Top 10 Highest Paid Sports Teams In The World

New York Yankees came out on top globally of a new study of all the world’s professional sports
teams in terms of salary. United States is well represented as well. Seven American teams were
belonging at the top 10, six of which qualified for the playoffs last year. In fact, nine out of 10 of
the teams on the list that qualified for the playoffs of their respective leagues.

The top 10 list is courtesy by the Annual Review of Global Sports Strategies, as published by
sportingintelligence.com. Amount of dollar was given as an approximation of the average annual
salary of a first-team player on the team.

1. New York Yankees -- Major League Baseball (USA) - $7,000,000

Some critics say the Yankees buy championships. And yet the

2009 World Series title was the teams first since the year 2000,

in spite of the fact that George Steinbrenner's crew has outspent

other Major League teams every year since then. The gap

between the Yankees payroll and that of the second-highest Major League Baseball team (app.

$70 million) was more than the overall payroll of 11 other clubs.

2. Real Madrid - La Liga (ESP) - $6,333,591

In the year 2009, Real Madrid paid a $120 million transfer fee to

British powerhouse Manchester United for the rights to Cristiano

Ronaldo. It was part of a summer spending wild activity which

saw Real deal out more than $250 million in salary and fees.

3. Barcelona - La Liga (ESP) - $6,082,940

Spending a little bet less than Real Madrid didn't seem to hurt

Barca last year. Behind FIFA World Player of the Year Lionel

Messi, Barcelona also won La Liga and the UEFA Champions

League.

4. Chelsea -- English Premier League (GBR) - $5,361,957

Recently Chelsea spending as led to two FA Cup titles in the

past three years but the club is still looking for its first Premier

League title since 2006. Saturday's match up with first-place

Manchester United will help decide this year's championship.


5. Dallas Mavericks - National Basketball Association (USA) - $5,315,097

Recently Mark Cuban's roosters are qualified for the playoffs for

the 10th straight season. If not for an unfortunate collapse in the

2007 finals, Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the Mav’s would have a

title too.

6. Los Angeles Lakers - NBA (USA) - $5,098,920

Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Lakers are one of three teams on

this list to have won a title in 2009.


7. Detroit Pistons - NBA (USA) - $4,995,573

Having the third-highest payroll in the NBA didn't help the Motor

City’s team get over .500 last seasons. The Detroit Pistons team

did sneak into the playoffs though but were promptly swept by

the next team on our list.

8. Cleveland Cavaliers -NBA (USA) - $4,940,707

Cleveland currently holds the best record in the NBA, but fans just

as concerned with what will happen in the coming July when King

James becomes a free agent. If the King re-signs with his

hometown club, look for Cleveland to stay on this list for the better part of the next decade.

9. Boston Celtics - NBA (USA) - $4,885,055

The nucleus of the Celtics is aging quickly, but Boston fans can't

mind too much. The club got a title out of this team in 2008.


10. New York Knicks - NBA (USA) - $4,881,952

The 2009 Knicks weren't as much of a disaster as other recent

editions (the 32 wins were nine more than NY had the year

before), but it's never good when a team's highest paid player is

more known for sitting on the bench in street clothes and making

bizarre rants on the Internet.