The same is probably true of 'soccer', especiall the English Premier League which is essentially a tower of debt at the upper end because only more borrowing (or billionaires buying clubs) can support the titles and growth that helps service the existing debt.
Of course, the EPL situation is made more complicated by the divisions and relegation possibility. There are probably plenty of fans - especially outside the big 4 - who would be happy to cycle through the top and bottom of the Premier League, but a cycle of relegation is not attractive. In fact, I wonder how a salary cap could be managed across different divisions, although it would probably still be better than the same clubs bouncing up and down most years.
Relegation makes a big difference because it means that aiming to minimise spending is not a viable strategy; the potential to be profitably run in lower divisions is much lower. Likewise, because the debts incurred by risky spending to try and beat the top teams (all with huge global merchandising incomes or a sugar daddy) also have resulted in financial crises, you have the curious outcome of most of the division aiming to be somewhere in mid-table.
The top Premier League clubs have low interest loans from their owners, like Manchester City or Chelsea, or they have debt brought on by the owners to cover acquisition costs. It's harder at the bottom, clubs like Fulham or Stoke have low incomes. Here's a link with more details:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/t...
La Liga top clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid have huge amounts of debt and keep on borrowing money every year for their shopping sprees.
Of course, the EPL situation is made more complicated by the divisions and relegation possibility. There are probably plenty of fans - especially outside the big 4 - who would be happy to cycle through the top and bottom of the Premier League, but a cycle of relegation is not attractive. In fact, I wonder how a salary cap could be managed across different divisions, although it would probably still be better than the same clubs bouncing up and down most years.