re: $27,000,000

Gustav’s deal went into effect on 1/1/18 and runs through 12/31/24. That’s 7 years.

To keep the math as simple as possible, lets assume he makes an even $7 million every season. That means at the end of this calendar year AU will have paid him 3 years ($21 million) and have him under contract for 4 more ($28 million).

His buyout is 75% of his remaining deal, so that means if we fire him as of 1/1/21 we would owe him $28 million X .75 = $21 million, of which $10.5 million would be due by 1/31/21, the rest paid in monthly installments over the remaining 4 years.

tl;dr its easy to spend other people’s money.