The footy press down under is all agog over Jonathan Brown’s new contract demands. The Brisbane Lion goal machine — who only uses that Vaseline to keep the sweat out of his eyes, honest — is reportedly asking for a 5-year, AU$6 million deal. This would make him the highest-paid player in the AFL.
Let me repeat that for you. AU$1.2 million a year would make Jonathan Brown the highest-paid Australian football player on the planet. Based on today’s exchange rates, $1.2 million in Australia is about $1.13 million in America. It’s also about £570,000 in England, or €712,000 in the rest of Europe.
Let’s compare this for a moment to what the Minnesota Vikings are paying Jared Allen, the Pro Bowl defensive end they just acquired from the Chiefs for three draft picks. According to reports, Allen will receive a 6-year, $74 million deal, with $31 million guaranteed. The price difference between the contracts of Jared Allen and Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney — who, IMHO, has been a better pass-rusher and will be again if he recovers from that lisfranc injury — could pay Jonathan Brown for almost two seasons.
Indeed, £570,000 wouldn’t cover Cristiano Ronaldo’s hooker budget for one season. According to futebolfinance.com (hat tip to EPL Talk for the link), the Manchester United goal machine will make in more in five weeks than Brown would make in a year. Indeed, the Red Devils have 12, count ‘em, twelve players who will make more this season than Brown would get for the life of that contract he wants. Chelsea tops that with 15 players. Five years of Jonathan Brown is worth one year of Carlo Cudicini.
Now, I’m sure the economics of Australian footy are very different than the economics of the NFL and the Premier League, both of which have far more lucrative domestic and international TV deals. Plus, the NFL and the EPL practically own football in their home nations, something the AFL doesn’t quite do yet. And let’s not lie — who among us wouldn’t be pretty happy with $1.2 million a year for 5 years?
Still, that’s quite the salary gap, isn’t it? It’s a wonder that more young AFL stars don’t consider taking their athletic abilities to other football codes. Perhaps the AFL is the last fully professional football league on the planet that’s more about the love of the game and the glory of a Saturday afternoon than the straight cash, homey. After all, if Jonathan Brown really wanted to get paid, he would have learned to be a striker or a wide receiver years ago.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Peter // Apr 23, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Australian players aren’t nearly as underpaid as NFL players are overpaid.
I’m not sure if that was your point or not, but in reading the post that’s my stance.
2 Kick2Kick // Apr 23, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Great post but you miss one thing. AFL has a salary cap which I think is around 6 odd million.
AFL is one of the few league comps that actually have one. It makes the teams more even unlike other comps were the club with the most money wins the majority of the premierships (ie: Chelsea, Man United etc)
3 ando // Apr 23, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Yes the Salary Cap is the thing that is stopping the salaries to sky rocket. Interest Rates are about to go up again here so I don’t they will be playing for the love of the game for much longer.
4 Dave // Apr 24, 2008 at 11:06 am
Well, the NFL has a salary cap, too. It’s just a hell of a lot higher than the AFL’s, thanks in no small part to an excess of TV money and complete and utter dominance of the sporting landscape in this country.
And if NFL players seem overpaid, it’s because their careers are likely to be much shorter than players in other football codes, just because of the more violent nature of the game itself. The average NFL career is less than 4 years. I suspect that number is much higher for AFL players or league footballers in England.
5 Sean // Apr 28, 2008 at 12:42 am
Actually, the average AFL career is also about 4 years.
http://www.australianfootball.com.au/LifeOfanAFLPlayer.html
Without pads, the bruising can last a lot longer and a little known face (except to those who play it) is that Australian Rules actually rates higher in terms of serious injury than sports like rugby.
Most amateur players can have long careers. While the great AFL players though can play on for over a decade, the pressure is a lot higher for elite AFL athletes. They don’t have to just stay healthy, but have to continue to play well while the club continually pursue younger, fitter players. Even Jonathan Brown, who is a big guy by any standards, has had to stay sidelined to injury for over a year at a time to continue his illustrious career.
Mind you, in Australia, the money that guys like Jonathan Brown and Chris Judd is what we’d call here the “big bikkies”.
While Judd seems the sort of guy who’d be lured by big money (like he was to Carlton) to a sport like soccer, an Aussie country boy like Jonathan Brown would seem completely out of place playing for Man United and driving round in a Lamborghini. I’m sure he’d want to play footy in his own country.
And as we have seen for the party guys like Ben Cousins and Wayne Carey, for the superstars there is still plenty left over to snort up your nose and kiss your life away.
The fact is though that in Australia, there has historically been very little awareness of the monetary opportunities that foreign sports offer. But this is changing with more and more snippets of the salaries and lifestyles of players like Harry Kewell appearing in the Business Review Weekly sport star column. While kids will continue to want to pursue the dream of playing in an AFL premiership, mums and dads will pretty soon start pushing their kids towards soccer careers. The facts though are still that is if they miss out, they’ll be running around in the A-League earning pocket money. Most kids know this. Even in a globalised world, Australia is still pretty isolated.
Though it is refreshing to see that players from overseas are wanting a piece of action in the AFL, regardless of what salaries other sports offer. I think it is because once you play it, you realise what a great game it is. Sport isn’t all about money. So why would you want to play a boring sport for years just for a crack at the major league ??
And if you’ve ever been to the MCG in Melbourne, you’d know what a thrill it would be to play in front of 100,000 people. Just ask Collingwood’s Irish import Martin Clarke, who plays week in week out in front of bigger crowds than he’d ever dream of playing Gaelic Football in Europe.
Or these guys from Papua New Guinea most of whom who grew up in poor rural villages:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6acgjXG_FHk
A couple of young Americans, the Brunmeier boys have made the grade in semi-pro state comps in Western Australia and a young Canadian, Scott Fleming recently made his debut in the Queensland AFL. I’m sure that the big bucks is the last thing on his mind.
6 Ryano // Apr 29, 2008 at 8:27 am
International Rules is back! Yeah baby!
http://news.smh.com.au/international-rules-set-to-return/20080429-29e8.html