ENGCowboy
New Member
- Messages
- 368
- Reaction score
- 0
There have been some rumblings certainly on here and in other big market areas that the CBA should be scrapped almost entirely and teams should be able to spend what they like. The issue becomes the loss of apparent "parity".
Even the suggestion of parity enables the average fan to have hope each season. This hope encourages us to purchase merchandise, TV packages and most importantly season tickets. The most important thing is full stadiums and interested fans.
In the UK, the main soccer league, The Premier League, we have 4 teams known as the top4. Finishing in the top 4 enables access to the lucrative European Champions League, more revenue from TV and more games means more money to spend on players which mean the best teams get better and those that don't make it get worse.
This would happen in the NFL, a team who doesn't make the playoffs year after year only has 8 home games to make an impact on a fan base who will quickly become disillusioned with a poor team. Suddenly the team can't afford to sign draft picks and can't improve the team getting worse each year as they lose what good players they have drafted previously.
So to keep the parity I feel a CBA with the following would significantly improve on the previous agreement.
1) Rookie salary cap each position in the draft is nominated a signing bonus and salary band in which negotiations can be held. These would allow for reduced wages for players who have not played a down in the NFL. i.e. pick 32 is allocated a signing bonus band of $2 - $5 million and a salary band of $500k - $1.5 million (numbers for demo only)
2) Salary Cap to remain and be set for 5 years before being reassessed. There is no need for it to be increased year on year as all this does is encourage players and agents to push the boundaries of what is reasonable (not a word that should really be used when talking about NFL contracts, I know)
3) Salary Cap exemption for signing bonuses for draft picks. The only change I would make is to encourage the development of a team through the draft by not including signing bonuses for extending drafted players. For example when we sign Austin to a long term contract he will get a certain amount of guaranteed money I am proposing that this is not counted against the cap. Suddenly it becomes really difficult to buy a championship because if you don't draft well you can't just go out and sign which ever free agent you like. Signing bonuses would still count against the cap as now for free agents.
4) Team budget minimum set equal for all teams, there is then a commitment for a franchise to reach this level i.e. the Browns selling the naming rights to the stadium to achieve this level. If a franchise is seen to be doing all they can to achieve this minimum but not reaching revenue sharing begins but only to this team from all teams achieving the minimum budget. Obviously this would need to ensure that revenue sharing doesn't then push a team below the set level. I think that this would allow teams to operate in any area but force them to explore all options for revenue making.
What do you think? What are your hopes for the new agreement?
Even the suggestion of parity enables the average fan to have hope each season. This hope encourages us to purchase merchandise, TV packages and most importantly season tickets. The most important thing is full stadiums and interested fans.
In the UK, the main soccer league, The Premier League, we have 4 teams known as the top4. Finishing in the top 4 enables access to the lucrative European Champions League, more revenue from TV and more games means more money to spend on players which mean the best teams get better and those that don't make it get worse.
This would happen in the NFL, a team who doesn't make the playoffs year after year only has 8 home games to make an impact on a fan base who will quickly become disillusioned with a poor team. Suddenly the team can't afford to sign draft picks and can't improve the team getting worse each year as they lose what good players they have drafted previously.
So to keep the parity I feel a CBA with the following would significantly improve on the previous agreement.
1) Rookie salary cap each position in the draft is nominated a signing bonus and salary band in which negotiations can be held. These would allow for reduced wages for players who have not played a down in the NFL. i.e. pick 32 is allocated a signing bonus band of $2 - $5 million and a salary band of $500k - $1.5 million (numbers for demo only)
2) Salary Cap to remain and be set for 5 years before being reassessed. There is no need for it to be increased year on year as all this does is encourage players and agents to push the boundaries of what is reasonable (not a word that should really be used when talking about NFL contracts, I know)
3) Salary Cap exemption for signing bonuses for draft picks. The only change I would make is to encourage the development of a team through the draft by not including signing bonuses for extending drafted players. For example when we sign Austin to a long term contract he will get a certain amount of guaranteed money I am proposing that this is not counted against the cap. Suddenly it becomes really difficult to buy a championship because if you don't draft well you can't just go out and sign which ever free agent you like. Signing bonuses would still count against the cap as now for free agents.
4) Team budget minimum set equal for all teams, there is then a commitment for a franchise to reach this level i.e. the Browns selling the naming rights to the stadium to achieve this level. If a franchise is seen to be doing all they can to achieve this minimum but not reaching revenue sharing begins but only to this team from all teams achieving the minimum budget. Obviously this would need to ensure that revenue sharing doesn't then push a team below the set level. I think that this would allow teams to operate in any area but force them to explore all options for revenue making.
What do you think? What are your hopes for the new agreement?
