Suggestion: reward the highest salary player(s) at each position with extra TPE
Inspired by that post from the other week about people taking minimum contracts (and also that article with all the salary graphs), my suggestion is to incentivize players to seek bigger contracts.
The issue (if you think there is one at all) is good players taking the lowest salary they possibly can. This obviously is not true to real life, and makes the salary cap kind of just a general annoyance more than anything. This practice could also cause issues with league parity, due to the potential of a vicious cycle of “all the good players are taking minimum to play for team X, because team x has a great locker room, because all the good players take minimum to play for team x, because...etc.”
My initial idea was to split contract money and media money but that’s kind of complicated and hard to implement. Also, I’d rather not penalize those that do want to take minimum salaries. Like many pointed out, they just want to help out their team. I’m no different, I’m on minimum too.
So instead I’m proposing awarding a small amount of tpe to the highest paid players at each position. Nothing crazy, something like the fantasy football payout. 5 tpe for highest salary, 3 for 2nd highest, 1 for 3rd.
Because for someone like isa (sorry that you’re always brought up in these, you’re just a good example), what good is another $1 or 2 million? But you know those max earners will be interested in a big contract if it comes with some extra Tpe
——
Pros: more entertaining free agency. Realistic storylines like “player x holding out for contract to become leagues highest paid safety” and “will player y take a hometown discount or seek a huge contract elsewhere?”. Lower tier teams could have a shot at luring away good players. Doesn’t stop anyone from taking minimum if they want to.
Cons: the rich get richer. Strain on salary cap results in lower salaries for mid- and low- tier players. Those who seek huge contracts learn that there are more important things than money, and that the real treasure is the friends you make along the way.
Inspired by that post from the other week about people taking minimum contracts (and also that article with all the salary graphs), my suggestion is to incentivize players to seek bigger contracts.
The issue (if you think there is one at all) is good players taking the lowest salary they possibly can. This obviously is not true to real life, and makes the salary cap kind of just a general annoyance more than anything. This practice could also cause issues with league parity, due to the potential of a vicious cycle of “all the good players are taking minimum to play for team X, because team x has a great locker room, because all the good players take minimum to play for team x, because...etc.”
My initial idea was to split contract money and media money but that’s kind of complicated and hard to implement. Also, I’d rather not penalize those that do want to take minimum salaries. Like many pointed out, they just want to help out their team. I’m no different, I’m on minimum too.
So instead I’m proposing awarding a small amount of tpe to the highest paid players at each position. Nothing crazy, something like the fantasy football payout. 5 tpe for highest salary, 3 for 2nd highest, 1 for 3rd.
Because for someone like isa (sorry that you’re always brought up in these, you’re just a good example), what good is another $1 or 2 million? But you know those max earners will be interested in a big contract if it comes with some extra Tpe
——
Pros: more entertaining free agency. Realistic storylines like “player x holding out for contract to become leagues highest paid safety” and “will player y take a hometown discount or seek a huge contract elsewhere?”. Lower tier teams could have a shot at luring away good players. Doesn’t stop anyone from taking minimum if they want to.
Cons: the rich get richer. Strain on salary cap results in lower salaries for mid- and low- tier players. Those who seek huge contracts learn that there are more important things than money, and that the real treasure is the friends you make along the way.