Rethinking the salary cap

[dibo]

Even with a salary cap, a haves and have nots divide is emerging.

Adelaide, Sydney, Central Coast and Newcastle have all made 3 finals series from 4. Adelaide's had two trips to the ACL plus the WCC. Sydney's been to the ACL and WCC.

Melbourne's made 2 and been to Asia, Queensland has now made 2.

Perth and Welly haven't made anything, they're not exactly raking in cash and their crowds are poor. If we ditched the salary cap we'd lose them both pretty quickly. I'd bet that NQ would essentially be stillborn, and GC would only survive as long as Clive Palmer's patience lasts. Ditto for Newcastle - substitute Con Constantine's name for Clive Palmer's.

We don't yet have sufficient non-football revenue for the cap to go, so we'd probably be either dead or close to (bleeding to death through being constantly uncompetitive) in no time.

So if you ditch the cap you can have viable clubs in probably 4 capitals. That's about it. f**k your dynasties off, there's no way that people are going to show up to watch four teams run up cricket scores against some also rans.

You think some matches are poor at the moment? Imagine if you take the bottom 10 players from each team at the moment and put them in four clubs, and then take the top 5 and put them in two clubs and the next 5 in the next two. You'd have Sydney and Melbourne pounding the bottom four constantly and usually beating Adelaide and Qld. The bottom four's matches amongst themselves could be contested for the James Robinson Trophy For Also Rans because that's all the silverware they'd ever have a chance of winning and that's the level of player they'd be getting. Imagine the dross you'd be served up then...

So you'd go from four usually pretty watchable matches a week to maybe a dozen a season. f**k that off for a joke.

 

[northernspirit]

SPL anyone?
Rangers/Celtic and daylight ---------> more daylight ---------> the rest

 

[David Votoupal]

SPL anyone?
Rangers/Celtic and daylight ---------> more daylight ---------> the rest

Yet a similar scenario plays itself out even in some much poorer countries which have developed their football structures well over decades.

 

[Jesus]

How can anyone say the league is not interesting? We have seen attacking football leading to tonnes of goals this season, and very few lopsided matches.

If the mariners only ever really stood a chance of winning games at home vs perth and wellington and scum, who seriosuly thinks that that would be good for tv or crowds?

How much fun would it be coming to every bling derby and seeing them take 3 points with a 10-0 drubbing?

How can we ditch the cap when we have so much still left to pay for? We are at least 4 teams shy of a league. We need a 2nd division by 2018. Where is all the money coming from?

Palmer has a shitload of cash. We would never compete. The crowds would be nsl at best at bluey. Our club would certainly go belly up. Or live for a few k die hards with the wallet of its owners getting thinner and thinner til there is nothing left.

 

[Redline]

maintain, it will help the a league through uncertain economic times, then we can talk about increasing it

+1, for now.

Maybe they (FFA & A-League clubs) could work out a better formula for assessing the salary cap though?

If the main motivation for having the salary cap is to provide the competitiveness and long term viability of all involved clubs, then maybe they could figure out a way of 'floating' the cap from here on.

I understand that initially, when the A-League started they had to strike a figure, one that was sustainable and one that would represent their forecasted earnings for the new league.

But now we've had 4 seasons of gate takings, pre seasons, main seasons and now Finals series.

The FFA have also got a solid understanding of the worth of the 'product' through the numerous sponsorships and the Foxtel deal.

Surely they could look at what the A-League earns in total (and by that I do mean total - player sponsorships, game day sponsorships, shirt sponsorships, merchandising, club sponsors, A-League sponsors FFA sponsors, TV rights, gate takings from all games etc.), then negotiate with the A-League clubs & PFA what % of all this income should be going to the players in direct payment.

Once the % has been established and divided up to all participating clubs, then it's just a matter of taking in each successive season into the total earnings figure and adjusting the cap $ amount. If the A-League has a bumper season, then the average would rise a bit, likewise, a bad season and the $ amount would drop a bit. Obviously, existing player contracts would have to be honoured, so a season where the actual cap would drop would mean the clubs would have to look at younger (ie less expensive) players to recruit after the contracted players within the squad have been accounted for.

If a club buys players too close to one season's salary cap figure, then the next season are faced with a  drop in the cap, they have to be more prudent in the latter season with their recruiting, even to the point of having no room to buy more players.

I like this idea actually. Practical and fair.

 

[midfielder]

As others have stated to launch the A-League we need a cap, remember we live in Australia not Europe ... the issue is holding on until the next media deal 4 years maybe in 3 years the deal will be done so we will know.

The Germans have a cap of sorts and it says a teams wages can only be a percentage of the prior years income, this system has some merit and would reward the better performing managements and their teams.

 

[Jesus]

As others have stated to launch the A-League we need a cap, remember we live in Australia not Europe ... the issue is holding on until the next media deal 4 years maybe in 3 years the deal will be done so we will know.

The Germans have a cap of sorts and it says a teams wages can only be a percentage of the prior years income, this system has some merit and would reward the better performing managements and their teams.

Except also favours big clubs. I still think that without the possibility of beating anyone on any day, winnining the league in any year, the a-league will die. Without a strong history, and with so much strong competition from other australian games with salary caps.