Re: Owners now the problem?

[Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>]

At 09:14 AM 11/16/98 PST, "Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com> wrote:
>The question I have is, what is so horrible about a hard cap?  Why don't 
>the two sides just sit down, negotiate a fixed percentage of revenues to 
>go to salaries and pay it.  Not a "cap" per se, but a negotiated fair 
>ammount for salaries.

Because there isn't the remotest agreement on what's a 'fair' amount,
through unbridled greed on both sides.

A hard cap is bad (including to us as fans) because of the guaranteed
contracts. One big contract and especially contract screw up and your team
is dead for the length of that contract, because you're stuck with it and
have no flexibility. People think just in terms of FA on that flexibility,
but you wouldn't even be able to sign draft picks if you're too near the
limit with a true hard cap. Or what about a catastrophic injury -again, no
way to replace talent. Or even keep favorite son players when they're
contract is up for renewal. Couldn't even do a lot of the trades you can
now, because the salaries would have to be identical to fit. People just
think of the Bird Exemption when talking hard vs soft cap, but there's a
fair amount of other flexibility involved -ability to fill roster spot with
minimum wage player, ability to go over to sign draftees, $1MM exemption,
early Bird exemption, etc etc. The only way to buid in enough flexibility to
replace that with a hard cap is to give *everyone* 1 or 2 year contracts so
you can cut out as much salary as necessary loose to create space each year.
Which means even more need for a scorecard to see who's wearing the laundry
of your favorite team and also means writing off a season where you need
that flexibility during the season. 

It's all well and good to say that it would force the players and owners to
fiscal responsibility, but the fact is it won't -just different types of
stupidity. And with the restrictions from guaranteed contracts it really
creates more problems than it solves. The only true problem with a soft cap
is how much profit a team owner makes. Period. Anything else comes down to
how well they run their business, not hard and fast restrictions actually
limiting what they can do. While a hard cap is specifically designed to do
provide just that.
<snip>
-Kim
Kim Malo
kmalo19@idt.net