Maya still waiting for some cash...

[pap49cba]

According to Ann Wauters interview with Jayda Evans....

Q: Ros Casares, based in Valencia, Spain, paid big bucks to Maya Moore, Lauren Jackson, Sancho Lyttle and you to win its only EuroLeague title. How did you react to it suddenly folding?
Ann Wauters: You could kind of feel it coming. They have a GM and she knows what she's doing. Everybody was saying, 'Oh, they have so many big players,' and it's true. But she stayed in the budget. She didn't go crazy and I feel sad about this whole situation. I had a good year there, it was fun and it was great winning. Now it stops.

Q: And the players are still waiting to be paid?
AW: The bonuses still haven't been paid and the last month (salary). It's (not a lot) but we've got to have it. It's a bad situation. But in Spain, the economy is really, really bad, so in some way it doesn't surprise me that all of a sudden the owner says, "Listen, I don't have enough money to keep this team alive."

 

[easttexastrash]

I am not familiar enough with these European leagues to know, but how do they offer such large salaries to these players? Are the fan bases much larger than they are in the US? Do the owners lose money but love the sport enough to keep the teams going? Is this used as a tax break? There is just a huge difference between the European pay scale and the WNBA.

 

[VAMike23]

I am not familiar enough with these European leagues to know, but how do they offer such large salaries to these players? Are the fan bases much larger than they are in the US? Do the owners lose money but love the sport enough to keep the teams going? Is this used as a tax break? There is just a huge difference between the European pay scale and the WNBA.

The answer in most Euro leagues re: funding is mostly: (B) Owners' Largesse

Games can get pretty rowdy and fans passionate but overall there isn't the economic base from ticket sales or other outside revs to support the salaries by any means. Once the economic *t started hitting the fan in Spain it was not a surprise that they folded the team, nor is it surprising (unfortunately) to read that the players are still owed some mullah.

 

[Icebear]

Basically, many of the teams are hobby teams for ownership and not businesses.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Didn't Renee (or Kalana) have a problem 1-2 years ago with not getting paid in Europe?

 

[VAMike23]

Didn't Renee (or Kalana) have a problem 1-2 years ago with not getting paid in Europe?

Don't know about KG but per news reports that quoted Renee at the time, she was terminated by her team mid-season last year(?) in what appeared to be a slimy attempt to avoid paying her for her services. Chatter at the time was that this is not that unusual, unfortunately.

IIRC, she had not been paid at all to that point in the season, she protested, and was let go for a contract violation manufactured out of thin air by her club. Not sure if she ever saw any shekels out of that one.....

 

[MilfordHusky]

Don't know about KG but per news reports that quoted Renee at the time, she was terminated by her team mid-season last year(?) in what appeared to be a slimy attempt to avoid paying her for her services. Chatter at the time was that this is not that unusual, unfortunately.

IIRC, she had not been paid at all to that point in the season, she protested, and was let go for a contract violation manufactured out of thin air by her club. Not sure if she ever saw any shekels out of that one.....

Yep, that was it. She wasn't going to play if she didn't get paid--an eminently reasonable stance in my view.

 

[Scotter]

Basically, many of the teams are hobby teams for ownership and not businesses.

While they definitely aren't being run as for-profit businesses most of these clubs aren't hobby teams either. Diana and Sue's unique situation with Spartak before the owner's murder is the exception, rather than the rule for even the other clubs that hand out the biggest contracts to women's basketball players. The ownership and funding structure of these clubs are much more diverse. There are the individual billionaires, but there are community owned clubs like the Green Bay Packers. And how these clubs pay the bills varies greatly as well, which is understandable since each individual country has its own laws and culture.

It is a different system in Europe and most of the rest of the world. Each club more closely resembles a college athletic department than what American's think of as a professional team. They provide club teams for both men and woman in a wide variety of sports from the youth level up to the professional level under a single entity. As such in most countries they receive significant government funding and subsidies for providing those diverse athletic opportunities. And just like college athletic departments funding also comes from sponsorships and ticket sales where the revenue sports if they are able subsidize the non-revenue sports. But of course these clubs are not tied to any educational institutions and some do have billionaire owners willing to operate at significant losses, but it is a totally different system from the American sports landscape.

 

[MilfordHusky]

The Seattle Storm are missing Cash too. Her name is Swin.