Salary caps in pro sports?

[Mirage]

What are your thoughts on salary caps?

Personally I'm a free market capitalist at heart and I say if people will pay it why charge less.

HOWEVER, there is a different issue here as well. I think sports are definitely different than other mainstream business types and there are other reasons that some people think salary caps will benefit the industry.

Teams with a bottomless pocketbook can literally buy all of the best talent (a.k.a. Yankees). This not only makes it unfair for teams with less money, but, it makes it less fun to watch.

Anybody knows that when it comes to sporting, Goliath generally beats David pretty hardcore.

But then my argument against salary caps is even better. If every team was equally balanced then nobody would ever win. We'd see triple, quadruple, and infinite overtimes resulting in ties upon ties upon ties...

The truth is that some teams will be better than other teams. Some teams will be better because they practice and work better as a team and others will be better because they bring better players on board.

I think a solution would not be to have salary caps, but, instead to have caps on the total salary paid out as a team.

So if the Bulls want to pay (for example) Michael Jordan $300,000 per game that's fine, but they would have to pay the rest of the team less. (I realize he is retired. I just used him because his salary is easy to look up).

So what are your thoughts? Should there be any regulations limiting how much teams can pay their players or should the sky be the limit?

If I had to pick one answer I'd say let them pay them as much as they want. In the end there will still be several very good teams with lots of money which means there will be a lot of good games to watch regardless.

 

[Nightsurfer]

Hi ya.

I don't think those socalled sports stars are worth that much. All they do is play a game for crying out loud.

I think those who serv and protect us and teach outr children are worth way more. Don't you

Personaly I think they should get 200 grand a year..If they can't live on that much then TOUGH!

If their pay would go down then we all might be able to afford to go to a game, not only the rich.

 

[Doc]

Teams with a bottomless pocketbook can literally buy all of the best talent (a.k.a. Yankees). This not only makes it unfair for teams with less money, but, it makes it less fun to watch.

I totally agree on the super-empire sports team buying all of the good players, but that doesn't buy the most important part: chemistry. There is no "I" in team, no matter how many great "I"'s you can come up with.

But, it's kind of against logic to say that everything can end in a tie. There's systems in place to avoid these types of things, and no team is ever THAT evenly matched.

I think a solution would not be to have salary caps, but, instead to have caps on the total salary paid out as a team.

That's, as far as I know, the definition of a salary cap.

Yes, I do believe that there should be regulations in place on how much a team can spend yearly on the team. I don't think it should include coaches, or at least have a separate system for coaching. You can buy the best coaches and their staff and put a mediocre team in a championship.

The current system, especially in baseball, doesn't work. Teams are paying way too much for overpriced players, or simply paying them way too much in the first place. Small-market teams don't have a chance in MLB. That's why the Expos moved and became the Nationals. They couldn't make money in Montreal, so they couldn't get players, so they couldn't win. Every once and a while you get the underdog story, but then even that underdog becomes the Boston Red Sox and grows to be as big and evil as the original teams. It doesn't work, so put in a cap. Attendance will go up since every team will have one or two great players, and a ton of team players.

 

[Major]

I think salary caps are better for some sports than they are for others. I agree with Stevez about baseball. The MLB needs a salary cap. There just aren't enough teams that have the money to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox.

I'd like to see the NFL get rid of the salary cap. Football is more interesting when there are dominant teams. There's no cap in European soccer, and the system works pretty well. The top teams buy all the best players, but there's enough talent to go around so that a lot of other teams can still be competitive.

I'm a free market capitalist at heart

Capitalism is the downfall of our society. But that's for another topic.

 

[mraph33]

Salary caps are about the only way the leagues can keep the teams competive. You can't compare the amount of money that's in a market like New York to a market like Kansas City or Phoenix. Even the so-called dynasties of the last 20 years were not like the ones of 40 years ago. In the NBA a three-peat is now considered the ultimate....how about the Celtics who won 8 in a row in the 60s. Who would continue watching the games now if they always knew who was going to win.

 

[RenewalVentures]

Caps are an awkward tool in achieving parity. A strong team will always find a way to remain strong, and owners will always find ways to rig the system.

But it is funny when teams like the NY Yankees struggle with highly-paid stars. Only the Yankees could afford to gamble on a Roger Clemens contract.

 

[cae15]

Salary Caps are great for Pro sports, it lets the smaller market teams compete. I believe this is a huge reason I don't care for the MLB because nto everyteam can compete, like the NFL and NBA.

So im all for Pro sports having caps, it balances the league.

 

[Gwiz]

Having a salary in pro sports meaning spreading the talent around in which it creates parity. Having great parity makes it more entertaining and fun. It's great for Vegas as they can take bets from both sides(their goals). However, i feel that they should raise the salsary cap a bit more espeically in the NFL. Baseball should implement a salary cap because its tough fir small market teams to succeed.

 

[CaliforniaSteve]

Meh, I dont mind Salary caps at all. If you look at the NFL, there is never really a team that is stacked to the gills with talent. There may be a few exceptions, but that is due to the coaches knowing who to get for thier system, players taking pay cuts, knowing how to draft, etc. The NFL sets the standard for good use of a salary cap. And hell, it goes up every so often as well.

 

[Mirage]

Well as far as I'm concerned, the leagues should be able to set salary caps if they want. If teams want to compete in the NFL, NBA, etc, it makes sense for there to be rules in place.

HOWEVER, what about the teams that got where they were by being smart with their money and are now dominating? Why shouldn't they be able to use the extra money they earned to have more good players? It's ONE thing if they are financially backed by a gazillionaire who doesn't mind tossing money away to buy expensive players, but, what if the extra money came from being the best?