The top-paying sports franchise in the world, according to a new survey by Sporting Intelligence, is English Premier League soccer club Manchester City. The Premier League champions of 2011/12 have taken over the top spot from another soccer club, Spain’s Barcelona. Manchester City pays its players an average of $155,000 per week for an average yearly salary of $8,059,477. The Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball is the second-highest paying sports club in the world at $7,468,862 yearly.Manchester City started to throw its money around in 2008 when billionaire Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi took over the club. He was able to buy his way to a championship two seasons ago, but the club wasn’t able to retain its title this season as cross town rivals Manchester United won the Premier League with City finishing as runners up.
The new survey was compiled after gathering information from a total of 278 franchises in 14 different sports
leagues in 10 countries. It included baseball, basketball, cricket, soccer, ice hockey, football, and Australian Rules football. While Manchester United may be more famous around the world than Manchester City, the club doesn’t pay as well as the average annual salary is $6,032,572, placing the club 12th on the list.
Third place belongs to Spanish soccer club Real Madrid (7,257,216) while Barcelona ($7,214,545), who were number one for the past two years, slid down to fourth place with the New York Yankees baseball club coming in fifth at $7,151,109. However, part of the reason for the fall is because of the currency exchange and the relatively weak Euro. Three MLB teams made the top 12 with the Philadelphia Phillies being the third ranking in 11th place at $6,125, 397.
There is just one NBA basketball squad in the top 12, which is the Los Angeles Lakers who came in at seventh place at $6,292,403. Two of the top teams, Manchester City and the Yankees, recently joined forces to launch a new Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise in New York City. However, the biggest surprise on the list was the Los Angeles Dodgers as the team ranked number 69 last year. Their payroll has more than doubled since then with the club moving up 67 places on the list.
Even though the Lakers were the only basketball team to make it to the top 12, the NBA is still the top-paying professional sports league in the world based on average salaries. The average NBA player makes approximately $4.5 million a season. The Lakers are the best-paying team in the league with the Houston Rockets being the lowest-paid.
The lowest-paying franchise on the entire list was soccer team Inverness of the Scottish Premier League. The average salary for a first-string player is just over $76,000 per year. The top-paying Scottish Premier League franchise is Glasgow Celtic, which plays its players an average of just over $1.7 million per year.
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