Every year, the team that usually winds up as the Kehler Cup champion in the CCHL, has spent a lot of money on their path to glory.
How much money?
Do you have to have the highest payroll to win the Cup?
Do you just have to be in the top grouping of the CCHL big spenders?
Has a team ever won the Cup and not been in the upper range of salaries in the CCHL?
We have ten years of detailed salary and team payroll information to review. Back in 2007/08 season, we had twenty-four teams in the league up until the 2009-10 season, when we contracted a few teams and dropped down to the twenty-two teams that we've had ever since.
Let's look at the history:
YEAR CHAMPION PAYROLL RANK
2007-08: DENVER $76.6M 3RD
2008-09: QUEBEC $50.5M 7TH
2009-10: RIVER CITIES $54.7M 5TH
2010-11: COPENHAGEN $52.6M 10TH
2011-12: DAYTON $66.1M 1ST
2012-13: NIAGARA FALLS $60.9M 12TH
2013-14: COPENHAGEN $110.5M 1ST
2014-15: COPENHAGEN $113.4M 1ST
2015-16: REYKJAVIK $89.8M 7TH
2016-17: DAYTON $129.9M 1ST
On average, the champion's team payroll has come in about 4.8th of all the teams in the league in their championship years. It seems that yes, if you want to contend seriously for Cup, you typically need to be in the top five payrolls in the league.
Obviously, there are exceptions...
Also, the four oldest season's data skewed away from being the most expensive. Looking at just the last six season, the Champ wound up, on average, with the 3.8th highest payroll in the league.
60% of the time, the Champion's payroll was among the 5 highest.
50% of the time, the Champion's payroll was among the 3 highest.
40% of the time, the Champion's payroll was 7th or higher.
20% of the time, the Champion's payroll was 10th or higher.
10% of the time, the Champion's payroll was outside the top 10.
Correlating this to this year's numbers:
TEAM CURRENT PAYROLL CURRENT RANK IN OVERALL STANDINGS
1. CGY $129.2M 1ST
2. REK $120.4M 6TH
3. HAM $119.1M 2ND
4. SPR $102.4M 3RD
5. MIN $102.1M 10TH
6. WIS $101.7M 5TH
7. GEO $ 98.6M 8TH
8. FOR $ 97.3M 7TH
9. SAN $ 95.5M 11TH
10. OTT $ 95.3M 16TH
11. HAL $ 90.2M 9TH
12. SIB $ 63.2M 4TH
Having the highest payroll doesn't always mean you'll be in a top spot standings wise. Look at #2 REK and #3 HAM. REK has outspent HAM by $1.3M so far this season, yet sits 4 spots behind the Tigers.
Likewise, look at the spread between #3 HAM and #4 SPR. A single point separates these teams in the Canosa Conference despite there being a $16.7M difference in their payroll so far.
So many factors can effect a team's payroll yet not always contribute to its climbing higher in the standings. For example, older players with falling production but a pricey contract or a star player who's missed major time due to injury would both produce less than optimal results.
Siberia seems to be maximizing their efficiency so far with a payroll roughly half of what Calgary's is.
Looking at dollars spent per point ($$$/current total points) we see:
*****OVERALL TEAM RANKING***** # TEAM NAME GP W L T Pts PCT Payroll $'s Pts./$1.00 1 Chinook 46 37 6 3 77 0.837 129.2M $1.68M 2 Tigers 46 30 12 4 64 0.696 119.1M $1.86M 3 Isotopes 46 30 13 3 63 0.685 102.4M $1.623 4 Icecats 47 30 13 4 64 0.681 63.2M $.989K 5 Donuts 46 27 14 5 59 0.641 101.7M $1.72M 6 Puffin 46 28 16 2 58 0.630 120.4M $2.08M 7 Falcons 47 27 15 5 59 0.628 97.3M $1.65M 8 Millers 46 26 15 5 57 0.620 98.6M $1.73M 9 Hammerheads 46 23 15 8 54 0.587 90.2M $1.67M 10 Norsemen 47 25 17 5 55 0.585 102.1M $1.86M
Siberia spends substantially less to earn one point in the standings than does any of the other
top ten teams in the CCHL. Conversely, the Puffin seem to be spending more to earn one point
in the standings than any of the other top ten teams.
BOTTOM LINE:If you think your team is ready to take a serious run at a Kehler Cup, pay attention to the team payrolls and financials that Bobby generates. If you find your team performing well, and your payroll is among the five, you probably pretty close to where you want to be. If you can get into the top 3, that likely increases your chances to win.
The other side of the coin may be (because we don't know how this season turns out yet, do we???) keep an eye on how much your team has to spend to earn 1 point in the standings compared to those teams closest to you.
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