How the Canadian Premier League stacks up against other leagues is not a question that needs to be asked in order to support it. If you are a fan of soccer and live in Canada, support for our top domestic division should be a given regardless of its initial level. No matter where you are from or what your club allegiances are, anyone who has ever wished that the sport was stronger in Canada should be stepping up to help ensure the Canadian Premier League is a success. After all, the only way to help grow something that starts small is to support it.

However, curiosity has gotten the best of us here at NSXI, and it has been hard to resist speculating on how exactly the Canadian Premier League will stack up against leagues across the world when a ball is finally kicked. To do this we will be using an indirect measure, salary, to compare to existing leagues. While this is not a perfect measuring stick, which will be addressed later, it is the best tool we have to work with so far.

It has to be emphasized that these are early predictions are based on external reports. The league has not put out an official word on salary figures, other than to say that the league will be fully professional. We look forward to revisiting this topic when official figures are available. Unless otherwise noted all figures are in CAD, based on conversions done on the day this was written (1 CAD = 0.80 USD, 1 CAD = 0.64 Euro, 1 CAD = 0.57 British Pound).

What we know about CPL

There is no official word on salary figures. However, Steve Milton of the Hamilton Spectator has reported that average salaries are expected to land between 40,000 and 60,000 CAD, while Bobby McMahon of Forbes estimated player salaries and benefits may realistically reach as high as 56,000 to 75,000 CAD based on the league’s projected expenditure. While it is wise to take these figures with a grain of salt until more information is made available by the league, they will serve as our rough expectations for league comparisons in this article.

CONCACAF Comparisons

Liga MX (Mexican First Division)

Widely regarded as the best league in CONCACAF and among the upper echelon of non-European leagues, no one should expect the CPL to match Mexico’s national league. A recent report placed the average Liga MX salary at the equivalent of 467,000 CAD, tenth in the world. At ten times the expected salary of CPL, any CONCACAF Champions League match between these two leagues will present CPL with the chance to play giant-killer.

Major League Soccer (American First Division)

MLS presents an interesting comparison. At first glance, with a salary cap of 4,035,000 USD and a minimum salary of 54,000 USD, MLS does not appear have a salary base much above CPL’s predicted numbers. However, anyone following the league over the last decade knows that the league has slowly implemented a series of supplements and exceptions to the salary cap, including Designated Players, Targeted Allocation Money, General Allocation Money, and others. As such, it is more useful to look at the league’s median salary, which clocks in at 169,000 CAD.

With this in mind, some have made the comparison that CPL will be to MLS what the CFL is to NFL. While the analogy works to an extent, it dramatically overestimates the gap between the two soccer leagues. The NFL’s salary cap is 178,000,000 USD compared to CFL’s 5,200,000 CAD, forty-three times as large. By comparison, the median MLS salary is only three to five times as high as the reported CPL salary figures. This is certainly a sizable gap, but it is a similar relative gap as is seen between the top MLS team and the bottom MLS team, so one would expect that matches between MLS teams and CPL teams in the Voyageurs Cup to remain competitive.

For Canadians, the best way to have a rough idea of what CPL might look like may in fact be to look at MLS circa 2007. The year that Toronto FC joined the league and Canadians began to tune in the median player salary was equivalent to 64,000 CAD while the minimum salary was equivalent to roughly 15,500 CAD. Considering this is roughly in line with numbers reported to represent average CPL salaries, those happy with MLS’ on field quality when TFC launched should not have difficulty following the CPL.

United Soccer League (American Second Division)

Getting a true sense of the average salaries in USL is difficult, as the league does not publish this data. However, some reporters have been able to acquire internal league documents and speak with player representatives that gives us a rough idea.

Kartik Krishnaiyer of SocTakes reported that the USL has expectations of 200,000 to 400,000 USD to be spent on player salaries by each team, which would amount to salaries of $9600 to $19,200 CAD across a 25 man roster. This would roughly match figures published from Bill Paterson of the Sacramento Bee, with an average salary of 1800 USD per month only paid in-season, amounting to 17,280 CAD across an eight month season. Finally, Steven Goff of the Washington Post reported that “above average” USL players were earning 2000 USD in-season, coming out to 19,200 CAD dollars across an eight month season.

While these reports range from a few months old to a few years old, and it is expected that some strong teams spend well above this level, the overall picture indicates that CPL fans may be able to expect that the league will be a large cut above USL, with salaries that double to quadruple what can be had in the USL.

The Rest of CONCACAF

It is exceedingly difficult to get solid salary information for the rest of CONCACAF. Most player unions list websites with expired domains, the region suffers with frequent scandals where players are not paid their reported salaries, and fluctuations in currency and economic stability make salary comparisons border on irrelevancy.

Liga FPD, the Costa Rican national league, is generally considered to be the best of the remaining CONCACAF leagues. While CONCACAF does not publish league coefficients like other confederations, rudimentary analysis of the league’s performance in CONCACAF Champions League tends to back this up. Salary reports for this league are nearly as vague as neighbouring leagues, but the fact that it was considered a victory when the league instituted a 590 USD per month minimum salary (equal to just under 8500 CAD annually) paints the picture that seems likely that CPL will be able to outpace the Costa Rican league economically, and by extension the rest of the remaining leagues in CONCACAF, with the possible exceptions of top clubs like Deportivo Saprissa or CS Herediano.

Comparisons Abroad

EFL League 2 (English Fourth Tier)

Sorry to the 0.27% of fans who expect the Canadian Premier League to rival the English Premier League, it isn’t happening. Coming in with an average salary equivalent just under 71,000 CAD, League 2 presents the most realistic league to gauge the CPL against for those focused on English football. Some may take this is as a damning statement, but it closer to a reminder of how well off the world’s richest football pyramid is.

Scottish Premier League (Scottish First Division)

The Scottish Premier League is fairly top heavy, with the Celtic spending in excess of seventeen times more per player than bottom feeder Hamilton Academical FC. As such, this is not the best league to look at average salaries. However, fans of Scottish football might use the fact that teams at the lower end of the SPL such as Hamilton, Motherwell, and St. Johnstone would correlate well with the upper end of the estimates of CPL spending to gauge the strength of CPL.

A-League (Australian First Division)

Our last comparison is perhaps the most apt. Australia is a fellow commonwealth nation that jumped on the soccer bandwagon fairly late, launching the A-League in 2004. Despite the country’s large geography, small population, and soccer remaining a less popular sport, the league has managed to build towards paying players an average of 179,000 CAD. While the Canadian Premier League will fall well short of that, it stands as a good example of what the CPL may be able to build towards if fans rally around this league.

The Catch

There is a small mountain of asterisks that need to be attached to any article trying to use indirect measures to predict quality, especially for a league that does not yet exist. Salaries in strong leagues can often remain low due to low cost of living or anti-competitive practices, whereas salaries can be artificially inflated in countries that maintain high domestic quotas. Further, CPL may initially struggle as an unknown quantity that has to overpay players willing to test the waters, or have difficulty with Canada’s relatively small player pool. Conversely, the CPL may benefit from Canada’s safety, stability, free healthcare, and guaranteed pay cheques. Regardless, in the absence of better alternatives, salary is the best available surrogate marker for league quality.

And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, these are not official salary figures from the league. Take this article with a shovel of salt.

The Bottom Line

Based on reported salary figures, the Canadian Premier League seems primed to become the third best league in CONCACAF. Potentially representing a midpoint between USL and MLS in terms of salary, these estimates already matches or exceeds the expectations of over 90% of survey respondents when asked what the level of play they expected to see from CPL. While it is always better to lower one’s expectations and hope to be surprised, we should not be cautious with our enthusiasm. Canada will have a real, professional league for the first time in nearly 30 years, it is time to get behind your local supporter’s group and push! Even if you are among the few disappointed with these predictions, the only way the league will improve is if we make it a success.

Bonus: We are conducting a survey for soccer fans about the Canadian Premier League. If you would like to participate, click here

Like what you read? Become a Patron.

Kevin Senior Kevin is a final year medical student with a love for the beautiful game. His main distraction from the world of medicine is reading and writing about Canadian soccer, primarily the yet to be launched Canadian Premier League. Ambitions include living long enough to see Canada in the World Cup

Share with a Friend Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

LinkedIn

WhatsApp

Telegram

Email



Like this: Like Loading...