North American Soccer League

The money in North American Soccer League, a section for each part of this site. Its national TV deals paid $0.9M in 1980. Everything about its games and players is at soccerstats.us.

Reported salaries

North American Soccer League published no salary list, so what is known is what the press reported of single players, mostly its stars. These are those reports, each with its source; they say nothing about what anyone else was paid, so they are not added up.

season player club a year source
1975 Pelé New York Cosmos $1,670,000 1
1976 Kyle Rote Jr. Dallas Tornado $7,000 1
1978 Shep Messing Oakland Stompers $100,000 1
1981 Johan Cruyff Washington Diplomats $175,000 1

Value & ownership

Expansion fee Sale $20K $50K $100K $200K $500K $1M $2M 1970 New York Cosmos expansion fee: $350,000 1972 Philadelphia Atoms expansion fee: $25,000 1973 Seattle Sounders expansion fee: $75,000 1974 Baltimore Comets expansion fee: $75,000 1974 Boston Minutemen expansion fee: $75,000 1974 Denver Dynamos expansion fee: $75,000 1974 Los Angeles Aztecs expansion fee: $75,000 1974 San Jose Earthquakes expansion fee: $75,000 1974 Tampa Bay Rowdies expansion fee: $25,000 1974 Vancouver Whitecaps expansion fee: $75,000 1974 Washington Diplomats expansion fee: $75,000 1975 Washington Diplomats sale (the whole club sold): club valued at $650,000 1976 Colorado Caribous expansion fee: $1,000,000 1979 Colorado Caribous sale (the whole club sold): club valued at $1,500,000 1979 Portland Timbers sale (the whole club sold): club valued at $850,000 1980 Memphis Rogues sale (the whole club sold): club valued at $1,200,000 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970

Click or tap a mark to see what it is.

Average club value by year, with expansion fees and sales, on a logarithmic scale: each gridline step is a doubling or more.

Every club on each list is on the valuations page, and every fee, sale and owner on the ownership page.

Revenue

$0 $250K $500K $750K $1M 1968: $500K (CBS $500K) 1979: $900K (ABC $900K) 1980: $900K (ABC $900K) 1976: CBS, terms not reported– 1977: TVS, terms not reported– 1978: TVS, terms not reported– 1981: ESPN, USA Network, terms not reported– 1982: ESPN, USA Network, terms not reported– 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982

Click or tap a bar to see the deals in it.

North American Soccer League national TV money by season: the yearly figures of every national deal covering the season, reported or worked out from a total. A dash marks a season whose deals reported no figure; an empty season had no deal on record. Where only some of a season's deals reported a figure, the bar counts those, so it is a floor.

National TV

broadcaster rights seasons a year in all note sources
CBS network TV 1968 $500,000 $500,000 the ten-year deal the National Professional Soccer League signed in 1967 at $1M for its first year, carried into the merged league for 1968, reported at $500,000 to $1M, then dropped 1 2
CBS network TV 1976 — — announced as three years, only the 1976 games were shown, terms not reported 1
TVS syndicated TV 1977–1978 — — terms not reported 1
ABC network TV 1979–1980 $900,000 $1,800,000 two years, nine telecasts a season, ABC dropped most of 1980 for low ratings 1
ESPN cable TV 1981–1982 — — twenty Saturday games a season, terms not reported 1 2
USA Network cable TV 1981–1982 — — terms not reported 1

Figures are as reported; one in grey italics is worked out from the other figure and the deal's length. Clubs' own deals are on the sponsorships and TV rights pages.