BasketNews introduces the EuroLeague Budget Tracker, comparing team budgets and roster spending across the 2026-27 season. Panathinaikos currently tops early figures with an estimated €34 million net player payroll, but the report will be continuously updated as new official figures and information from BasketNews sources become available.
The 2026-27 EuroLeague season is underway, and with it comes the eternal question: Who is spending what?
EuroLeague finances are rarely fully public, making it difficult to compare what clubs actually spend on their rosters. That’s why BasketNews has created the EuroLeague Budget Tracker.
Throughout the season, we’ll update this report with official club figures and information from BasketNews sources to build a clearer picture of the league’s financial landscape.
Bookmark this page and check back as more numbers emerge.
Here is the first wave of budget and payroll figures for the 2026-27 season.
How to Read the Numbers
Before diving into the table, here is a quick cheat sheet on European basketball finances:
Total Budget: The entire operation. Player and coaching salaries, travel, youth programs, arena expenses, taxes, and everything else it takes to run the basketball club. Gross Payroll: What the club actually spends on player salaries, including taxes. Net Payroll: What the players actually take home after taxes. This is arguably the best way to compare real roster spending power across EuroLeague teams: a €10 million net roster can cost around €18 million gross in high-tax markets such as Spain or France, but considerably less elsewhere. Source: Where each figure comes from. Some clubs publicly disclose their budgets, while certain domestic leagues also publish financial data. When figures remain confidential, estimates are based on media reports and information from BasketNews sources. Notes: Additional context behind the numbers, including important details or explanations that help clarify each club’s financial situation. EuroLeague teams budgets & payrolls in 2026-27 season Team Total Budget Payroll (Gross) Payroll (Net) Source Notes Panathinaikos €55.0-60.0M – €34.0M Greek media/BN calculations – Olympiacos – – ~€22.0M Greek media/BN calculations – Fenerbahce – – €17.0M BN sources – Maccabi Tel Aviv – – €15.5M Israeli media – Zalgiris €28.8M €19.7M €12.0M Official announcement – Besiktas €20.0M – €9.0-10.0M Official announcement – Paris Basketball €30.9M – €8.2M LNB report – ASVEL €24.8M – €7.88M LNB report – Olimpia Milan €40.0M – – Italian media – Virtus €25.0M – – Italian media – Anadolu Efes – – – – – Baskonia – – – – – Crvena Zvezda – – – – – Dubai – – – – – FC Barcelona – – – – – FC Bayern Munich – – – – – Hapoel Tel Aviv – – – – – Partizan – – – – – Real Madrid – – – – – Valencia Basket – – – – –
If you have additional data or details that could help complete the picture for any EuroLeague team, contact [email protected]. Confidentiality and anonymity are guaranteed.
The biggest misconception
One of the biggest mistakes when comparing EuroLeague budgets across Europe is mixing gross and net salaries, money spent before taxes, with what players actually take home.
Zalgiris is a perfect example.
The club recently announced €19.7 million in player and coaching staff salary expenses. But that figure includes taxes. Treating it as net payroll would incorrectly put Zalgiris in the same spending territory as Panathinaikos, Olympiacos, Dubai, or Hapoel Tel Aviv.
In reality, the combined take-home salaries are closer to €12 million net, which, based on last season’s estimates, would place Zalgiris slightly outside the EuroLeague’s top 10 payrolls.
That’s why some publicly announced budgets can be misleading when comparing teams.
It may genuinely cost one club much more to build and operate its organization and roster, but different tax systems can dramatically change how much of that money actually reaches the players, and therefore how much spending power a club really has on the market.
This matters especially for French and German clubs, which often require significantly higher total budgets because of local taxation, employment costs, and operating expenses.
As a result, they can appear among the EuroLeague’s biggest spenders on paper while their actual player spending power remains well below the league’s top teams.
For example, Bayern reported a €48 million total budget last season, a figure that would seemingly place the club among the EuroLeague’s top budgets.
Yet its actual player spending power was estimated at only around €9.5 million net, ranking Bayern among the league’s bottom eight payrolls.
For example, Paris Basketball has a higher total budget than Zalgiris Kaunas, yet its estimated €8.2 million net payroll is around 32% lower than Zalgiris’ €12 million.
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Senior Content Creator & Strategist
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