Consequences of Abolishing the Salary Cap in the NFL

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10 years after the fact, this court ruling has been detrimental to the NFL as it has worsened the competitive balance of the league, slowed the growth of player salaries, and hindered the growth of the league’s market capitalization
By abolishing the salary cap, the Department of Justice ruling has had a substantial impact on the competitive balance of the NFL. Because the salary cap was removed, over the past 10 years teams from big markets, or who have deep-pocketed owners, have been spending money rampantly. Small market teams have been marginalized to a point of having very little chance to win, as they cannot afford to spend freely on talent, as they do not have the income potential to make money. This progression is similar to what we have seen over the years in professional soccer, specifically in the UEFA champion’s league and Spain’s. In the UEFA Champions League, 12 teams have combined to win 48 out of the 58 championships, or 82.76% of championships. There has been such a lack of Competitive Balance in revenue splitting and salary cap free soccer that even among the best teams in the world there is great disparity. An even more extreme example can be found in Spain’s La Liga, where the top 2 teams have won 65.85% of the league’s 82 championships and the top 5 teams have won 93.9% of the league’s championships. This lack of competitive balance is certainly caused by a lack of salary cap, as the top 2 teams spend up to €190,000,000 per year on players while lower level teams spend up to €14,000,000 per year on players. The NFL’s continued revenue sharing, however, has made it so that disparity in the league isn’t quite as large as it is in professional soccer. Despite these effects of Revenue sharing, the lack of a sal...

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... has mirrored that in the MLB, another professional sports league without a salary cap. The continuation of a revenue sharing system makes the growth of the NFL’s market capitalization less than that of other salary cap free leagues like the MLB because it reduces the ability to capitalize on lucrative TV deals. Moreover, the reduction in product quality (a result of the shift in competitive balance) slows the growth of the league’s market capitalization compared to the rate at which it was growing before the court ruling. All in all, this court ruling has been bad for the NFL because its abolition of the salary cap—but not revenue—sharing, has generated a worse product then would be produced if there was no ruling, which pays players less than it would have if there was no ruling, and that makes teams less valuable than they would have been if there was no ruling.

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