Re: Salary cap in baseball?
Bob Costas wrote an excellent book about 3-4 years ago that explained how baseball could solve its economic problems along with other ways to improve the game.
He recommended a salary cap along with a salary floor and a percentage difference between the cap and floor. Also, he said all TV/Radio money should be shared equally among MLB teams. He justified this by saying would the Yankees be able to operate their franchise and command the huge local/cable TV contracts if they didn't have anyone else to play like the Royals and Twins? Also, should teams who are from smaller markets be penalized by their location. I don't think so and that is what makes the NFL so great....the Packers can actually compete with the Giants.
Also, he said by creating a salary floor it would help sell the idea to the Player's Union because more players would benefit. Right now the only people who truely benefit from the current salary structure are the stars. If you don't believe just look at this winter and how many mid-level players were not tendered contracts.
One of the best parts was what would happened to teams if they didn't meet the salary floor. He said they would forfeit draft picks as a penalty and be forced to pay the money they came up short directly to the players' union.
It's a great book if you really like baseball, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. I guess you could check Amazon or Book-A-Million if you are interested. However, baseball just isn't as much fun when teams can't compete because they can't afford to keep their players or can't even think about signing a decent free agent or don't even try to compete because they can't spend as much money as the big market teams.
Baseball was so much better when fans thought if their team just got the right break, if the right rookie came through, or if the old veteran could do it just one more year then they had a chance. More than 1/2 the teams in baseball don't even have that hope right anymore.
Bob Costas wrote an excellent book about 3-4 years ago that explained how baseball could solve its economic problems along with other ways to improve the game.
He recommended a salary cap along with a salary floor and a percentage difference between the cap and floor. Also, he said all TV/Radio money should be shared equally among MLB teams. He justified this by saying would the Yankees be able to operate their franchise and command the huge local/cable TV contracts if they didn't have anyone else to play like the Royals and Twins? Also, should teams who are from smaller markets be penalized by their location. I don't think so and that is what makes the NFL so great....the Packers can actually compete with the Giants.
Also, he said by creating a salary floor it would help sell the idea to the Player's Union because more players would benefit. Right now the only people who truely benefit from the current salary structure are the stars. If you don't believe just look at this winter and how many mid-level players were not tendered contracts.
One of the best parts was what would happened to teams if they didn't meet the salary floor. He said they would forfeit draft picks as a penalty and be forced to pay the money they came up short directly to the players' union.
It's a great book if you really like baseball, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. I guess you could check Amazon or Book-A-Million if you are interested. However, baseball just isn't as much fun when teams can't compete because they can't afford to keep their players or can't even think about signing a decent free agent or don't even try to compete because they can't spend as much money as the big market teams.
Baseball was so much better when fans thought if their team just got the right break, if the right rookie came through, or if the old veteran could do it just one more year then they had a chance. More than 1/2 the teams in baseball don't even have that hope right anymore.
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