Money buys championships, it is said.

How true is it?

From the mid-fifties to the sixties, the Yco Painters (owned by Don Manolo Elizalde) and the Ysmael Steel Admirals (owned by leading industrialist Felipe Ysmael Jr.) dominated the local basketball competitions, including the national seniors championship and the post-graduate Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA) tournament.

The two powerhouses were able to secure the services of the best players in town mainly because they had the financial resources to do so.

It was no different in the early 1970s when moneyed ballclubs like the Crispa Redmanizers (owned by the Floros) and Toyota Comets (owned by the Carloses) alternately captured the prestigious MICAA crowns. Crispa vs. Toyota was a storied rivalry that eventually spilled into the professional Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) in 1975.

While Crispa and Toyota have already been out of the PBA circuit for nearly three decades, clubs belonging to the moneyed San Miguel Corporation conglomerate (San Miguel Beer, Barangay Ginebra and Purefoods) have taken over to win seven of the last 11 PBA conference titles since 2004-05. During the stretch, Barangay Ginebra emerged as champion four times; San Miguel, twice; and Purefoods, once.

Things are no different in the North American pro team sports scene.

Last month, the high-profile New York Yankees dethroned the Philadelphia Phillies with a 4-2 victory in the 2009 World Series while owning major-league baseball’s largest player payroll at $201 million.

In the National Basketball Association, the reigning titlist Los Angeles Lakers are the highest-paid team this season.

The Lakers, who registered a 4-1 decision over the Orlando Magic during the 2009 NBA Finals last June, have the biggest player payroll at $91.3 million.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers will spend an additional $21.4 million in luxury taxes (the dollar-for-dollar tax a club has to pay if it goes over the threshold of the NBA salary cap) if their player roster remains the same on the final day of the regular season in mid-April.

The total salary payoff thus would be $112.7 million. This does not even include the $12 million stipend that head coach Phil Jackson is getting from the Lakers this season.

During the previous 2008-09 campaign, when they romped away with their first NBA championship since 2002, the Lakers owned a payroll of $86 million.

The top-salaried players for the Lakers this season are: Kobe Bryant ($23 million), Pau Gasol ($16.5 million), Andrew Bynum ($12.5 million – a jump of about $10 million from last season), Lamar Odom ($7.5 million), Ron Artest ($5.9 million) and Derek Fisher ($5 million).

Bryant, Gasol, Bynum, Artest and Fisher compose the Lakers’ starting lineup and Odom is the club’s first player off the bench.

Money, though, may not be an issue for Lakers team owner Jerry Buss.

While 12 NBA teams (Dallas, Portland, Orlando, Atlanta, Sacramento, Indiana, Charlotte, New Jersey, Minnesota, New Orleans, Memphis and Milwaukee) lost money last campaign, the Lakers owned an operating income of $51.1 million, tops in the league. (The Chicago Bulls ranked second with a profit of $51 million.)

The bottom line: One must be willing to pay a high price if it wants to build a winner.