ploto
11-09-2007, 11:16 AM
This article is specifically about European players in Toronto (who get double hit), but it impacts all European players in the US professional sports leagues. Before you say it, no one is asking you to cry a river for them. I just found it interesting. Plus, we have a lot of Europeans who post here.
Nobody, maybe, except the club's foreign-tongued European-based employees, who've been more inclined toward commiserating than conversing about the plight of their financial portfolios. While they are paid by the Raptors in ever-shrinking U.S. dollars, many of their expenses must be paid in euros, the relatively mighty legal tender of the European Union. Yesterday it cost $1.47 (U.S.) to buy a single euro. A year ago it cost $1.27. Seven years ago, 82 cents. The trend isn't thrilling the imports.
"Somehow it's a little bit of a worry, a concern," said Maurizio Gherardini, the Italian assistant GM who, like most of his fellow Europeans, maintains a residence in the homeland that is getting more expensive every day. "A certain part of our living expenses are in Europe, and the euro is going up so much. And the rest of our expenses are in Canadian dollars, and the Canadian dollar is so strong. We're getting beaten both ways. It's definitely a source of concern."
To put the swing in valuations in perspective, not that anyone's crying for the millionaires, consider that Rasho Nesterovic, the Toronto centre, signed a six-year deal in 2003 that will earn him more than $8 million (U.S.) this season. At the time Nesterovic signed the contract, $8 million (U.S.) was worth nearly 7 million euros. As of yesterday, it was worth about 5.5 million euros. As Nesterovic lives five months of the year in his native Slovenia, he has essentially taken a pay cut of more than 20 per cent, this while his buying power in Toronto has also gone down more than 20 per cent in the past year.
"I've noticed, trust me," he said yesterday, in his usual deadpan. "I just hope it gets better. What else can you do?"
What does it mean? The big hoopwise winners in the current climate are European basketball clubs, who pay their American players salaries set in U.S. dollars. Some clubs convert the paycheques into local currencies. Gherardini said in the past it was not uncommon for U.S. players to demand a fixed exchange rate on their deals. With the U.S. dollar so low, it's hard to imagine someone asking for such assurances of late.
But if the trend continues, one could foresee a European agent asking for an NBA client to be paid in something a little more weighty than greenbacks. (The current collective bargaining agreement, mind you, stipulates all salaries are to be paid in U.S. dollars.)
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/275015
Nobody, maybe, except the club's foreign-tongued European-based employees, who've been more inclined toward commiserating than conversing about the plight of their financial portfolios. While they are paid by the Raptors in ever-shrinking U.S. dollars, many of their expenses must be paid in euros, the relatively mighty legal tender of the European Union. Yesterday it cost $1.47 (U.S.) to buy a single euro. A year ago it cost $1.27. Seven years ago, 82 cents. The trend isn't thrilling the imports.
"Somehow it's a little bit of a worry, a concern," said Maurizio Gherardini, the Italian assistant GM who, like most of his fellow Europeans, maintains a residence in the homeland that is getting more expensive every day. "A certain part of our living expenses are in Europe, and the euro is going up so much. And the rest of our expenses are in Canadian dollars, and the Canadian dollar is so strong. We're getting beaten both ways. It's definitely a source of concern."
To put the swing in valuations in perspective, not that anyone's crying for the millionaires, consider that Rasho Nesterovic, the Toronto centre, signed a six-year deal in 2003 that will earn him more than $8 million (U.S.) this season. At the time Nesterovic signed the contract, $8 million (U.S.) was worth nearly 7 million euros. As of yesterday, it was worth about 5.5 million euros. As Nesterovic lives five months of the year in his native Slovenia, he has essentially taken a pay cut of more than 20 per cent, this while his buying power in Toronto has also gone down more than 20 per cent in the past year.
"I've noticed, trust me," he said yesterday, in his usual deadpan. "I just hope it gets better. What else can you do?"
What does it mean? The big hoopwise winners in the current climate are European basketball clubs, who pay their American players salaries set in U.S. dollars. Some clubs convert the paycheques into local currencies. Gherardini said in the past it was not uncommon for U.S. players to demand a fixed exchange rate on their deals. With the U.S. dollar so low, it's hard to imagine someone asking for such assurances of late.
But if the trend continues, one could foresee a European agent asking for an NBA client to be paid in something a little more weighty than greenbacks. (The current collective bargaining agreement, mind you, stipulates all salaries are to be paid in U.S. dollars.)
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/275015