Manchester City soccer club named the world’s best-paying franchise

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.

New York Yankees team up with Manchester City to form new MLS franchise

Two of the world’s richest sports franchises have decided to join forces. It was announced on May 21 that Major League Baseball club the New York Yankees are going to partner up with English Premier League soccer club Manchester City to form a brand new Major League Soccer (MLS) team that will become the 20th franchise in the North American league. The new club hopes to be in action in the 2015 season.

The New York City Football Club will have Manchester City as the majority partner. The English team is owned by Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour, who is one of the richest men in the world. The Yankees will reportedly be a very active member of the team’s ownership group. Don Garber, the commissioner of MLS, said this is a huge day for his soccer league and for America and he can’t wait for the new team to get started. New York already has an MLS club named the New York Red Bulls.

Garber said a lot of work has gone into forming a new expansion team and he can’t think of better owners than Manchester City and the Yankees. Reports said the new club cost approximately $100 million in franchise fees. While the Red Bulls are named after New York, they actually play their games in Harrison, New Jersey. The new club will play out of New York City where the market is about 19 million people.