Ss. Ts,

By Josh Martin, Sports Editor

he salary cap system is a
barrier that keeps sports teams
in professional leagues to
all have an equal chance at being
successful. An effective salary
cap prevents wealthier teams from
completely dominating the league
and signing a handful of high-paid

A positive that comes with the salary
cap is that each club has equal power
to attract players based more on the
qualities and skill of the team rather
than how wealthy the team is.

The cap benefits the whole
league, if only a selective bunch
of strong teams are able to come

 

players to have a successful franchise.

Salary Cap: Yes or No?

out with the wins and capture

the championships then many of

the matches are going to be huge
blowouts which will reduce the
overall appearance of the sport and
the league decreasing fans of going to
watch games and TV revenues. When
you look at MLB they are one of the
only sport leagues without a salary
cap, however they do have a luxury
tax which means if a team goes over
the limit they have to pay a tax. A
team that goes over the tax in a five
year period for the first time pays a
tax of 17.5% of the amount they were
over the cap, second-time violators
pay a 30% penalty, and teams that go
three or more times over are forced
to pay a 40% penalty. The cap limit

for this year is $170 million and next
year in 2011 is $178 million.

This luxury tax is a sort of
penalty but on the other hand isn’t as
strict as an actual salary cap that is
seen in other major sport leagues such
as the NHL, NFL, and NBA. With
already rich, powerful teams such
as the New York Yankees, Boston
Red Sox, and the Detroit Tigers,
who have all had to pay the luxury
tax on separate occasions (Yankees
have paid over $164 million of tax
penalties) they can get away with it
because after all, they are bringing
in more money than they are forking
out. The dominant teams in the MLB
are winning year after year, which
makes it nearly impossible for other

 

cities that are not as wealthy to turn
their franchise around and be on top,
surpassing the head honchos of the
league.

In the NHL, teams that are
terrible one year and have finished
dead last have completely turned
around, winning the Stanley Cup
several years later. The Pittsburgh
Penguins for example were one of
the worst teams in the league only a
few years back, but now look at them,
before last year they had appeared at
the Stanley Cup finals two years ina
row. With a salary cap each team gets
a chance to be number one, it will be
interesting to see whether or not the
MLB will make that transition from
luxury tax to salary cap in the future.