What Would You Buy With $220 Million?
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009By Gregory Miller
THE COMMISH
How about 3,268 Cadillac Escalades (ESV Edition)?
Tricked out Caddies not your style? Let’s go with something a little more palatable: luxury homes.
A 6 bedroom, 7 bathroom luxury home, currently priced at $3,895,000, has a list of amenities that goes on for days, including a completed 3-room basement and a dual spiral staircase that looks like something out of Scarface.
Does this Tony Montana residence suit your fancy? Well, you could buy 56 of these. 56! You could own an entire development full of these houses!
Need one more visual? How about eating one of these $5,000 burgers at every meal (the three old school meals, not the constant, small portion chow down people are into these days) for the next 40 years? Sure, you’d die from the immense amounts of cholesterol and meaty goodness but with $220 million, it could be done with ease.
I bring up “$220 million” because that is what it took for Spanish soccer giant Real Madrid to purchase the RIGHTS to world-class midfielders Kaka (app. $90 million) and Cristiano Ronaldo (app. $130 million). I stress “rights” because this doesn’t even take into account the amount of bank Real is going to have to pay each player in terms of yearly salary.
(For those who are not familiar with the transfer fee concept, it would be equivalent to the New England Patriots selling Tom Brady to the Dallas Cowboys for, say, 75 million dollars. Then, after the fee was accepted, Dallas would have to deal with Brady on restructuring a new contract.)
Speaking of contracts, preliminary reports have Kaka making around $327k per week while Ronaldo will take in around $295k per week.
In total, the 2009-10 estimates for these two players will come to the remarkable total of $250 million. That’s not the length of their time at the Bernabeu. That is just this year ALONE.
Why would Real Madrid do something so drastic in one of the worst economic recessions in recent memory? Why would a club with a Spanish record 57 domestic trophies and European record 9 Euro Cup titles splash money around like a reckless, drunken gambler stranded in the middle of Las Vegas?
Simple: Their main rivals, FC Barcelona, flat out embarrassed them this year.
Embarrassed may not be strong enough. There’s “getting your pants pulled down in gym” embarrassed, there’s “losing 8 straight to the Boston Red Sox” embarrassed and then there is the way Barcelona did Real Madrid dirty in 2009.
For starters, Barcelona completed one of the rarest happenings in European soccer during the 2008-09 season: The Treble. Barca’s Treble, the fifth of its kind in European history, consisted of the La Liga title, the Copa Del Rey (Spain’s top domestic trophy) and the UEFA Champions’ League trophy. Not only did Barca win all three, but they did it with flare, scoring over 170 goals across the three competitions.
Now, you may be asking “Why is that embarrassing to Real?” So Barca had a great year, that doesn’t speak any volumes on Madrid, does it? There is some truth to that, as can be evidenced with Manchester United’s thorough beat down of the English Premier League this season.
What does make this season particularly agonizing for Los Blancos was the way they lost. They finished 9 points out in the League title race after dismantling La Liga the prior season, finishing 18 points clear of their rivals. Furthermore, they were dismantled in the Champions League Round of 16 by Liverpool while Barca finished off Man U in the Final.
Worst of all, they were bitch-slapped in the two head-to-head meetings this season, losing by an aggregate score of 8-2 (with a particularly bitter 6-2 loss at the Camp Nou back in May).
Combine that with the star power of Barcelona, ranging from attacking youngsters Lionel Messi and Samuel Eto’o to seasoned veterans Thierry Henry and Carles Puyol, and you can see why Real Madrid had to make a giant splash in this year’s transfer market.
Screw giant splash, this was a Jackknife/Cannonball combo by a King Hippo into a kiddie pool.
With Kaka and CR, Real Madrid inserts itself back into the conversation of most talented clubs in Europe. These two, along with current Real midfielders Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder, should create one of the most offensively dynamic midfields in the world.
Whether or not high spending and immediate success have any correlation remains to be seen. Just ask the 2009 Yankees how well that one’s working out for them against the Sawx.
What is evident is that Real Madrid will come back next season as a force to be reckoned with in European soccer.
At the very least, they won’t end up as Barca’s bitch for the second campaign running.