Team Payrolls

I'm a D-Backs fan, but I have to admit my first love is the NFL where I like how they do business (excepting the current shenanigans, obviously). Now looking at baseball's competitive landscape and how you have some teams like Pittsburgh and KC who have become notoriously cheap, and how they were powerhouses at one point, but over the past two decades they've been cellar dwellers, do you think that baseball needs some kind of either a salary cap or more importantly, a salary floor requiring teams to spend a minimum amount on their roster to make sure everyone has a realistic shot to compete? Or do you not mind some teams, like the Yankees, investing huge sums in player salaries while others operate on a shoestring budget?


It just got me thinking when I look at Kansas City's 2011 payroll of $32 million and compare it to Alex Rodriguez's 2011 salary of $31 million.

That NY payroll more or less gaurantees them a place in the post-season. Boston's is also huge which also stacks the deck in their favour.

That is particularly harsh on the other AL East teams. Tampa Bay found a way through by being so bad year after year, thereby collecting a host of the best draftees, but virtually impossible for middle of the road teams like Baltimore and Toronto to compete in the same way. Sad for me as a Jays fan but they are re-building through their farm system and should be a strong team in 2012.

This imbalance seems unique to this division. Every other AL team outside of this division is probably very happy with things the way they are and unlikely to want to change things much though. Most likely change on the horizon are a doubling of wild cards.

Football is also my favourite US sport, and, despite being an NYY man, I think it would be good for MLB to have a similar financial setup. One of the good things about the NFL is the unpredictability and how it can be hard for clubs to setup a long-lasting dynasty. Although I do enjoy our dominant position in AL East I think it'd be good for the league as a whole to have salary limitations.

Also Baseball is an international sport, so if this kind of thing was implemented in leagues globally then it could allow the likes of the Korean and Japanese Major Leagues to have a wee bit more financial stability. Japan also has a similar situation to AL East where the Yomiuri Giants club (Japan's equivelent to the Yankees) often use their financial muscle to dominate the amount of Japan series' titles won.

It'd be good for the game overall, we don't want to continue to end up with a similar situation to the English premier league.

i'll admit upfront i am a yankees fan but i am not really in favour of salary caps

the simple reason being that if a club can generate the higher income from a larger fanbase then why shouldn't they be allowed to invest that income back into the team itself

i agree fully that clubs need to make sure they are not spending money they dont have and getting into the same financial problems that we see in football across europe but i dont think thats the case in baseball

they are currently re-negotiating the CBA and i doubt very much there will be any support for a salary cap from either the owners or the players tbh

I doubt the owners would support it. The rich teams won't want to give up their advantage and the small market teams won't want a salary floor because that will force them to spend money they either don't want to or can't afford to spend.

the players union are also not going to support anything that will limit the potential earnings of their members

the union get very protective regarding salary issues

The whole of pro sports needs to be revamped . From financing to enhancing , there is not a level playing field to be found . Throw in players , lawyers , agents , owners & fans vested interest & there's to much pressure for the good of the sports themselves . After 50 years of enjoyment of most sports , I feel sad for them these days as I follow my teams over less than level grounds .

It would be impossible for Major League baseball to institute an NFL style salary cap for one simple reason. The NFL owns and sells the broadcast rights to the networks. In baseball each team owns and sells their own broadcast rights. The only way to attempt to level the playing field would be to force teams that except revenue sharing funds to put that money into payroll instead of their own pockets. And if baseball truly wanted to do something about the Yankees they would put a third club in New York. The Dodgers perhaps. As a Yankee fan I would welcome that.

You mean, the Brooklyn Dodgers????

Why not? People always fantasize in the New York papers about that. When the O'malleys sold the team people talked about putting an ownership group together and with the Dodgers recent troubles and talk of a forced sale people have started dreaming the impossible dream. Baseball would never allow it though.

Aye, I wouldn't have a problem with it either. If all this meant the Dodgers had to move, Brooklyn would be fine.

But moving any team to New York might help level the playing field. Then again it might not.