lauantai 2. kesäkuuta 2007

Finnish basketball finances in dire straits

Would there be viable organised players association in Finland, I’m sure they’d be thrilled of the latest developments in the Finnish basketball. Finnish top league Korisliiga teams have jointly agreed to limit the number of foreign players in Finland for this season, again. Higher demand for local players and limited supply has therefore raised the salaries of the Finnish passport players dramatically. Any trade union could be proud to achieve such salary increases over ten years, nevertheless in few months! No hard feelings, I have many good friends still playing. Veterans like Maurizio Pratesi are finding his new spring in basketball while teams from Joensuu, Helsinki, Karkkila and Porvoo are rumoured to be shopping for his favours. Pasi Kauha gets to play yet another season in Uusikaupunki. Good for them, the players that is! They’ve earned every cent they’ve got. Problem is though, what happens to the clubs finances? Where is the money supposed to be coming from?

Last seasons attempt to free the player movements from two Americans to at some cases even seven or eight Americans per team was considered too much too quickly. The idea was that more supply to the player market would make the market more competitive and therefore decrease the salaries in Finnish basketball, therefore making the club finances more viable.

Nevertheless, quite the opposite happened. Coach Kaminen’s notorious roster at Porvoo, for example, saw dozen odd foreign players (20 if pre-season is included) pass through, seven of which ultimately stayed to play the three losing play-offs games. Games were played in Porvoo where Finnish players didn’t even take a shot in a game. Finnish players took four shots, one of which was made, in the three play offs games Porvoo lost. All this is of course bad for the sponsorship income and gate receipts and extremely bad for the spending side of things. It’s a pity that the TV documentary for this season in Porvoo was censored by the club board!

Similar situation was too often the case also in other towns. Diminishing incomes and extended expenditure made of course the financial situation of smaller clubs totally impossible. Previously smaller clubs had had maximum four to five professional players contracted. Now with the influx of all those Americans, plus or minus 20 000 each, the complete roster was receiving full-time wages. The club had become fully professional although the management wasn’t. Spending was professional, but the money making wasn’t. Bad combination!

Budgets doubled or tripled depending on the insanity or unprofessionalism of the management and the club boards ultimately responsible of these issues. The league had become fully professional without any more money flowing to the cash box. Latter part of the season was played mostly with the sponsorship money received for the 2007-08 season and this is where we are now. The new season hasn’t even started yet, but half of the income’s already spent.

For our international readers this kind of professional player trade of the season past might seem normal, as the leagues have been professional for awhile, but for Finnish fans it caused an outrage. Biggest speculation in the local papers was usually spent on the again-new-American-aid-players release papers from the previous club, or whether the new “rainmaker” could actually play in the upcoming event or not. The normal speculation about the matchups and power balances of the upcoming events were non-existent, because no one knew who was going to be on the court. Not even the coaches! Would I be a betting man, I would have definitely complained to Veikkaus or Nordicbet about this out-of-control situation. Local fans would simply never know who would play for their team this week. Not much fun for fans, even less so for sponsors paying for all this nonsense. Coach Dettman of the NT said, “The highest level season ever”. I’d respond one-on-one maybe, but obviously not in team play.

Again, all this, BAD FOR BUSINESS!

Here lays the problem, looking at the upcoming season the financial situation of the clubs seems to go from bad to worse, even though dramatic pull-back with the American aid players is achieved. The national media seems mostly be concerned about the few hundred thousand Euro loss of the Federation, which of course is incredible, but much worse situation is lurking underneath the surface. Finnish top league teams are broke, because they receive most of their funds from the sponsors, not from the gate receipts as it is foolishly often discussed in the media. With the possible exception of Uusikaupunki, gate receipts constitute only 10 to 20% of the total income.

Therefore media coverage, which brings in sponsors, is vital. Last season the media coverage, especially TV coverage, was dramatically reduced. With lesser exposure sponsorship moneys were in decline. This equation with dramatically increasing player wages makes even a lesser economic brain to see red.

Why aren’t clubs able to keep budget discipline then and are willing to live in this kind of “bubble economy”; pay taxes late, not pay compulsory insurances, urheilijasosialiturva, and sometimes even pay salaries late? Well that’s another story, but I would start rectifying the situation with demanding a professional audit to all Korisliiga clubs accounts before receiving the right to play at the top level.

Incidentally, this week the Federation decides whether clubs are financially eligible to play in the Korisliiga. Previously professional auditing has not been required from the clubs.