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U.S. Soccer audit shows boost in national team spending, game-day revenues

Jurgen Klinsmann

By CAITLIN MURRAY

The U.S. Soccer Federation has released its annual external audit, showing a boost both in revenues and spending for the national teams, largely due to the World Cup campaign by the U.S. Men’s National Team.

The audit, which covered one year of financial statements ending March 31, 2014, showed spending on national teams increased overall and USMNT spending surged by $5.8 million to hit $18.7 million. The U.S. Women’s National Team saw a small drop in expenditures, down $1.2 million to $8.3 million.

Fired USWNT coach Tom Sermanni had signed a contract through Dec. 31, 2016, but new coach Jill Ellis has a shorter one, which runs through July 31, 2015. It does include optional extensions through Aug. 31, 2020, said the audit, which was filed with U.S. Soccer earlier this month.

Ellis’ base salary ranges from $185,000 to $215,000 and includes bonuses based on how well the USWNT performs at the 2015 World Cup in Canada and 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

Although last year’s audit specified USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann had available bonuses of $500,000 to $10.5 million, in addition to a base salary of $2.5 million, the latest audit does not specify his available bonuses. His contract ends July 31, 2018.

The agreement for U.S. Soccer to serve as manager of the National Women’s Soccer League was extended one additional year through Dec. 31, 2014, the audit said. Last year’s audit mentioned an option to extend through 2015, which is not mentioned in this audit.

NWSL spending was $671,000 for the time period covered in the audit, up from $248,000 the previous year. U.S. Soccer founded the NWSL last year to ensure USWNT players would have a domestic league to compete in.

The USWNT is still without an active collective bargaining agreement, according to the audit. A CBA expired on Dec. 31, 2012, and the women are still playing on a signed memorandum of agreement while a new CBA is negotiated. The men’s CBA expires Dec. 31, 2018.

The audit discloses U.S. Soccer has total assets of $96.9 million, which includes $7.7 million cash on hand and $62.6 million in investments.

U.S. Soccer saw a boost in the audit’s “sponsorship, television, licensing and royalties” category, which jumped from $23.5 million last year to $28.7 million. Revenues from national team games saw an increase of about $2.4 million to $24.7 million total.

U.S. Soccer collected $1.2 million in revenue from hosting the U.S. Open Cup, but spent nearly $1 million to host it, the audit said.

The committee bidding to host a World Cup in the U.S. spent $456,000.

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What do you make of these figures? Surprised by any of them? Think finances are only going to improve for U.S. Soccer in the coming years?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Spent 1mil on USOC, but only brought in 1.2mil. Gee, I wonder if a contract to televise the competition would change that balance……

    Reply
    • +1 Today I received a survey from MLS. One of the questions was whether I’d watched the U.S. Open Cup. I checked “YES” but unfortunately there was no box where I could tell them I had to watch an illegal stream of the final because I’m not able to get the obscure channel they buried the game on.

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    • Please, most of the competition would need USSF to pay to have the games on TV. Those 200 live viewers on a youtube stream will not be making ESPN want to pay money to broadcast the games. Now that the GolTV contract is up, I’m sure the semi’s and Final will return to Fox.

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  2. In 2006 the US revenue was 39 million.
    In 2010 the US revenue was 46 million.
    In 2014 the US revenue was 74 million.

    Dang. Bet we get close to 100 million for the world cup year.

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  3. “The committee bidding to host a World Cup in the U.S. spent $456,000.”
    What a waste considering we wuz cheated and the result was cooked before we even showed up.

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    • absolutely.. glad that it is not more.

      also very happy that Sunil G. is refusing to spend a dollar in that direction until FIFA cleans up the process.

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      • I really hope the Copa America, if promoted and executed properly, blows the doors off the UEFA championships and shows FIFA what a colossal bunch of idiots they are in awarding the next two WC to Russian and Qatar.

        By profiting with a few dollars in their pockets from the bribes , they missed a GIANT payday that it may have made for FIFA and football in general had they captured the wave of interest that soccer is experiencing in the US right now. The US is a financial giant and whereas the 94 WD was interesting to the US as a major sporting event, it still broke all records, many that are still held today.

        Imagine now, 20 years later, 20 years of MLS, collegiate soccer and bone-fide American soccer Stars, what this country could unleash on the world.

        Opportunity missed.

  4. Wow, so Jill Ellis only makes $185K. I guess I never realized how far down the pecking order women’s soccer is when the head coach of the world’s number 1 team gets so little. I hope the USWNT is officially located in TX or FL.

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    • There just isn’t that much demand from fans or the media, especially considering their recent record in the World Cup, e.g. not winning. Also, Klinsi is himself a celebrity in soccer which ads to his worth to the whole of US soccer, not just as coach. I’d also imagine his responsibilities run a lot deeper.

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    • It is indeed. I looked at the footnote from last year’s F/S and this range is strictly related to performance at 2014 WC…. presumably the $10.5 mm would be a “home run” bonus for winning the tournament…. would be interesting to see the whole scale.

      ,

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      • Most likely the bonus structure was based on exceeding previous WC’s. so getting past the group of 16, winning the group. winning more than 1 game, which, of course, the US failed to do, was probably the trigger.
        The claim that the US had a good WC is very debatable, but no bonuses for the Coach speaks volumes.

      • I doubt there was only one trigger, and I’m sure he got something…. just not $10.5 million. Getting out of the Group of Death was a big deal– Gulati has said so. But $10.5 million would be absurd for a quarterfinal berth.

        The idea of the structure would be to match the scale-ups to the revenue increases (bearing in mind the players/staff also get bonuses so you can’t give it all to JK). Had the US somehow made the final, funding $10.5 million would’ve been peanuts, as the game might have legitimiately produced Super Bowl level interest here (plus the prize money from FIFA, which is $25-$35 million for finalists, vs. $9 million for R16 losers, which covers it on a standalone basis)

        My guess would be he got a million or two, but it’s just speculation.

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