Soccer benefits from money infusion

Here in Germany, Bayern Munich are trying to become the first team of the Champions League era to both host and win a final. This momentous game will be worth $150 million, split between both teams.

In England, West Ham and Blackpool will clash at Wembley in the Championship playoff final, each fighting for the right to enter next year’s Premier League. That pivotal game is estimated to be worth a cool $160 million. All told, nearly a half-billion dollars changes hands Saturday before supper time.

Big money, big money. In the United States, we’re used to it. A baseball player for a $120 million? Piece of cake. Franchise tag on a linebacker catching a cool $60 million? Yawn. But soccer – despite seeing a solid decade of an inflating bottom-line – still hasn’t entirely come to grips with what all this money means.

The billion dollars that Sheik Mansour has pumped into Manchester City seems unfathomable to most folks in Manchester. Yet, they’re happy to have it. Fans in Cardiff were not thrilled about their Malaysian owners’ plans to change both the colors and nickname of the team. Nonetheless, all admitted that the $100 million those folks dangled in exchange for ditching the blue jerseys are badly needed (the new owners tabled that move, for now). And Chelsea? They’re the nouveau-riche team that is starting to look like old money.

Some folks, namely paid complainers like myself, would have you think that all this cash is taking the teams away from their “roots.” Don’t we miss the days of open terraces, slim bank accounts and the reward of playing purely for love of the game? Well, I’m sure players don’t. I’m not so sure the fans miss it, either. Frankly, in this telling, fans take the form of a lumpen group battered by big money, “priced out” of games and the lonely guardians of that ill-defined thing teams need, called soul.

Now believe it or not – and I’m sure fans of the Los Angeles Clippers will not – soccer teams still have souls. Grown men do weep when their team loses, or better yet, wins. People also care about the clubs even if they don’t happen to be fans of the sport. Case in point, a man told me in the same breath earlier today that he wasn’t much of a soccer fan, but admitted that he would never support Galatasaray. That’s Fenerbahce for you.

And yet, it seems this supposedly put-upon fan base also wants the big bucks to flow in. In fact, they don’t care if their team is losing money, as long as their sugar daddies keep bling rolling in. Odd as it sounds, the petrodollars in London and Manchester have created a fan dynamic that seems to delight in paper losses. One club that fiscally infuriates its fan base is Arsenal – they have the audacity to make a profit. “Couldn’t some of that go into buying the next Wayne Rooney,” they plead — and at shareholder meetings no less! “No,” says Arsene Wenger.

Whether we want to admit it or not, all the cash out on the field is truly sexy. Bayern’s Franck Ribery is worth a cool $40 million. The fact that he also has accounted for 25 assists and 15 goals is remarkable. But let’s be frank: what keeps a lot of folks coming back, buying his jerseys and supporting him is that big eight-figure number.

The numbers we pin on Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez, Joleon Lescott – whomever – are just another way of keeping score. What troubles me is that after a while, $10 million for a player starts to seem like nothing. What’s really impressive is the $300 million or so City put out on the field last Sunday.

That’s why every time I hear another conversation about how money is getting “in the way” of the game on television, I throw my remote across the room. Money is the game, and we love it. We love the neat way cash ranks players outside of murky, arguable categories. We love the fact that we can boast how much more talent our team has based purely on a balance sheet; especially when wealthy athletes are very likely to do stupid things on camera. This allows us to be smug, despite the fact that most of us have done the same foolish things. Only difference is that no one has filmed us or played the video on SportsCenter for millions to see.

You’re going to read and hear a lot this week about “FC Hollywood” and how Chelsea is just a rich man’s bauble. Big deal. According to Bayern’s Uli Hoeness, the game is both sold out and too pricey. But I ask: do we really care, or have we learned to love the cash in the game?

Consider this:

7000: What a single ticket to Manchester City’s game against QPR last Sunday was sold for (in dollars) by a private reseller in England.

5000: The asking price for a single ticket to Saturday’s Champions League final (in dollars) from ticket brokers in Munich.

496: The face value of a top-tier ticket for Saturday’s Champions League final (in dollars). None are available.

13: The face value of a top-tier ticket for Thursday’s Champions League Women’s Final (in dollars). Tickets are still available at the Olympiastadion box office.

1: Number of ticket windows open Wednesday afternoon to purchase a ticket to Thursday’s Champions League Women’s final.

0: Number of people waiting in line to purchase the aforementioned ticket when I walked up.