From PFT: The league announced today that the salary cap will rise to somewhere in the neighborhood of $190 million in 2019. The 2018 cap is set at $177.2 million. “The NFL informed clubs today that the projections for the 2019 salary cap are in the range of $187.0 million to $191.1 million,” the league said in a statement. “This marks a 40% increase in just five years since the 2014 season ($133.0 million) and would be the 6th consecutive year the cap is projected to climb more than $10 million per club year over year. Total projected player costs, including benefits, will be more than $7.3 billion in 2019.” The first year the NFL had a salary cap, in 1994, it was $34.6 million. That would be about $59 million in today’s dollars. So if the cap had merely kept pace with inflation, it would be less than one-third of what it will be in 2019.
All the fuss about how many empty seats there are around the league, people probably never considered that doesn't mean those empty seats aren't paid for.
There ought to be salary caps on players. It’s nuts the contracts some of these players are getting...not to mention that ticket prices are so outrageous that common folks can’t afford to go to games.
These things are probably not as connected as you seem to imply. Yes the players make some money - supply and demand for a rare talent set. Compared to the big boss though? Chump change. TV/Ad money pay far more of the salary than tickets will. The owners will charge what they can because people seem to still be willing to pay for it.
They need to set it so that the cap only applies to active players. Players on IR or cut should be paid but not count towards the cap. That would make for more competitive teams/league without compromising the benefits of the cap.
I think that would potentially make things worse. If teams didn't have dead cap space, they would all be much more aggressive in FA, which wouldn't necessarily be a good thing. Teams could potentially do some unethical things with player acquisition if they knew there would be no dead money after the first couple years.
I considered possible side-effect but ultimately couldn't find any major issues. What unethical things are you thinking about?
I wish they’d just use all that extra cash to put back into the communities. These athletes make enough as it is. After school programs for kids. School security. Cleaning up bad neighborhoods. That’s my two cents, anyway.
Yes sir. I was looking for tickets for the Pats game. The cheapest I found were $150 each for upper level end zone. Lots of people cant afford that kind of cash outlay for a single game (plus parking and food, and in my case gas and tolls). I'm lucky in that I can afford it, but I chose not to buy them because I don't think there is good value there. I'll probably never attend another game in person unless I buy season tickets once the Brightline/Virgin train to Orlando is complete in 2021.
