Wheelssps

I've had this idea for a few years now, and this lull during the bye week has finally gotten me to post it.
The idea is this:

What about if salary cap became a trade-able commodity under the new CBA?

As far as I know, all sports with a salary cap have a hard and fast cap, meaning it's the same for all teams, except with some sports with a weak or hybrid cap, like basketball and baseball, that just have luxury tax penalties for going over.

So, what if you could trade a pick for cap space? Like a 5th rounder from one team to get 3 million in cap space in return? The reason I thought of this is that some teams like developing home-grown talent (Patriots, Steelers, Colts, others come to mind) and other teams tend towards signing free agents, which generally tend to cost more than rookies, and thus eat up more cap space (Washington, anyone?) Everyone would start with the same salary cap, but teams could trade it for players, for picks, etc. Even current cap space for future cap space, like 3 million of 2011 cap space for 3.5 million of 2012 cap space, etc.

I was just thinking that this idea would give teams just a bit more flexibility in addressing their rosters. I was also thinking that this would give BB just one more way to fleece other poorly run teams, but that's my perspective as a Pats fan.

Thoughts??

Reasons it wouldn't work??

ctpatsfan77

I'm not yet sure if I like the idea, but it's certainly an intriguing one worth thinking about.

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signbabybrady

My thoughts are that this would make Snyders job much easier as he could trade one years cap to the next and double up on talent for one season and really bye that championship he has been trying to buy for years.


The 97 Marlins come to mind with this type of cap. Buy your title and then disband it because it cost to much.

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Sicilian

The problem I see is that the whole reason the cap exists is to keep the the haves from outspending the have nots. A team like the Patriots can likely afford more in player salaries than a smaller market team, so they would end up buying more cap space that the other teams might not want to spend anyway.

Interesting thought, but I don't think the end result would be desirable for the league.

pheenix11

Fun idea, but I like it the way it is. Parity is fun, especially when you have BB.

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signbabybrady

Another thought came to mind and Miguel or another capoligist can explain it in more detail but there is way for a team to carry some of its unused dollars into the next year by using up the remaining space by changing the Likely and unlikely to be earned bonuses around. So this in someways satisfies what you are referring too just cant be other teams space but at least there is a way not to waste your own.

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Wheelssps

Yeah, I've thought about the way that the cap is used now by teams, how they can distribute cap hits over several years, and I don't think that would have to change to also enable the trading of cap space. I would think teams would want to be able to keep spreading cap hits as they do now.

Wheelssps

I completely agree on the desire of parity for the league, and you might be right, some teams in football might try to turn into the Florida Marlins of baseball and just do everything possible to avoid spending money on players.

As for keeping parity, I'm also thinking that Buffalo, which has a harder time attracting free agents than some other teams do, could potentially be helped by this. By trading some cap space for additional draft picks, they could intensify their attempts to rebuild through the draft.

Currently there exists a salary floor, and I would think those would still be in place, so the total level of spending league wide wouldn't be affected, and each individual team would still have to spend at least some minimum amount, as it is now. That number might be lowered to allow for the trading of cap space, but details...
Thus the Player's Association shouldn't have too much concern about overall spending being affected.

Anyway, just random thoughts during the bye week. Thanks for the replies!!!

lamafist

It's an interesting idea, but it might end up more difficult regulate than it's worth.I understand the upside of rewarding well-managed teams by allowing them to leverage their spare cap space into some of the cap-strapped teams' draft picks or players.

The downside, however, is the potential of some of the cheaper owners to try to run their organizations like small-market baseball teams, despite partaking in revenue sharing, and try to maximize personal profits by selling off cap space to field cheap teams of young guys who go to one of a handful of big-market teams willing to pay for an inflated-capped roster.

If you raised the salary floor enough to prevent this, you'de likely be reducing the margins for any meaningful cap-space trading.

Meanwhile, another problem here is incentive, in that, under the current CBA, teams don't have much incentive to take on cap space. Since contracts in the NFL aren't guaranteed, teams in need of cap space are able to just dump salary... and that's only if they can't create present space by converting salary to bonuses that then become "dead space" paid over the next several years.

One thing to consider that would function kind of like trading cap space, but within inherently limited enough parameters to not throw things out of whack, is to enable teams trading for a player to take on some of the player's remaining bonus money owed. This would enable teams with cap money and interest to acquire players whose original teams might normally be disinclined to part with despite not needing as much, because of already sunk costs.

scout

In the end, you would have the superstar GM's ruling the day (BB). Then you'd have franchises like Washington who are really bad at judging talent, doomed, really, really doomed
I like the football cap better then any other capped sport, and it will prob. get better in this next negotiation. Baseball is a joke. How do you have a major league sport in which the playing field is not even? Basketball, is ok. I think they are in for a major hit. Deservedly so.