There have been multiple reports over the past few days regarding the NFL’s decision to scuttle the system of supplemental revenue sharing.
The general message in some quarters has been that the move is evidence that the big-market teams are sticking it to the small-market teams.
But there’s more to the story, and we lay it all out right here, at SportingNews.com.
In the end, we conclude that it’s really no big deal for 2010.
I wish that the NFL would keep the salary cap… I feel like this is what makes the league so competitive and it really gives every team a chance every year.
On the other hand I cannot wait to see the cowboys or redskins dropping hundreds of millions of dollars on a player only for him to get hurt.
You make a good point florio in your article. There really isnt a reason to fear any loss of competitive balance, because none exsist now. (ask the 12-0 saints or colts, or the 1-11 bucs, rams, or browns) As a twins fan, you get used to your team having to trade big name talent away because they know they cannot sign them again, and instead go with younger talent and develop it.
Teams that will do this right should be able to massively increase their profits because teams like the skins and cowboys will be buying talent at the expense of their draft picks, and the more picks that small and midsized markets have, the lower the rookie pay scale/ slotting one would assume, because they will set the bar lower. Young talent, if coached correctly can compete with older, complacent talent easily. If anything, an uncapped year, if handled smartly, should help the vikes stay in minnesota, because if the twins can stay profitible, the vikes should too.
You think that this isn’t a big deal because there currently isn’t an imbalance in competitiveness in the NFL? That competitive balance is A RESULT of the salary cap and revenue sharing. Without it the NFL will quickly become like MLB and it will be a big deal.
Many might question why the teams in the larger markets should need to share their revenues with the smaller market. The reason is that the product is the NFL, not the Patriots, Redskins or the Cowboys. Without competitive games for those teams to play, the product (NFL) suffers. Therefore they need to supplement the smaller markets to create a better overall product. Even the Cowboys will have a hard time generating interest in games against the Jaguars, Lions, Browns, Packers, Vikings, etc. as those teams become even weaker. Less people will watch the games when nationally televised, and the advertising revenue (the REAL source of income for the NFL, not ticket revenue) will decline, thus weakening the overall product.
Actually it is a big deal for a bottom feeder team like the Vikings. They have no money and an owner who has to make cash calls to his minority investors just to pay signing bonuses for free his free agent signing of Jared Allen. He even had to put Favre’s salary on layaway and will be paying him out for 2 years after he’s gone assuming he retires again for the 4th time.
As it’s been reported, that 10 million is about the cost paid out to the front office personnel. Where’s he going to get that kinda $$$ if he can’t even afford to pay the salary of his starting QB in the same year. I highly doubt his real estate ventures are rolling in cash.
I can’t disagree more with your assumptions. If the NFL stops sharing revenue, Jerry Jones’ultimate goal, you can kiss the league’s weaker teams good bye. Supplemental sharing is the first thing to go and then he’s going to want to stop sharing the other income and he’ll have even more opposition for that because there are owners who realize that they couldn’t get as much income from TV deals as they would now.
Jones has always thought that he is the league’s genius owner who can conjure up a new deal every second but that same genius was among the worst in the Arena Football League and his team couldn’t do as well as long time AFL teams or even his NFL cohorts. Oh and does anyone believe that it’s mere coincidence that this is all happening after he’s built his own stadium and taken $150 million from the owners to help build his palace?
Even with revenue sharing, if you take away the cap and floor, you’re going to see an exodus of talent to places that can either afford to pay more or is willing to do so and the teams that lose money will begin to just start taking profit and you’ll have Jones complaining about that. If you take away revenue sharing and the cap, you might as well kiss several teams good bye; either to other cities or from the league and with the economy in shambles, the former is less likely. You can complain about Tampa and the fact that they’re not spending as much as the Cowboys but they’re building from the ground up and should they put together a good foundation, I’d expect them to start spending more. In adjusted dollars, Tampa spent the 17th most in the NFL from 2000-2008 while Dallas was 14th and Tampa was actually one of the better spending teams until 2005.
The way that it stands right now, ANY CITY has a chance at a high profile free agent but if you start screwing up the system, the Vikings become the Twins, the Packers become the Brewers and Tampa becomes the Rays. At some point these teams become farm teams for the rest of the league and how many FEWER fans will come to the games just to see that? If Hunt were alive right now, he’d bitch slap Jerry Jones for trying to pull this bull.
“I cant wait for Dallas…blah,blah, blah”. Dude. You’re incredible. Did you just come up with that on your own, OR DID YOU HEAR IT FROM THE CLOWNS AT ESPN THAT ENTERTAIN THE CLOWNS IN FRONT OF YOUR TV?
Yeah, JJ runs the league or tries to. Please. Stop it ! You’re embarassing yourselves.
The salary cap is going nowhere permanently. It may go away for a season but will get reinstated. The NFL is built on it.
What idiots !
And let’s not forget the draft. Once parity is removed, the smaller revenue teams will most likely end up with the worst records, which means they will be stuck paying the highest salaries for unproven talent, unless that also changes. Perhaps instead of an orderly draft based on the record form the previous year, they can just have an auction style draft. The team that enters the highest bid, gets the player. Yeah, that will work out really well.
edgy just had the quote of the week in my books… “If Hunt were alive right now, he’d bitch slap Jerry Jones for trying to pull this bull.”
Hunt is alive! Unfortunately for us all its Clark Hunt and not Lamar….
“There really isnt a reason to fear any loss of competitive balance, because none exsist now. (ask the 12-0 saints or colts, or the 1-11 bucs, rams, or browns)”
I think we need to separate mismanagement from the concept of competitive balance.
That salary cap and revenue sharing system guarantee teams the *opporunity* to be competitive, it doesn’t guarantee *results.*
As a fan of the Browns, I don’t blame the system one bit for my team’s dysfunction, or point to a lack of competitive balance. As far as I’m concerned, teams like the Colts and Saints deserve far more respect and credit for being able to excel in an environment where financial advantages are minimized.
Likewise, it highlights the complete incompetence of some organizations and bad owners such as Randy Lerner.
The NFL has absolutely done a great job of creating an environment of competitive balance, and I am concerned that changing the system will result in the smaller market teams ending up at a similar disadvantage as MLB’s smaller market teams… and I don’t think that’s good for the sport.
Taking away salary cap and revenue sharing would ruin the NFL as we know it. Fans of teams with low revenue would be treated to 4 win average seasons. Yay.
Spending doesn’t lead to Championships like baseball but it could buy you a lot of depth.
Just have to find the players who fit your system and don’t mind being team players. Add a little bit of depth and you get the Patriots of the last decade, only they won’t lose vets that they can’t afford to pay due to salary cap issues.
Jones and Snyder will still fail to buy anything but disappointment. Get someone smart who can play the system right and it could be scary.
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What is up with the NFL allowing City’s to get away with showing games that don’t sell out. Instead of never before in the NFL. Two teams that are 12 and 0. NO/COLTS. I live in Florida and I know the BUCS have not sold out one game but yet that CITY still shows for example the Jets and BUCS I don’t think have won four games between them both. They show Tenn and St Louis on the FOX network don’t have Six wins between them. But yet you have the COLTS and NO that aren’t even shown in the State of Florida. What is up The NFL needs to grow some Bal-s and stop the madness PLEASE