again... before you can start talking about putting a cap on the high spenders, you have to force the bottom of the pay roll circus to ante up a few more bucks in order to keep their own players. the owners complain about sky rocketing salaries and the inability to pay them, but they built their own boat, so to speak. who's the highest paid player on the yankees? derek jeter... a home grown player. the yankees don't set the market... they never have. they didn't sign alex rodriguez to 25 million, manny ramirez to 20 million, mo friggin vaughn to 19 million, kevin brown to 18 million. the owners that now bitch about not being able to compete with the yankees for players are the same idiots who set the market at a rediculously high price by overpaying for players in the first place. the texas rangers gave alex rodriguez twice... TWICE... what the next closest bidder, the atlanta braves, offered. they out bid their closest opponent by 125 million dollars. is george steinbrenner to blame for that?
there should be a soft cap placed on baseball... or perhaps a stiffer luxary tax. there should also be some more revenue sharing introduced, and in turn, a minimmum salary. the florida marlins are the most perfect example of this theory. they were rewarded some shared revenue as part of the four way owner swap between boston, montreal, florida, and major league baseball. the marlins then used this revenue to go out and bring in pudge rodriguez, the most instrumental player in florida's world series run.
right now the nfl has it right... but even their system isn't perfect. there is incredible parity amongst all nfl teams right now, where even EP's bungles can make a playoff run
. but the window of opportunity for teams is so small because of the system that you literally have maybe 3 years tops to make a run at the super bowl before you have to either rebuild or do some serious restructering. it's happened to the ravens, the rams, the pats, and now the buccs. the dynasty in football will never again exist under the current system.
the nhl's system is ok, but they're losing money so fast that some teams can't even afford to pay their own players.
the nba's cap is so tight that one bad move can snowball into a decade of futility. the orlando magic were about 15 million under the cap a few years ago. they tried to convince tim duncan to come, but he resigned with the spurs. so instead they went 2 for 1... they split the 15 million between a young tracy mcgrady and the proven superstar grant hill. mcgrady would turn out ot be a star, but hill has had chronic ankle problems and has barely played. but his money is garunteed and still counts aginst the cap, screwing the magic. then there's my new york knicks... pat ewing was a year away from free agency, where his 15 million dollars would have come off the cap. rather than keep him for one last year, they traded him for glen rice in a three way deal with the lakers and sonics. they then resigned allan houston to a max contract. rice sucked, so they dealt him for shandon anderson and howard eisley... and guess what... they suck. they traded for travis knight's rediculous contract... they traded the #7 pick in the nba draft and their starting center for a man comming off knee surgery... and now here they are... 2 years straight missing the playoffs... under .500 this year... with a payroll of 89 million... 44 million over the cap, the highest total in the nba. (i needed to vent that)
long story short... no system is perfect. but i think baseball could do pretty well with a 50 million minnimum and a 160-180 million max, along with league wide revenue sharing. ok i'm done rambling
