countrybama24 wrote:j-far wrote:Someone like Memphis cannot complain about losing revenue after paying Rudy Gay a max contract.
All the ridiculous contracts given out just show that the current system is broken. Small market teams have to overpay in order to retain their talent, since they can't just let their most valuable asset walk for nothing.
But it's a catch-22. A lower hard cap means every team can throw around pretty much the same money, so the non-monetary factors that big cities such as LA have (nightlife, places for rich people to buy a bunch of useless ****, warm weather, better endorsement deals from larger markets) become even MORE important under a hard cap. LA might not be able to outspend anyone, but other teams can't outspend to keep their players off the market, so those players that do hit the (unrestricted) free agency are just as likely to gravitate to big market / highly profitable teams anyways, since those teams have other structural advantages.
In short, a hard cap isn't gonna eliminate LAs advantages over other teams in recruiting / signing players, it only makes those smaller teams more profitable.
You hit it right on the nail. Even though teams won't have "extra" money to
throw around at players, the particular lifestyle and appeal of the city is
an extra advantage that other cities do not have, and that will be huge in
luring prospective free agents.
Also... if there will be a hard cap, do you think ticket prices will increase,
or decrease?