should there be a salary cap on baseball?

Question

lowers teams like yankees and red sox

Answer 1

Probably, but more importantly there should be a cap minimum. All the news about how the Royals cannot compete with a big market team is crap. Their payroll was less than the amount of money they received from revenue sharing last year. These cheapskate owners are raking in money without risking anything. Glass purchased the Royals 4 (or maybe 5) years ago for 75 million. Recently, the team has been appraised at 150 million. Why? Because teams like the Cubs, Red Sox, and Yankees are advancing the league by being competitive. Until there is a salary minimum I say let whoever wants to spend the most money win.

Answer 2

Yes! Baseball salaries are out of hand. I'm all for capitalism in sports, but the over spending just drives up salaries. Baseball is the ultimate team game and one player making 20 -30 million is just one player and that will not win. Look at the Tigers, White Sox and Twins. They've all developed players and have reasonable salaries. They win. Detroit totally killed the Yankees last year. Put a cap, let teams like Kansas City have a chance.

Answer 3

No cap. At issue would be where will revenue come from? If you own a team, you look at the cost of signing a player at $5 million a year and ask, will this player give me extra people in the stands, shirt sales, hat sales etc. Then you try to figure out if it will equal more than $5 million a year. If the answer is no, you can't sign that player. If the answer is yes then sign him. If your team is limited by cap on how much of this "revenue" they can sign and speculate on for income then you limit a team's resources for potential income. If you were limited on that income and you owned a MLB team, you looked around to increase income and said that you can't sign any more players - what would you do to increase revenue, raise ticket prices. Ticket prices are not raised because George signed A-Rod, they are raised because it's the hottest ticket in town to see A-Rod. Simple supply and demand. Smaller market teams are sometimes a victim, they only have so many people they can pull in, so they can't buy A-Rod. There is no way they can make up the cost in revenue. So they have a cheap payroll, have less revenue coming in but they are still profitable and make millions.
KC is on that edge of small market, can't compete stuff... Well, KC there was another owner in the same small market named Lamar Hunt who made a very successful franchise - you can argue that he did have a salary cap but the truth is that he treated the Chiefs as a brand and marketed nationwide. The waiting period for season tickets is rediculous and they haven't won a SB in almost 40 years. They have season ticket holders from almost all 50 states.
So I think you can use the Small Market as an excuse or you can pony up and get competitive in the business of baseball. But a salary cap won't help if you still don't understand how to make money from your investment.

Answer 4

Yes there should be a salary cap in baseball but there should also be a salary floor that is the minimume that a team can spend to keep owners from being cheap and not fielding a good team.

Answer 5

Even though I like what the Red Sox have done this year, I agree. Players get paid 20 million a year for playing a game, kids at schools have to pay to play. And yes, the tams that pay the mot, do good. I agree, there should be a salary cap.

Answer 6

I don't think so.The Yankees and Red Sox are just part of what baseball is all about.They haven't been living up to their pay roll recently so the lower paying teams have just as much of a chance.

Answer 7

Should and will are two different things here.

Until the fans in the other 28 cities realize the Yankees win the series every 4 years, and that their team almost never has a chance to compete, the MLB doesn't need a salary cap.

Once people in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh etc. stop going to see perennial losers, then maybe they will take action.

Answer 8

i think all professional sports should have a salary cap. just look at the leagues with salary caps the competition is very competitive. i would love to see a change to baseball because i hate seeing the same teams winning ever year.

Answer 9

yes but noone seems to care that the richest teams are always in the playoffs.they should have one to keep salaries in check because sooner or later the ticket prices will be rediculous.the nfl has a good system but they have younger owners who understand how to keep the entire league operating well not just their own team.the nfl has teams in the same cities baseball does pittsburgh, tampa, miami, kc, san diego.they seem to be ok.why cant baseball do the same?

Answer 10

Not before the owners can prove conclusively that they can manage real revenue sharing, similar to that of the NFL.

Besides, a salary cap in sports is a misnomer. It ought to be called a diaper - to contain the mess of the owners' collective chequebook incontinence.