899) $1,106,885 ($21,286)

195 (191) Bologna Serie A £643,128 (£12,368) $1,061,291 ($20,409)

196 (205) Udinese Serie A £642,018 (£12,346) $1,059,458 ($20,374)

197 (190) Catania Serie A £635,979 (£12,230) $1,049,493 ($20,183)

198 (-) Real Sociedad La Liga £634,447 (£12,201) $1,046,964 ($20,134)

199 (202) Getafe La Liga £626,833 (£12,054) $1,034,400 ($19,892)

200 (-) Parma Serie A £589,060 (£11,328) $972,067 ($18,694)

201 (198) Chunichi Dragons NPB £588,812 (£11,323) $971,658 ($18,686)

202 (-) Bari Serie A £557,757 (£10,726) $920,411 ($17,700)

203 (184) Cagliari Serie A £534,159 (£10,272) $881,469 ($16,951)

204 (210) Saitama Seibu Lions NPB £523,308 (£10,064) $863,563 ($16,607)

205 (197) Osasuna La Liga £517,709 (£9,956) $854,323 ($16,429)

206 (199) Racing Santander La Liga £502,482 (£9,663) $829,195 ($15,946)

207 (203) Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters NPB £494,972 (£9,519) $816,803 ($15,708)

208 (200) Deportiva La Coruna La Liga £484,717 (£9,321) $799,880 ($15,382)

209 (208) Tokyo Yakult Swallows NPB £479,280 (£9,217) $790,908 ($15,210)

210 (195) Lecce Serie A £478,911 (£9,210) $790,298 ($15,198)

211 (207) Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles NPB £472,737 (£9,091) $780,111 ($15,002)

212 (209) Chiba Lotte Marine NPB £435,949 (£8,384) $719,403 ($13,835)

213 (-) Blackpool EPL £435,640 (£8,378) $718,893 ($13,825) <<<<< EPL lowest paid

214 (206) Chievo Serie A £421,441 (£8,105) $695,463 ($13,374)

215 (214) Malaga La Liga £421,273 (£8,101) $695,184 ($13,369)

216 (-) Brescia Serie A £384,170 (£7,388) $633,957 ($12,191)

217 (211) Yokohama Bay Stars NPB £375,907 (£7,229) $620,322 ($11,929)

218 (-) Levante La Liga £350,215 (£6,735) $577,924 ($11,114)

219 (222) LA Galaxy * MLS £336,807 (£6,477) $555,799 ($10,688)

220 (221) Heart of Midlothian SPL £328,104 (£6,310) $541,437 ($10,412)

221 (219) Orix Buffaloes NPB £322,802 (£6,208) $532,688 ($10,244)

222 (218) New York Red Bulls MLS £320,644 (£6,166) $529,126 ($10,176)

223 (220) Hiroshima Toyo Carp NPB £320,617 (£6,166) $529,082 ($10,175) <<<<< NPB lowest paid

224 (-) Hercules La Liga £304,534 (£5,856) $502,543 ($9,664)

225 (223) Almeria La Liga £296,921 (£5,710) $489,979 ($9,423)

226 (-) Cesena Serie A £253,476 (£4,875) $418,285 ($8,044) <<<<< SERIE A lowest paid

227 (229) Sporting Gijon La Liga £230,664 (£4,436) $380,642 ($7,320) <<<<< LA LIGA lowest paid

228 (227) Toronto FC MLS £195,103 (£3,752) $321,959 ($6,192)

229 (228) Hibernian SPL £172,728 (£3,322) $285,036 ($5,481)

230 (225) Aberdeen SPL £156,094 (£3,002) $257,586 ($4,954)

231 (-) Gold Coast * AFL £136,690 (£2,629) $225,565 ($4,338)

232 (247) Dundee United SPL £130,668 (£2,513) $215,628 ($4,147)

233 (230) Collingwood AFL £127,508 (£2,452) $210,413 ($4,046)

234 (237) Kilmarnock SPL £125,029 (£2,404) $206,323 ($3,968)

235 (232) Hawthorn AFL £123,617 (£2,377) $203,993 ($3,923)

236 (231) Geelong AFL £123,192 (£2,369) $203,291 ($3,909)

237 (239) West Coast Eagles AFL £123,169 (£2,369) $203,253 ($3,909)

238 (241) Essendon AFL £122,860 (£2,363) $202,744 ($3,899)

239 (238) Carlton AFL £122,137 (£2,349) $201,551 ($3,876)

240 (244) Sydney Swans AFL £121,462 (£2,336) $200,436 ($3,855)

241 (236) Fremantle AFL £121,390 (£2,334) $200,318 ($3,852)

242 (240) St Kilda AFL £121,227 (£2,331) $200,049 ($3,847)

243 (235) Richmond AFL £121,214 (£2,331) $200,027 ($3,847)

244 (233) Adelaide Crows AFL £120,630 (£2,320) $199,063 ($3,828)

245 (248) Motherwell SPL £120,600 (£2,319) $199,014 ($3,827)

246 (242) Melbourne AFL £120,520 (£2,318) $198,882 ($3,825)

247 (234) Brisbane Lions AFL £120,256 (£2,313) $198,447 ($3,816)

248 (243) Port Adelaide AFL £119,853 (£2,305) $197,782 ($3,804)

249 (246) North Melbourne AFL £119,426 (£2,297) $197,077 ($3,790)

250 (245) Western Bulldogs AFL £118,803 (£2,285) $196,049 ($3,770) <<<<< AFL lowest paid

251 (270) Chivas USA MLS £108,256 (£2,082) $178,644 ($3,435)

252 (251) St Mirren SPL £106,380 (£2,046) $175,548 ($3,376)

253 (255) Seattle Sounders MLS £104,850 (£2,016) $173,024 ($3,327)

254 (-) St Johnstone SPL £101,916 (£1,960) $168,182 ($3,234)

255 (250) Philadelphia Union MLS £98,310 (£1,891) $162,232 ($3,120)

256 (262) FC Dallas MLS £95,375 (£1,834) $157,387 ($3,027)

257 (-) Vancouver Whitecaps MLS £90,954 (£1,749) $150,092 ($2,886)

258 (259) Real Salt Lake MLS £90,853 (£1,747) $149,926 ($2,883)

259 (-) Portland Timbers MLS £90,604 (£1,742) $149,515 ($2,875)

260 (256) Houston Dynamo MLS £89,614 (£1,723) $147,882 ($2,844)

261 (226) Chicago Fire MLS £88,184 (£1,696) $145,521 ($2,798)

262 (257) DC United MLS £85,631 (£1,647) $141,307 ($2,717)

263 (258) Colorado Rapids MLS £77,237 (£1,485) $127,457 ($2,451)

264 (253) New England Revolution MLS £76,235 (£1,466) $125,802 ($2,419)

265 (260) San Jose Earthquakes MLS £73,205 (£1,408) $120,802 ($2,323)

266 (-) Montreal Impact MLS £71,788 (£1,381) $118,464 ($2,278)

267 (254) Sporting Kansas City MLS £70,771 (£1,361) $116,786 ($2,246)

268 (268) BC Lions * CFL £69,946 (£1,345) $115,425 ($2,220)

269 (261) Edmonton Eskimos CFL £64,163 (£1,234) $105,881 ($2,036)

270 (263) Winnipeg Blue Bombers CFL £63,904 (£1,229) $105,455 ($2,028)

271 (271) Inverness Caledonian Thistle SPL £63,540 (£1,222) $104,854 ($2,016)

272 (269) Hamilton Tiger-Cats CFL £62,969 (£1,211) $103,911 ($1,998)

273 (266) Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL £59,852 (£1,151) $98,768 ($1,899)

274 (267) Calgary Stampeders CFL £59,663 (£1,147) $98,456 ($1,893)

275 (265) Toronto Argonauts CFL £59,653 (£1,147) $98,440 ($1,893)

276 (264) Montreal Alouettes CFL £58,270 (£1,121) $96,157 ($1,849) <<<<< CFL lowest paid

277 (272) Hamilton SPL £55,548 (£1,068) $91,665 ($1,763) <<<<< SPL lowest paid

278 (252) Columbus Crew MLS £54,156 (£1,041) $89,369 ($1,719) <<<<< MLS lowest paid

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As Kaka hits 10m followers: the world’s 20 most popular sportsmen on Twitter

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

By Sportingintelligence

25 April 2012

Kaka has become the first sportsman in the world to amass 10 million followers on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

As this report from the Associated Press detailed when the Real Madrid footballer passed the landmark, he tweeted: ‘Thank youuuuu. To celebrate I’ll make a twitcam’.

Whatever that means.

Love it or hate it, Twitter has soared into the media mainstream in the past year and is routinely used by millions of people as a primary source of breaking news, as well as a platform for promotion.

Sportingintelligence has compiled a list of the world’s 20 most followed sportsmen on Twitter (and they are all men aside from the athlete in 20th place, Serena Williams). See graphic below for details.

Eleven of the top 20 are footballers, which is indicative of what most people already know – that the beautiful game is the world’s most popular sport.

Basketball players (5) are next best represented, which is apt given that basketball is football’s closest challenger in team sports, primarily thanks to the NBA.

One cyclist, one NFL star, one boxer and Serena Williams make up the 20.

Six of the 11 footballers are from two clubs in Spain: Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo in the No1 and No2 slots are from Real Madrid, while four others are from Barcelona.

Manchester United contribute two players, Wayne Rooney in sixth place and Rio Ferdinand at No19.

Globally iconic figures of sport who are bubbling under this list with between 2m and 2.5m followers include Sachin Tendulkar, Tiger Woods and Mike Tyson, while Uruguayan footballer Diego Forlan is among those just outside the top 20.

As with all social media, things can change extremely rapidly.

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Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United untouchable in cyberspace

Monday, February 6th, 2012

By Sportingintelligence

6 February 2012

In August 2010, as Facebook registered its 500 millionth active user, Sportingintelligence assessed the world’s ‘most popular’ sports teams by ‘Facebook fans’ – and Turkey’s Galatasaray came out on top.

The ‘monetisation’ of sports fans via social media remains in its infancy. But in a rapidly changing multi-media world, we examined how and why the Turkish giants were No1, which was as much due to Galatasaray’s early adoption of Facebook as a marketing tool as anything else. (Read that piece in Turkish here).

With Faceboook’s mammoth stock floatation in the headlines, we have repeated the exercise 18 months on and the results are below. After a year and a half, many of the same names still feature – but with hugely inflated ‘fan numbers’ as social networking has become ever more mainstream.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United trounce the rest with more than 20m Facebook followers; the LA Lakers are the only other team in world sport with more than 10m.

Ten of the top 20 come from football (including six of the top seven, four of those from the Premier League), with four top-20 teams from basketball’s NBA, three from the NFL, two from baseball’s MLB and one team from cricket: the Indian national team.

The list is self-explanatory, and this time we have added the pay rank of each team, by position in our most recent Global Sports Salaries Survey. For more on PAY RANK, click here.

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NFL remains world No1 in attendance as Patriots and Giants meet in Super Bowl

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

By Nick Harris

SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year

5 February 2012

The NFL has increased its already remarkable attendance levels in the current season to an average of 67,394 fans per match, Sportingintelligence can reveal.

The NFL’s 2011-12 figures show an increase on the 66,960 fans per game that attended in the 2010-11 season.

The current season concludes with Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVI, featuring the Patriots against the Giants in Indianapolis.

There are better attended sports leagues in US College football, as a previous feature on this site explored.

But the NFL holds sway in the world of professional sports.

The German Bundesliga’s top division takes the No2 spot, with Australia’s AFL Aussie Rules football in the No3 spot above the English Premier League at No4.

The top 10 leagues are shown below, as are the two biggest indoor leagues, the NBA and NHL.

Big crowds don’t always mean big paydays for the stars involved. The NBA is the best-paid league in the world by average earnings per player.

Sportingintelligence’s Global Sports Salary Survey in 2011 showed that Premier League players and MLB baseball players also had average annual salaries higher than NFL players.

MLB baseball attracts more fans in total per season (more than 73 million in 2011) than any pro league in the world, but fewer on average per game than the NFL.

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Lebron James’ value to Liverpool? Up to $1m per minute in US TV advert spend

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

By Jeremiah Tittle

In New York

3 May 2011

Lebron James’ partial ownership of Liverpool and his related commercial tie-in is already paying dividends for the Merseyside team – boosting their brand with effective TV advertising time that could be worth $1m per minute Stateside.

On May Day, millions of basketball fans world-wide watched as the NBA’s prime-time favorites, the Miami Heat, won the first game of the Eastern Conference semi-finals over the Boston Celtics.

The series is a dream match-up for the NBA – the two teams attracted record viewership for the 2010-2011 season opener. This followed the summer of the ‘great migration’ spawned by a ratings success in its own right, ‘The Decision’. James’ polarizing ESPN TV special announcing his move to Miami was greeted by an uproarious crowd response of boos and cheers alike.

But it wasn’t the Heat’s home win to open this second-round play-off series that caught the attention of Scousers the world over. It was the unique post-game garb Lebron donned following the win. Shedding his typical preppy casual appearance, he filled out an Adidas–free Andy Carroll kit (Nike is one of James’ primary sponsors) sitting at the press conference table fielding questions from the media on the Heat’s solid start.

When an American reporter questioned James’ choice of outfit, he showed pride in his team’s win over Newcastle on Sunday. “I am following them from a distance,” he said. “Hopefully I can get out there and catch a game, but right now, this is the only game I’m thinking about.”

His humble affection for the Reds showed a glare of charm, but the smirk on James’ face told a different story. The realization gradually dawned on America that it had just witnessed an advertisement - integrated marketing at its finest – with a brilliant set-up by the reporter playing the pawn.

Showing public support for King Kenny’s men, King James decision to wear No9 - the jersey of the most prominent player acquisition for the club at the death of this year’s transfer deadline – would’ve raised more eyebrows if it weren’t for last month’s announcement that the two-time NBA MVP had purchased a share of Liverpool FC.

LFC owner John Henry’s decision to bring James on board as a minority owner was far from an ill-advised decision because the commercial has only just begun. The exposure a brand such as Liverpool FC received during this press conference and the subsequent replays on sports networks, media channels, and across the football-loving blogosphere is difficult to estimate accurately.

Twelve minutes of national television coverage during the play-offs doesn’t come cheap, but just imagine the worth of this type of endorsement if the Heat make it into the NBA finals.

Thirty seconds of NBA finals airtime cost advertisers $400,000 in 2010. Add in the endorsement from a current player of James’ stature, and the value logically exceeds half a million dollars for 30 seconds, $1m per minute.

That in a nutshell is the value to Liverpool of Lebron’s association: potentially $1m of ad TV advertising time exposure for a club that might (would) otherwise struggle to make an impact on the US sporting public.

It’s clear that Henry’s return on investment depends on James’ ability to navigate conflicting interests, and there was no better motivator than bringing James on as an investor.

James’ stake in the eighth most lucrative football franchise in the world was a key concession in this landmark marketing partnership in which Fenway Sports Group owners John Henry and Tom Werner broke from their business tradition of inking marketing deals for the organizations they own such as the Red Sox to sign a deal with an individual person.

Not just any individual person, but a 26 year-old athletic phenom who is fast becoming more brand than man.

Following the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Lebron holds court as the 2nd most popular athlete in the billion-customer country of China (2^nd only to Kobe Bryant).

In fact, the value of James’ play on the court – siphoning $15.8 million a year from the Heat – stands at roughly half of his value in sponsorships estimated at $30 million a year.

Since the Reds happen to be the most popular club in this highly-coveted market, Lebron’s investment in Liverpool is another way to gain market share in China while preparing for the next epic commercial event, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Could we see a repeat of Michael Jordan’s ‘dream team’ fiasco? MJ stood on the gold medal stand at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona draped in the American flag not as a symbol of patriotic fervor, but rather catalyzed by the need to serve the brand. He covered the Reebok logo to keep the Nike execs content.

After James cashed in on England’s Bank Holiday to promote a club more than 5,000 miles away, expectations are set higher for him, although clearly not in terms of ethical fortitude. Rather, it will be interesting to see how he approaches the next 15 months in preparation for a golden opportunity to grow the Liverpool brand.

While in residence on British soil, could the summer of London become the summer of Lebron?

Jeremiah Tittle is manager of sports programming for Sirius XM Satellite Radio overseeing production on The Football Show with Giorgio Chinaglia and Charlie Stillitano and Basketball & Beyond hosted by USA Olympic head coach Mike Krzyzewski. He also serves as an adjunct professor at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. Follow Jeremiah on Twitter at @wwwjt

Research for this article was also provided by American University graduate Esther Song.

Posted in Basketball, Football, News | No Comments »

Slam dunk: NBA the richest sports league in the world by average pay

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

By Nick Harris

SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year

22 April 2011

The best paid sportsmen in the world, judged on average earnings per player across whole leagues, are the basketball players who make their living in the NBA in North America, according to the findings of sportingintelligence’s Global Sports Salaries Report 2011 (GSSS 2011), published today.

Across the 30 teams in the NBA, the average base salary in the latest completed season was £2.9m per player per season, or £55,816 per week. At current exchange rates, that equates to US$4.79m per year (which is €3.29m per year) or US$92,199 per week (which is €63,352 per week).

Earlier this week, we revealed that the best paid teams in global sport were Barcelona (from Spanish football), Real Madrid (ditto) and then the New York Yankees (US baseball), the latter having been knocked off the No1 perch they inhabited in our last report a year ago.

But when measuring leagues as a whole, the NBA is the richest, man for man. One reason for this is that teams (and squads / rosters) have fewer players per team than any other among the world’s major sports leagues. The simplistic conclusion from that is that the pot of wages at each NBA team is divided among fewer players than at, say, each NFL franchise. But that is far from the whole story.

If fewer players meant bigger money, always, then we would expect NHL ice hockey players (with fewer players per team than the NFL) to earn more than NFL players, on average. In our report last year, they did, just.

But this time, NFL players earned more. Why? Because there wasn’t any NFL salary cap or floor in 2010? (That is a much more convoluted debate for another day). But NFL players earned more per man in 2010 than NHL players. In the 2010 season (ending in the 2011 Super Bowl), NFL players earned £1.44m on average each per year (£27,637 per week) according to the GSSS 2011, against ‘only’ £1.39m per NHL player per year on average (£26,822 per week) in the 2010-11 season.

One of the issues – but only one – that we hope to explore on this site in the near future is the argument that NFL players might be the chronically underpaid performers of global sport. That’s for another day.

Back to today, the report contains average team salary calculation for 272 teams from 14 leagues. Those 14 leagues are the NBA (basketball), IPL (cricket), MLB (baseball), Premier League (English football), NFL (US gridiron), NHL (ice hockey), Bundesliga (German football), Serie A (Italian football), La Liga (Spanish football), NPB (Japanese baseball), SPL (Scottish football), AFL (Aussie Rules football), MLS (American soccer) and CFL (Canadian gridiron).

When only weekly pay is taken into account, the No2 league by average pay is cricket’s IPL. It last just six weeks per year but with multi-million dollar short-term contracts for the best players and six-figure deals for many more, it is justifiable for inclusion, not least because many of those involved earn other incomes elsewhere during the rest of the year.

The full contents of the GSSS 2011 are detailed here.

One of the features of the report is a wage distribution chart per league that shows the relative pay levels between the teams in each league. Some leagues have massive discrepancies between the best paid and worst paid teams.

Here is the distribution chart for the league with the biggest discrepancy, where players at the best paid team earn an average of 39.47 times as much as the players at the worst paid team in that league:

And here is the distribution chart for the league with the smallest discrepancy, where players at the best paid team earn an average of 1.08 times as much as the players at the worst paid team in that league:

Does pay in these leagues affect results? Is one inherently fairer than the other? These are the kind of questions and debates that the report hopes to explore and foster.

The headline findings of the report, including the list of the best paid teams are freely available, here on this website, and at ESPN The Magazine. We will also carry more features and analysis arising from findings in the report on this site in the near future.

For those who want the full report, you can find details of its full contents, and how to order, here.

Sportingintelligence home page

Posted in Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Football, Golf, News, NFL, Tennis | No Comments »

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Global Sports Salaries Survey 2012: the richest teams by average first-team pay

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