Boy there is a some misinformation in this thread that needs clarified.
Baseball is different, they have no salary cap
While being grammatically correct, this statement is demonstratively false. Correct, MLB does not have a "cap". What hey have is a competitive balance "luxury tax" fund. And what that does is, if the NY Yankees spend over a league/owner predetermined amount on player payroll during any 5 year period, they are taxed 22.5% of the overage for the first violation, 30% for the 2nd, and 50% for subsequent violations. That money is, in turn, pooled out to every team in the league. A percentage is supposed to be earmarked towards salary use, but KC Royals owner David Glass was only using about %25 for salary, and pocketing the balance. It got so bad that MLB threatened to get involved and Glass started using the money for what it was intended for.So, while not being called a cap, there is indeed a limit imposed and a tax levied if that limit is exceeded.
Baseball is also unique in that every year during the draft, each team is earmarked a limit (by round and pick position) that it can spend on it's 20+ draft picks signings. However, the teams are also given a pool limit to draw from to spread out to draftees how they see fit. If they want to give their number one pick the whole pool amount, they can. Or, they can spread it out over their top 10 picks if they want, in any increment they choose. There are also loopholes that are quickly closing. One, that I like to call the Yasiel Puig rule, now limits how much Dominican players who didn't play US high school or college can be payed and when they can be signed. There is not, as of yet, an equal system for other international players, but there is indeed one. Each MLB team now makes a posting offer (in blind bid form) to the international players agent, and the player and agent can decide which one to take. The player, the agent, the team and league the player came from all are beneficiaries of this money, as well as possible American player rights from the team the player accepts the offer from. For instance, the Texas Rangers had to pay almost 52 million, just for the right to negotiate for Yu Darvish's services.
The NFL also has a cap for rookies. Keep in mind, Russell Wilson was the 3rd highest paid QB last year. On his own team. That won't last long.
I believe that all racing in general is going through a transitional phase right now.
Another thing that I think is hurting major sports is there TV packages which are worth millions to them but also make it much easier for the fans to simply stay home and which their favorite sport on the wide screen TV.
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With less advertising dollars being spend on these events teams are going to learn to live on smaller budgets in the future and I am sure the payouts are also going to be smaller.
Professional football and baseball teams are going to be offering less money to players in the future.
There are a couple of things that need addressed in your post Jim. First, MLB is holding steady (if not increasing slightly) in the attendance numbers. While, by over all numbers, MLB attendance was down ever so slightly this year (%0.04). But overall, the past decade has seen 10 of the best years in terms of attendance in history.
The 2014 total finished just 0.4 percent lower than 2013, despite playing five fewer dates (2,421) than last year (2,426). In addition, the 2014 average attendance of 30,458 per game was just 0.2 percent lower than the 2013 average of 30,515.
Major League Baseball finished the 2014 regular season with an attendance of 73,739,622, marking the seventh highest total of all-time, it was announced today. Competitive balance throughout the game and exciting late-year pennant races have led to the last decade producing all 10 of the best-attended seasons in Major League Baseball history.
Now keep in mind, attendance went up over this time, when stadium capacities went down with smaller, more quaint stadiums with less seating, were being built.
As for the dollars being spent, advertisers are getting a better deal by working with TV stations that carry MLB, which in turn means better negotiating power for owners when it comes to broadcast rights of their product. One interesting thing to follow in the next year or so will be to see where the Ricketts family takes the Chicago Cubs broadcast rights. They (Ricketts and the Cubs) wanted way more money than they were getting to go coast to coast, and WGN told them to go pound sand. When nobody else bit on the number they wanted, they are now in negotiations with WGN for a short term deal. Which in turn, WGN is playing hardball (pun intended) over the money and details with. They (Ricketts and the Cubs) may have bitten off more than they can chew.
To make a long story short, MLB and NFL salaries will not go down, and in fact will continue to go up in the future. Despite guys like Billy Beane.
All broadcast rights are doing is opening a different revenue source for teams to draw from. Where the NFL has shot itself in the short term foot is that a few owners (not all) are building Taj Mahal's (oft times at tax payers expense), that are over capacity for
today's game. They may not be too large for the game in, say, 10 years though. Jerry Jones was brilliant in his thinking. He built an expansive (and expensive) facility for the Cowboys, but it is also used for NCAA hoops, NCAA bowl games, major concerts, and on and on. But his brilliance was paying for it out of his own pocket. HE gets to keep every dollar spent there. None goes back to the city, county, state, lottery commission, leagues, his mother, nobody.
