Quote:
Originally Posted by Tram2Whitaker
If there were a salary cap for the 70s/80s it would probably be about $6 - 10 million, unless you're talking late 80s, because that's when free agency started to amp up, and the PA won the collusion suit.
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Well, it'd be more complicated to calculate, at least in terms of real-life figures. Note that salary caps are typically derived as a specified percentage of overall league revenue divided by the number of teams in the league. In addition to the cap there is also a salary floor, but OOTP's salary cap system doesn't model that if I recall correctly.
MLB proposed a salary cap system in the run up to the 1990 lockout. It called for players to be guaranteed 48% of revenue from ticket sales and both local and national broadcasting contracts. Using 1988 MLB revenues as an example, the players' share would have been $401.4 million. That works out to an average of $15.4 million per club, which likely would have been the cap. The average opening day payroll for the 1988 season was $11.5 million, with the range going from $5.4 million to $19.4 million.
Two other facets of real-world salary cap systems to note:
(1) If clubs fail to spend the designated portion of revenues on player salaries, they are required to cut checks to make up the shortfall, with the proceeds being divided amongst the players. That means clubs may have an extra expense at the end of the season. Either that, or the salary cap is raised by the shortfall amount for the next season (it depends on the particulars of the salary cap system used by a league).
(2) Salary cap systems have special accounting rules to handle how salaries are determined for salary cap purposes. That means what a player is actually paid during a season can differ considerably from what the salary is for salary cap purposes.
Note that OOTP's salary cap system doesn't recreate either of the above items.