Paying for team budgets in Israel

[manly]

Hello,

I recently worked in Israel for a few months and had the pleasure of attending a Ra'anana women's basketball game while there.
I am also a student studying the business of sport and had a question about that team and women's basketball in general.

I noticed that all fans got into the game for no charge, so I was wondering if you had any idea how the Ra'anana municipality/owners of the team manage to pay for payroll costs.
I assume these costs average $35000 US per player, so given that this is approximately $400 000 US for the entire team, how does this manage to work out to everyone's benefit?

I imagine based on the 200-300 people that attended the game I was at in Ra'anana last year (vs. Deanna Nolan and Anda Ramat Hasharon), sponsors and the broadcast rightsholders would not pay very much.
My estimate would be that the city/Israeli government pays at a minimum 75% of these costs, which ends up being quite substantial based on the level of interest from fans.
I wonder how they can justify this large cost.

Thanks for your help (Todah Rabah)!

[ArnoldPettybone]

except for one and a half team, basketball in Israel is not a Business, Its like Jewelery for the municipalities mayors, Bread and circuses stuff. If the mayor wants It-there will be a team (like in ramle). If not, no team.

[Digdis]

except for one and a half team, basketball in Israel is not a Business, Its like Jewelery for the municipalities mayors, Bread and circuses stuff. If the mayor wants It-there will be a team (like in ramle). If not, no team.

I generally agree, but you can also add businessmen who like to toy around with the teams, in addition to the mayors. Anyway in both cases there is no profit (as also in local football BTW). It seems that the local market is just too small to cover the expenses of the teams.

Oh - and welcome aboard, manly.

[ArnoldPettybone]

I generally agree, but you can also add businessmen who like to toy around with the teams, in addition to the mayors. Anyway in both cases there is no profit (as also in local football BTW). It seems that the local market is just too small to cover the expenses of the teams.

Oh - and welcome aboard, manly.

I'm writing on these boards from the last January....
businessmen? I can count maybe 4 or 5. and maybe only two of them finance their teams with no municipal help.

[Digdis]

I'm writing on these boards from the last January....

I was greeting manly, the thread starter. Not saying you're not manly though.

businessmen? I can count maybe 4 or 5. and maybe only two of them finance their teams with no municipal help.

Doesn't really matter. My point was just that in neither case team owners see or expect any profit.

[manly]

thanks for your responses.

While I can understand this for football/soccer, since the interest level and attendance is MUCH MUCH higher among israelis (and men's basketball to a similar extent), for women's basketball I just cannot rationalize it.

If I was a resident of an israeli city with a team and was one of the 97% of the residents that did not care about womens basketball, I would make a point to challenge the municipality for this money to be put where it can be better used.

I realize there are other priorities for citizens, but clearly this is an easy target where municipalities could do better.

Am I wrong on the "97% do not care"? Are israelis too apathetic about things like this to complain?

Thanks!

[manly]

any thoughts on this women's basketball question?