What do you want to see in a new CBA?

[FRPLG]

Keep the franchise tag in essentially the same form but change one key detail. Use current year salaries of players rather than last year. The franchise tag was meant to keep the big name guys from hightailing it. But because the salaries have gotten disparate within position groups we are now seeing kickers getting tagged. Ridiculous. Janikowski gets a insane deal but none of the other kickers can take advantage of his contract moving the market because the teams can just tag them and use last year's salaries for the averages.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

These two don't go together. The owner's might shut the league down before they accepted a pay floor without a pay cap.

Thats where revenue sharing and luxury tax would come in. That money would be distributed to the smaller market teams like Arizona, Cincinnati, and Green Bay for the sake of spending money on players. In researching baseball I've seen that the language of their CBA says that the money they recieve from revenue sharing must "be used to improve the product on the field." The language is so vague that some owners actually just pocket the money for themselves. By forcing them to spend the money on players you have a base for a pay floor.

God knows that if theres no pay floor then you'd see the Bengals and Cardinals free fall to the bottom of the NFL with $10 million pay rolls. Heck they've actually tried that with the most recent CBA.

Also baseball apparently has just as much if not more parity then baseball:
MLB on par with NFL when it comes to competitive balance - ESPN

One more point. Another argument you hear is that the NFL salary cap system creates more competitive balance (or "fairness") because it's easier for bad teams to turn around their losing ways and make the playoffs.

Is this true? Not really.

Let's define a "bad" team as a franchise that has had at least two consecutive losing years. How often does that team make the playoffs? One final set of factoids from the decade:

Baseball: Eight of 80 playoff teams (10 percent)
NFL: 15 of 120 playoff teams (12.5 percent)

Pretty much the same rate (and remember, the NFL allows more playoff teams).

Some of the beliefs about NFL parity are just that -- myths. Pundits often cite the 2001 New England Patriots, who won the Super Bowl after going 5-11 in 2000 (Bill Belichick's first season as the team's coach). While the 2000 Patriots weren't a strong team, this was hardly a franchise down in the dumps. They had finished 8-8 in 1999 and had made the playoffs the three seasons before that.

(And for those who argue that baseball's competitive balance has taken a turn for the worse, five of those eight "bad to good" teams have come in the past four seasons -- the 2006 Tigers; the 2007 Cubs, Diamondbacks and Rockies; and the 2008 Rays. The NFL has seen only three such turnarounds in that span -- the 2008 Dolphins and Falcons and the 2009 Bengals.)

Let's begin with some pairs of factoids for the decade, from the MLB and NFL seasons from 2000 to 2009.

Number of World Series champions: 8
Number of Super Bowl champions: 6 (7 if the Saints win)

Number of teams to reach the World Series: 14
Number of teams to reach the Super Bowl: 15

Number of teams to reach the league championship series: 21
Number of teams to reach a conference title game: 21

Number of teams not to make MLB playoffs: 7
Number of teams not to make NFL playoffs: 3

MLB obviously has less playoff spots making it difficult to even make the playoffs.

[dmek25]

anyone that wants to compare that half assed salary cap they have in baseball needs to have their head examined. unless your ready for the same teams in the playoffs year after year. the whole infra structure of MLB needs trashed

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by dmek25

anyone that wants to compare that half assed salary cap they have in baseball needs to have their head examined. unless your ready for the same teams in the playoffs year after year. the whole infra structure of MLB needs trashed

The numbers say otherwise. The difference is in baseball if a team sucks you have to watch it for a 162 games. In football if a team sucks you only see it 16 times a year. Plus with the NFL draft teams get contributions from rookies much quicker then they would in baseball.

[mlmdub130]

Originally Posted by Lotus

1) Rookie pay scale
2) Much better benefits for retired players

two issues which are both long overdue and very important imo, espesically the retired players issue

[saden1]

Less money for rookies and I'm good to go.

[WaldSkins]

1.)Rookie pay scale
2.)Eliminate the Franchise Tag
3.)If a player is cut and or suspended because of a DUI/Gun Charge/Dog Fighting crime/etc, the team should not be affected(Cap Wise)
4.) If a player is traded his new team takes on the salary and bonuses.

[RedskinMike]

Originally Posted by WaldSkins

1.)Rookie pay scale
2.)Eliminate the Franchise Tag
3.)If a player is cut and or suspended because of a DUI/Gun Charge/Dog Fighting crime/etc, the team should not be affected(Cap Wise)
4.) If a player is traded his new team takes on the salary and bonuses.

I disagree with you here. Players who end up in these situations normally have character issues. Any team that signs or drafts a guy like that should have to deal with the consequences. If a player dies I think there should be no cap ramifications.

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by WaldSkins

1.)Rookie pay scale
2.)Eliminate the Franchise Tag
3.)If a player is cut and or suspended because of a DUI/Gun Charge/Dog Fighting crime/etc, the team should not be affected(Cap Wise)
4.) If a player is traded his new team takes on the salary and bonuses.

I kind of disagree on this one. I mean I know the team should only be so responsible for a players conduct off the field, but if you do that you'll have more teams taking chances on questionable character because of a lack of liability. You'd risk turning the NFL into the NBA.

[tryfuhl]

There are a lot of people that practice in this and I won't pretend to understand everything that they do.

Rookie pay scale balanced by incentives based on performance is the biggest thing that I'm worried about

Retiree benefits tied to your salary would be great too.. so if some guy made on average 3 a year and another guy made 2 a year.. the 3 per year guy would be expected to contribute more to his (somewhat matched?) benefits

[BigHairedAristocrat]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag359

I kind of disagree on this one. I mean I know the team should only be so responsible for a players conduct off the field, but if you do that you'll have more teams taking chances on questionable character because of a lack of liability. You'd risk turning the NFL into the NBA.

i agree. i think everything should be done to give teams motivation to ensure their players behave themselves.

[CrazyCanuck]

Keep the cap, save my job!