NRL salary cap; please explain.

[chisdog]

Salary caps flawed. It allows 3rd party payments to be exempt from the cap. So if a club has wealthy supporters with money to throw around they can sponsor a player to get him to a club. works for the roosters and broncos

Yeah & the laughable notion that 3rd party arrangements are not arranged by clubs, instead they are "independent". They take the fans as fools!

 

[chisdog]

Correct me if I am wrong but the only way the NRL has ever caught a club from salary cap cheating is from "whistle blowers". This means they are either incapable of finding cheating or not interested in finding cheating. Whistle blower means they have to act on it as opposed to kicking it under the carpet due to it usually being a disgruntled employee. One of the biggest disgraces was Broncos with Andrew Gee, get caught, he quits, refuses to speak to the NRL, they drop the case and then they employ him again a couple years later.....Survival of the fittest mixed with a relegation comp IMO.

Exactly. IF the NRL had any teeth they would have said Andrew Gee is banned from attending any rugby league game in this country or allowed to attend any club sanctioned events until he was satisfactorily interviewed by the NRL - Banned for life for not co-operating.

 

[chisdog]

Spot on

Bulldogs was Al Constantinidis
Storm was a former employee
Parra was their CEO

I don't think they want to catch anyone either - unless of course it is us.

Everyone went quiet on the gee situation.

I wonder how it went down when the Raiders were double the salary cap & the Warriors as well.

 

[Como Dog]

I wonder how it went down when the Raiders were double the salary cap & the Warriors as well.

Just more to add to the list.

 

[Oatley Dog]

Correct me if I am wrong but the only way the NRL has ever caught a club from salary cap cheating is from "whistle blowers". This means they are either incapable of finding cheating or not interested in finding cheating. Whistle blower means they have to act on it as opposed to kicking it under the carpet due to it usually being a disgruntled employee. One of the biggest disgraces was Broncos with Andrew Gee, get caught, he quits, refuses to speak to the NRL, they drop the case and then they employ him again a couple years later.....Survival of the fittest mixed with a relegation comp IMO.

Happy to. Yes in terms of the top end systemic breaches it has been a disclosure either by a whistleblower or a dumb blonde in the office, but every year there are numerous breaches and clubs get fined or even lose points for them, as the warriors did several years ago. It is natural that if a club goes about it in a deliberate fashion they are going to work hard to cover their tracks hence the value of the 'insider', but every club has breached the cap at some point in the past decade.

 

[Oatley Dog]

Yeah & the laughable notion that 3rd party arrangements are not arranged by clubs, instead they are "independent". They take the fans as fools!

There is nothing to stop the clubs from facilitating a corporation paying a player in TPA setting, it is just a requirement that the corporation has no current or previous financial affiliation with an NRL club. Once the club introduces them then it is up the corporation and the player to work through an agreement, outside of the NRL club/contract system.

 

[GrogDog]

Not only are they probably going to land Cronk, there is strong mail that they are making a serious play for Angus Crichton as well.....probably one of the best up and coming back rowers in the NRL. The salary cap is a joke.....and this proves it. And the media is falling over themselves trying to explain how it is all possible to a disbelieving public.....has anyone seen even one article questioning any of this?

Nope, yet they haven't stopped writing them about us. Even last night I was reading about us with them reminding everyone that they (Foran & Woods) are still not registered

 

[Alan79]

The media must be earning good advertising dollars from Politis. I mean in one breath they can claim that Woods is earning a million per season. In the next breath they claim Tedesco has signed for significantly less money than he was supposedly offered elsewhere and that Cronk is willing to consider an offer that is around half of what DCE earns while Cronk is an incumbent half at all representative levels and DCE is probably something like the third or fourth in line for Queensland and hardly considered for international duties.

It's going to leave some serious questions for the NRL administration to answer if they allow a deal like this to go forward. They said that they wouldn't register contracts that were not on par with market value for players and in the cases of clubs like the roosters they seriously shouldn't given the fact that a guy like Politis has many avenues to funnel third party sponsorships their way. The salary cap has become a farce really.

 

[dogluva]

There is nothing to stop the clubs from facilitating a corporation paying a player in TPA setting, it is just a requirement that the corporation has no current or previous financial affiliation with an NRL club. Once the club introduces them then it is up the corporation and the player to work through an agreement, outside of the NRL club/contract system.

https://www.nrl.com/nrlhq/referencecentre/salarycap/tabid/10434/default.aspx
Unlimited - Players can earn unlimited amounts from corporate sponsors who are not associated with the club and who do not use the game's intellectual property (no club logos, jerseys or emblems) provided these are pre-approved. These agreements may not be negotiated by the club as an incentive for a player to sign a contract, nor can they be guaranteed by the club.


What about money paid from other people or companies?

If a player is receiving money from any person as a way of inducing him to play for the club, then that money will be included in the Salary Cap.

Income that a player earns from parties not related to his club is generally not included in the Salary Cap, however, the details of the agreement must be advised to the club by the player.

The club must then get approval for the agreement from the Salary Cap Auditor in order for the remuneration to be excluded.

In 2006, the NRL also introduced an allowance for players who enter into Third Party Agreements with club sponsors, referred to as Marquee Player Agreements. In 2014, the Top 25 players are allowed to earn up to a maximum $600,000 in Marquee Player Agreements but the total payments under these agreements must not exceed $600,000 per club, otherwise any excess amounts are included in the salary cap.

Players are also able to enter into agreements with game sponsors, referred to as Sponsor Leveraging Agreements. There is no maximum amount and they are excluded from the salary cap.

Third Party Agreements

Third party agreements are payments made by companies directly to players. There is no restriction on the amount a player can earn through third party agreements where he is being paid for his own intellectual property, without the need to employ club logos or names and where the company involved is neither a club sponsor nor are they acting on behalf of a club to secure the player's services. An example of this is a player promoting a brand or product, for example, Billy Slater and Australian Bananas.

Many players have third party agreements that are outside the salary cap. Individual players registered third party agreements totaling in excess of $15 million in 2015.

All third party agreements must be registered and approved beforehand. This is to ensure that they do not become a way for clubs or players to use sponsors or third parties to undermine the salary cap and also for the game to ensure the protection of club and game intellectual property. There are provisions for club sponsors to enter into agreements with elite players under the Marquee Player Agreement allowance.

I know where you are coming from, but once again the way the rules are worded it could be open to a bit of abuse.

Facilitating may be a bad choice of word as it means to make an action of process easier. Would that not mean the club has made an effort to make it easier to garner a third party deal for the player rather than an effort from the player themselves. ?

I guess you could call an introduction a non negotiation, but honestly if a club can direct a player/player manager to a corporate sponsor where does the 'grey area' begin.

 

[Dogzof95]

The whole thing is a joke! One of Politis staff members walks down the road to a business owner and hands him $500k cash, this business will write up a TPA with Cronk, to market their brand! In the mean time Mark Bouris has had a meeting with one of his home loan mates to organize a nice rate for Cronk and his bride to be, saving them a million dollars on their home loan! Good work NRL, nothing can get past you!!!

 

[Trafford10]

Not only are they probably going to land Cronk, there is strong mail that they are making a serious play for Angus Crichton as well.....probably one of the best up and coming back rowers in the NRL. The salary cap is a joke.....and this proves it. And the media is falling over themselves trying to explain how it is all possible to a disbelieving public.....has anyone seen even one article questioning any of this?

Ah...no, not a single hard question asked.
The corruption of the NRL is all embracing.
Just read the story on Peace, who is on $800k a season for the next two seasons.
Keary is on $600k a season.
And oh no probs let's sign Cooper for $1.2m.

Or Many can sign Peace on his $800 and DCE is on $1.2 million.

How can clubs afford $2 million for their starting halves even when the cap has been raised to $9.4m.

I know if Mybe plays 6 on $800k & Foran on $750k we are not far off.

But Rorters with Cronk, Peace & Keary will be more like $2.5m.

The salary cap is completely fucked, an unfunny joke and given it's designed to level of the playing field in terms of attracting talent, given this example of Cronk, a complete fucking failure!!

 

[Oatley Dog]

https://www.nrl.com/nrlhq/referencecentre/salarycap/tabid/10434/default.aspx
Unlimited - Players can earn unlimited amounts from corporate sponsors who are not associated with the club and who do not use the game's intellectual property (no club logos, jerseys or emblems) provided these are pre-approved. These agreements may not be negotiated by the club as an incentive for a player to sign a contract, nor can they be guaranteed by the club.


What about money paid from other people or companies?

If a player is receiving money from any person as a way of inducing him to play for the club, then that money will be included in the Salary Cap.

Income that a player earns from parties not related to his club is generally not included in the Salary Cap, however, the details of the agreement must be advised to the club by the player.

The club must then get approval for the agreement from the Salary Cap Auditor in order for the remuneration to be excluded.

In 2006, the NRL also introduced an allowance for players who enter into Third Party Agreements with club sponsors, referred to as Marquee Player Agreements. In 2014, the Top 25 players are allowed to earn up to a maximum $600,000 in Marquee Player Agreements but the total payments under these agreements must not exceed $600,000 per club, otherwise any excess amounts are included in the salary cap.

Players are also able to enter into agreements with game sponsors, referred to as Sponsor Leveraging Agreements. There is no maximum amount and they are excluded from the salary cap.

Third Party Agreements

Third party agreements are payments made by companies directly to players. There is no restriction on the amount a player can earn through third party agreements where he is being paid for his own intellectual property, without the need to employ club logos or names and where the company involved is neither a club sponsor nor are they acting on behalf of a club to secure the player's services. An example of this is a player promoting a brand or product, for example, Billy Slater and Australian Bananas.

Many players have third party agreements that are outside the salary cap. Individual players registered third party agreements totaling in excess of $15 million in 2015.

All third party agreements must be registered and approved beforehand. This is to ensure that they do not become a way for clubs or players to use sponsors or third parties to undermine the salary cap and also for the game to ensure the protection of club and game intellectual property. There are provisions for club sponsors to enter into agreements with elite players under the Marquee Player Agreement allowance.

I know where you are coming from, but once again the way the rules are worded it could be open to a bit of abuse.

Facilitating may be a bad choice of word as it means to make an action of process easier. Would that not mean the club has made an effort to make it easier to garner a third party deal for the player rather than an effort from the player themselves. ?

I guess you could call an introduction a non negotiation, but honestly if a club can direct a player/player manager to a corporate sponsor where does the 'grey area' begin.

True, but I think in this day and age it would impossible for the club not to either know about or be involved indirectly in the process. I'm sure that when the formal stuff begins they have to be at arms length but quiet chats between managers and corporates in the Club Box would be commonplace I would think.

 

[Oatley Dog]

Ah...no, not a single hard question asked.
The corruption of the NRL is all embracing.
Just read the story on Peace, who is on $800k a season for the next two seasons.
Keary is on $600k a season.
And oh no probs let's sign Cooper for $1.2m.

Or Many can sign Peace on his $800 and DCE is on $1.2 million.

How can clubs afford $2 million for their starting halves even when the cap has been raised to $9.4m.

I know if Mybe plays 6 on $800k & Foran on $750k we are not far off.

But Rorters with Cronk, Peace & Keary will be more like $2.5m.

The salary cap is completely fucked, an unfunny joke and given it's designed to level of the playing field in terms of attracting talent, given this example of Cronk, a complete fucking failure!!

I think that just because the NRL doesn't come out all guns blazing publicly doesn't mean they are keeping a close eye on things. There are 15 other clubs who would be jumping up and down if there is even a sniff of advantage to the other team no matter who it is. Our problem is that we have been in an internal civil war for so long half the people on the inside have been leaking info to the media and they just run with it. Hopefully with Pay there and the other changes that are taking place we will settle down and only be on the back page rather than the front.

 

[Dogzof95]

Dear NRL,

You can’t keep everyone happy, sport is a business, start looking at franchising your teams, if teams can’t keep their head above water then it’s bye bye! You need to evolve, otherwise you’ll continue to die a very slow death!

Good luck!

 

[MatstaDogg]

As the little angry midget who coached Manly once said "There needs to be an investigation"

 

[Oatley Dog]

Dear NRL,

You can’t keep everyone happy, sport is a business, start looking at franchising your teams, if teams can’t keep their head above water then it’s bye bye! You need to evolve, otherwise you’ll continue to die a very slow death!

Good luck!

They've already told the clubs they have to be self sufficient by 2020 or they won't be offered a licence to play in the comp. They aren't going to bail any more clubs out.