Restructuring Contracts Question

[bblom23]

Admittedly I don't know a whole lot about the details on how contracts work fully. What is the downside to always restructuring contracts to free up cap space?

[QuikSand]

In FOF, contracts are simplified to just two components: bonus paid out immediately but counted against the cap in equal installments for each year of the full contract... and base salary that is earned each year and counts in that year.

The simplest restructuring is taking some portion (or all) of a player's base salary this year that exceeds the minimum, converting it to bonus, and thereby stretching out that cap effect over the remaining duration of the contract.

If he was making $20m more than minsal this year, and has 3 years left, by doing a max restructuring or "capout," you are adding $5m to each of the next three years in unavoidable cap hits, in order to free up $15m in cap space this year.

So, you are just pushing costs from today until tomorrow.

Worth it? Depends on how badly you need the cap space right now, overall.

[bblom23]

Thank you! I appreciate the explanation. I needed to double check before I got myself in trouble by restructuring too many contracts.

[Colly]

I've not used the "cap out" mechanism but I've found the whole cap management mechanic coupled with the draft and free agency mechanics one of the most fun aspects of the game so far.

It's quite a challenge sometimes to manage all three effectively, especially when the randomness of injuries gets thrown into the mix.

On more than one occasion I found myself just renegotiating a contract to lower my overall cap hit and/or to entice a team to take a trade on a player I wanted to move but couldn't when a high-value low-year contract was not appealing but the renegotiated lower value longer term was.