Sports salaries database: explanatory notes

Jan 02, 2010

The sportingintelligence sports salaries database allows you to compare athletes’ wages on a like-for-like basis from major sports around the world. The first-team average salary is provided for every team in every season. When you have selected a sport, league and season, you are provided with a range of team or player options, and it is at this stage you are also provided with details about sporting performance by each team or player for that season.

Some of these details are in note form, and for database users unfamiliar with all the sports / leagues in question, here is a brief guide to how each league works and what our performance notes in the database indicate:

Football

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE, aka EPL (England): Comprises 20 teams who each play each other twice, once at home and once away, over the course of the season, for a 38-game campaign. Three points for a win, one for a draw. Final positions decided by simple addition of points. No post-season. The Premier League's website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the Premier League season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No20 payers), and where they finished in the EPL that season (1st to 20th).

SERIE A (Italy): Comprises 20 teams, who each play each other twice, once at home and once away, over the course of the season, for a 38-game campaign. Three points for a win, one for a draw. Final positions decided by simple addition of points. No post-season. The Serie website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the Serie A season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No20 payers), and where they finished in Serie A that season (1st to 20th).

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER, aka MLS (US/Can): Comprised 15 teams in 2009. This will increase to 16 in 2010 and 18 in 2011. The teams are split between two conferences, the Eastern Conference and Western Conference. For 2010, the regular season will involve each club playing 30 games, 15 home and 15 away, playing every other team twice. (In 2009 that meant 28 games, plus two additional games against conference rivals). Three points for a win, one for a draw. At the end of the regular season, the top two teams in each conference, plus the next four with the best records regardless of conference progress to the post-season play-offs. This is a knockout event, first with the eight-team "conference semi-finals", then the conference finals, then the MLS Cup final. The MLS website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers (No1 to No15 in 2009), and states whether a club finished as MLS Cup winners (one team), runners-up (one team), conference finalists (effectively joint 3rd, two teams), semi-finalists (effectively joint 5th, four teams) or finished 9th to 15th on their regular season record, and therefore missed the play-offs.

SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE, aka SPL (Scotland): Comprises 12 teams, who each play 38 games in a two-phase season. The first phase involves each team playing every other team three times, twice at home and once away (or vice versa). After 33 games, the division "splits" for the final five games, and each team plays the other five in their half of the table at the time of the split. Three points for a win, one for a draw. Final positions decided by simple addition of points, but no team can move outside their 33-game six-team section, regardless of how they fare in the five "post-split" games. It is possible (and typically happens) that a team fails to reach the top six after 33 games but has more points than one or more top-six teams and finishes outside the top six after 38 games. No post-season. The SPL website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the SPL season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No12 payers), and where they finished in the SPL that season (1st to 12th).

Baseball

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, aka MLB (US/Can): MLB comprises 30 teams in two leagues, the National League (aka NL, 16 teams) and the American League (aka AL, 14 teams). Each league has three divisions: east, central and west. Each team plays 162 games per season (sometimes 163 if a play-off is needed), 81 at home and 81 away. Teams face others from their own division and league more often than those from outside, although there are inter-league games too. At the end of the regular season, eight teams progress to the play-offs: six divisional winners, plus one more team from each of the NL and AL, whichever has the best record in that league without having won its division. The four teams from the NL are paired off to contest a best-of-five series, effectively the MLB quarter-finals, in the NL Division Series. The two winners of those series then contest a best-of-seven series, effectively the MBL semis, known as the NL Championship Series. The same happens in the AL; a four-team AL Divisional Series, then a two-team AL Championship Series. The winners of the two Championship series contest the best-of-seven World Series. The MLB website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the MLB season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No30 payers), and how they performed that season in terms of their win-loss (WL) record. It also identifies the World Series winner (one), World Series runner-up (one), the teams that reached the NL and AL Champ Series but got no further (two), the teams that reached the NL and AL Div series but got no further (four), and the teams that had no post-season action (22 of them).

NIPPON PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL, aka NPB (Japan): Comprises 12 teams in two leagues, with six teams in each of the Central League (CL) and the Pacific League (PL). Each team plays 144 games in the regular season, mostly against teams in the same league, but there are also some inter-league games. The top three teams in each league at the end of the regular season progress to the post-season phase. The second- and third-placed teams in each league contest a best-of-three series (CL1st stage / PL1st stage) to decide which of them will meet their league's winners in a best-of-seven series (CL2nd stage / PL2nd stage) for a place in the best-of-seven Japan Series. The NPB website is here, and in English here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the NPB season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No12 payers), and how they performed that season in terms of their win-loss-tie (WLT) record. It also identifies the Japan Series winner (one), Japan Series runners-up (one), the teams that reached the CL and PL 2nd stages (effectively the season's semi-finals) and the finishing order of the other eight teams ranked by their WLT records.

Basketball

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION, aka NBA (US/Can): Comprises 30 teams, split into two conferences, each with three divisions of five teams. The Eastern Conference has Atlantic, Central and Southeast Divisions, and the Western Conference has Northwest, Pacific and Southwest Divisions. In the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 home and 41 away. Each team plays the other four teams in their own division four times per regular season (16 games), plays each other team in the conference three or four times (36 games), and plays two games against each of the 15 teams in the other conference (30 games). At the end of the season, the divisional winners are guaranteed seeded play-off spots, and the team with the best record that didn't win the division also goes through seeded. A further four teams from each conference go to the play-offs: the four with the next best records. The play-offs therefore feature 16 teams, eight of them seeded, in a knockout format, starting with the first round (effectively conference quarter-finals), then conference semi-finals, conference finals, and then the NBA finals between the two conference winners. All the play-off matches are best-of-seven series. The NBA website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the NBA season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No30 payers), and how they performed that season in terms of their win-loss (WL) record. It also identifies the NBA finals winner (one), the NBA finals runners-up (one), the conference finals runners-up (two), the losing conference semi-finalists (Conf S-F, four), the play-off first-round losers (1R, eight), and the teams who did not reach the post-season phase (14).

American Football

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, aka NFL (US): Comprises 32 teams, split into two conferences, each with four divisions of four teams. The American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC) both have North, South, East and West Divisions. In the regular season, each team plays 16 games, eight home and eight away, although occasional fixtures are played on neutral territory, such as London's Wembley Stadium, for marketing expansion purposes. Each team plays the other three teams in their own division home and away each season (six games), plays another six games against teams from other divisions in their own conference (schedule varies) and plays four games each season against teams from the other conference. Twelve teams qualify for the post-season play-offs, six from each conference. The four division winners in each conference qualify automatically, and they are joined by the two teams in the conference with the next best records in the regular season. The six play-off teams from each conference are seeded from No1 to No6, based on their records, for the play-offs. These happen over four rounds: the wild card round, the divisional round, the Championship round, and the Super Bowl. Seeds No1 and No2 from each conference gain a bye straight into the divisional round. That leaves four teams from each conference (seeds No3 to No6) contesting two games per conference (four games altogether) in the wild card round. The winners go to the divisional round (two more games in each conference, where the No1 and No2 seeds come in). Then the Championship round (the NFL semi-finals, in effect) decides the AFC and NFC champions, and they meet in the Super Bowl. The NFL website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the NFL season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No32 payers), and how they performed that season in terms on win-lose-tie records (WLT). The database also identifies the Super Bowl winner (one), runners-up (one), the Championship game losers (two), the divisional round losers (four), the wild card round losers (four), and those who did not reach the post-season phase (20).

Cricket

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE, aka IPL (India): Comprises eight teams, who play each other once at home and once away in a 14-game season. Two points for a win, one for no result (a draw, for example). The top four teams qualify for the semi-finals (one game), and the winners of the semi-finals meet in the final (one game). The IPL website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the IPL season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No8 payers), and how they performed that season: winners (one team), runners-up (one), losing semi-finalists (two), and teams placed 5th to 8th in the regular season (four).

Ice hockey

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE, aka NHL (US/Can): Comprises 30 teams, split into two conferences, each with three divisions of five teams. The Eastern Conference has Atlantic, Northeast and Southeast Divisions, and the Western Conference has Central, Northwest and Pacific Divisions. In the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 at home and 41 on the road. They each play 24 games against teams in their own division, 40 more against teams in their own conference outside their division, and the other 18 against teams from the other conference (12 teams once each, the other three twice). Two points for a win, one for losing in overtime (uniquely among major sports), none for defeat. Eight teams from each conference make the play-offs: the three divisional winners plus the five teams with next best records. The play-offs consist of conference quarter-finals, semis and finals, with the conference winners meeting for the Stanley Cup . The NHL website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: where each club ranked as payers during the NHL season in question (No1 payers, No2 payers . . . to No30 payers), and where completed seasons are included in the database, it will also show the win-loss-overtime loss records (WLO), and identify the Stanley Cup winners (one team), the runners-up (one), the losing Conference finalists (two), the losing Conference semi-finalists (four) and the losing Conference quarter-finalists (eight).

Tennis

ATP TOUR (men): Comprises thousands of players in tournaments of varying stature around the world each year. The ATP website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: the top 20 players as they were ranked in the singles rankings at the end of the year in question. They appear in ranking order, 1-20, in the drop-down menu on the database.

WTA TOUR (women): Comprises thousands of players in tournaments of varying stature around the world each year. The WTA website is here.

Golf

PGA TOURS (men, combined money list from European and American tours): Comprises thousands of players in tournaments of varying stature around the world each year. The (American) PGA Tour website is here, and the (European) PGA Tour website is here.

As well as salaries, our database tells you: the 30 top-earning players in the world in the year in question, by earnings solely from playing golf, ie: tournament winnings. They are ranked in order, 1 to 30, the highest earner at the top, on the drop-down menu on the database.