To splurge or not to splurge; that is the question.When looking over the financial figures of the NBA, NHL and NFL, one sees that each team is limited as to how much it can spend under guidelines. Although there are exceptions, most teams have to abide by a salary cap, thus ruling out the option of splurging.
Major League Baseball has no salary cap, allowing its owners to spend as much money as they wish on players.
Numerous Web sites define a salary cap as the total money a team can spend on its players in a given year.
Head baseball coach Chip Durham, senior pitcher Chris Greer and junior infielder Thomas Bourne all said they believe baseball should have a salary cap.
“I agree with the salary cap because it helps the smaller franchises compete,” Greer said. “They don’t have the revenues that some of the bigger teams have, like the (New York) Yankees or the (Boston) Red Sox.”
According to USA Today, the New York Yankees led Major League Baseball in payroll at the beginning of the 2005 season with over $208 million. The Red Sox were second, with more than $123 million. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays were last in total payroll, with a yearly total of more than $29 million.
The Yankees also led professional baseball with seven of the highest paid players, such as star third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who made $26 million in 2005.
Bourne said that owners such as Yankees’ George Steinbrenner III, who has the resources to spend over $200 million on players, do not ruin the game of baseball or the competition.
“I think that teams feel great when they can beat a team like that because that’s basically an all-star team,” Bourne said. “When a team can come in there and beat that team, that’s proving something: that money doesn’t solve everything. It’s all about being a team. It’s not always the best players, but the best nine that can be on the field.”
Durham offered an alternative solution: he said he thinks teams should agree on one salary for everybody at the beginning of the season. At the end of the season, he said players should be awarded bonuses for such things as making the all-star team or other accomplishments during the season.
“I think that gives them an incentive to go out and play hard everyday and try to have a great season. That way at the end of the year, they’re rewarded for it,” Durham said.
The NBA’s, NFL’s and NHL’s salary caps each have qualities that make them similar, but differences also exist.
According to Canadian Broadcast Corporation Sports, the NHL’s 2004-2005 season was canceled because both the league and the players’ association could not agree on a salary cap. According to proicehockey.about.com, the NHL signed a six-year collective bargaining agreement in July 2005. The salary cap for professional hockey is $39 million per team for the 2005-06 season, including bonuses and salaries. Every team must spend a minimum of $21.5 million on salaries for its players.
The cap is derived from predicted hockey profits of just below $1.8 billion for the season. In the future, players will be given 54 percent of the team’s hockey-related profits, and the salary cap will be fixed relative to the new figures. If income increases, so does a player’s share.
Hockey teams can only surpass the salary cap figure when they must replace a player with a “long-term injury,” defined as a player who misses at least 24 days and 10 games. The team must drop back below the cap when the player returns to the squad.
According to Insidehoops.com, the NBA’s salary cap for the 2005-06 season was $49.5 million per team last August, as stated by the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. According to the NBA, the 05-06 minimum team salary is over $37 million-75 percent of the salary cap.
ESPN’s John Clayton said the NFL’s 2005 salary cap is $85.5 million. The NFL’s salary cap comes from the earnings of a team from a “League Year,” according to askthecommish.com. A portion of that profit is set aside for player expenses and is called the Defined Gross Revenues, then divided among the NFL’s 32 teams.
A team’s contracted salaries for both current and former players are covered by the salary caps. Coaches, assistants, trainers or any other non-players do not fall under the NFL’s cap. In the off-season, the top 51 players’ salaries are included in the cap, while every player’s salary is included during the season.
