A fascinating new study from Sporting Intelligence and ESPN The Magazine looks at wages across 333 top teams in the world.
What was most interesting for soccer fans here in North America was a look at how the 2015 wages by MLS club looked as that information has not been released to the public yet.
According to the study, Toronto FC have the biggest wage bill in MLS at $20.5 million with the LA Galaxy second at $15.4 million.
To put TFC’s wage bill in perspective, you could take the Toronto’s payroll and pay the wages at the Colorado Rapids, Real Salt Lake, DC United and the Columbus Crew and still have $4.1m left over!
MLS Wages By Club
| Overall Rank (’14 RANK) | TEAM | PAYROLL |
| 204 (214) | Toronto FC | 20.5M (204) |
| 229 (231) | Los Angeles Galaxy | 15.4M (219) |
| 234 (new) | New York City FC | 15M (224) |
| 241 (new) | Orlando City | 13.5M (233) |
| 246 (228) | New York Red Bulls | 13.5M (234) |
| 247 (230) | Seattle Sounders | 12.5M (239) |
| 256 (281) | New England Revolution | 7.3M (283) |
| 281 (260) | Portland Timbers | 5.9M (290) |
| 289 (262) | Chicago Fire | 5.3M (295) |
| 293 (268) | Houston Dynamo | 4.5M (306) |
| 294 (270) | FC Dallas | 4.8M (299) |
| 295 (255) | Vancouver Whitecaps | 5.4M (294) |
| 297 (277) | Sporting Kansas City | 4.4M (310) |
| 298 (265) | San Jose Earthquakes | 4.6M (302) |
| 301 (289) | Columbus Crew | 4.2M (315) |
| 302 (266) | Philadelphia Union | 4.5M (305) |
| 303 (269) | DC United | 4.2M (316) |
| 304 (253) | Montreal Impact | 4.6M (304) |
| 305 (267) | Real Salt Lake | 4.4M (309) |
| 309 (276) | Colorado Rapids | 3.6M (319) |
What do you think of the numbers? Two number that stood out for me are New York Red Bulls and New England Revolution, which are both much higher than I thought they would. Without Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill I expected the Red Bulls wage bill to drop back, not to be higher than that of the Sounders.
