Take a hypothetical player with a market value of $750K. For a weak club, like us or the Tigpies, to sign said player they have to pay overs and offer $900K. A strong club can sign for less due to better access to TPAs, rep chances, and finals football… say $650K. That’s $250K the weaker club loses from their salary cap on one player. This is why the salary cap is so poor at spreading talent, and it will get worse with more teams.
Allow clubs to pay players whatever they want but have an independent panel set a market value on players and It’s that value that contributes to the salary cap. Allow percentage reductions for players developed or long-term players. This is something akin to points system.
An “Independent panel” that knows let’s say 50 x 17 = 850 players well enough to put a precise and accurate Cap value on them. Plus of course there’s ESL players and defectors from RU as well. That pool of players changes every year, on average around 1/3rd, 283, would have contracts expiring and would need to be reevaluated between end of season and 1st November.
Just finding one independant non aligned person with that sort of intimate player by player knowledge would be impossible, let alone enough to form a panel. If they were that knowledgeable every club would want them on their recruitment team, the panel members would be changing regularly. Which would mean their valuations would inevitably change as well, different people have different opinions.
What happens when a player “improves” half way through their contract, gets picked for SOO or International and their valuation goes up? Sorry mate your value has gone up and we can’t fit you under our Cap anymore, bad luck you have to go. What happens if a player worsens during their contract, no longer is good enough for SOO or Internationals. The club suddenly can fit another player in their Cap, that’ll go down well.
Keep in mind the Salary Cap’s main objective is to stop clubs going broke by overspending on buying players. I believe the “rich clubs” would get all the good players, if a player that they want/need is rated at $600k they can offer them $700k, $800k, $1m etc it doesn’t matter as only $600k is on their Cap. Like right now we need a prop, we could offer $2m, $3m to some prop at a “poor club” that can’t afford to match the offer. Good for us as we are a “rich club”, good for the Chooks, Melbourne, Donkeys but the rest they are farked.
Lastly the disputes, of course the valuations would have to be public knowledge, I can’t imagine the number of disputes. This player is rated at $600k while this other player, who most people consider to be better, is valued at $550k. Every fan would be whinging about their players being overvalued and the opposition teams’ players undervalued. In the case of a dispute who is the arbitrator, do the clubs take the Independant Panel to court and fight the valuations?
You are right, same as player points, unworkable.
Always a Bulldog
