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Another reason Marcus Williams should have played in Europe.
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?"http://www.thestar.com/Sports/article/275015What 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.)
Another reason Marcus Williams should have played in Europe.
I would have more sympathy, but trying to live off of "only" 5.5 million dollars, instead of 8 million, for example, doesn't sound so hard to me.
Really, even if your salary was cut from 1 million to "only" 700,000...that's still 35 times more than the average U.S. salary.
Also impacts Americans living abroad, let me tell you.
Excuse me for sounding cynical, but I can't really feel sorry for someone who is making "only" 5.5 million euros a year for playing basketball. For the average Joe, the falling dollar sucks, but for the euroballer millionaires, it won't change their lifestyle one bit. Suck it up.
Bush.
437 days to go and counting...
http://www.backwardsbush.com/
Take some in' PROZAC.
The American economy, like the enviroment, is cyclical.
Of course, many Americans, struck by ignorance and confusion, do the easiest thing, blame Bush. Blame somebody else for their problems. When will the people of this country realize, WE ARE THE IN' GOVERNMENT.
Stop your in' and let's get to workin'.
Note: This is what happens when you build a nation of entertainers.
All kinds of ignorance in this post. It's almost as if politicians and their policies have no impact whatsoever. But the last sentence is A1.Take some in' PROZAC.
The American economy, like the enviroment, is cyclical.
Of course, many Americans, struck by ignorance and confusion, do the easiest thing, blame Bush. Blame somebody else for their problems. When will the people of this country realize, WE ARE THE IN' GOVERNMENT.
Stop your in' and let's get to workin'.
Note: This is what happens when you build a nation of entertainers.
spree looms.....
That's what we did in '88!
A loaf of bread was roughly 1.5 Mio Dinars, so we just increased our salaries to cope with that. And of course to cover the salaries ...
... we printed more money
I'd like to have their problems... I'll be happy to get by on 5.5 million. What a .
The more money you print, the more deprecated it gets. It actually makes the problem worse.
Just be sure to buy American...this goes for Euros too
You got that backwards. To fix the exchange rate, we need to BURN money,
See, burn...
WGAF? They're coming to my country to earn money and then spending it elsewhere.
The low level of the $ has almost no consequences for the nba so far.
Players don't left the nba to go in Europe to get bigger salaries. In fact, the trend is that European top players (Scola, Navarro..) leave the Europe to go in nba. Money isn't their only motivation, they too want to play in nba because the level is way higher than in Europe.
IMO, there are two small consequences of the low level of the $ for the nba :
- Less players go in D-League because they can earn a lot of guaranteed money in Europe.
- the trend of players leaving the Europe could maybe be bigger if the $ level was higher.
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