The 30% Rule

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by SBXVII

Ok, I'll ask it here since everyone is here now. I thought the CBA/CAP was going to end in 2010 which would mean our only year to worry about is 2010 in reference to CAP? I would assume that if we can make it through 2010 then after there is no CAP and DS can pay what ever he wants? am I wrong? I also read in your post Schneed, it says "In any of the 3 additional league yrs" ? what does that mean? Am I mixing fruit? apples and oranges? CBA/CAP.

You've got the concept right, you're just off by a year.

The CBA is set to expire in 2010, which would mean 2010 would have no salary cap at all and we'd be free to have as much salary on the books as we wanted.

But that means 2009 becomes the Final Capped Season, and as such specific rules governing contracts and cap allocation methodology are in effect.

The 30% Rule says whatever a player's base salary in 2009 is, you can't increase that base salary by more than 30% in any of the next three seasons (2010, 2011, and 2012).

So if you want to give a guy a base salary of $3.0 million in 2010, his 2009 base salary can be no less than $2.3 million (3.0 / 1.3 = 2.3).