Question about owners and free agents

[ForeverRoyalKC]

I was wondering if sports rules (league guidelines, I guess) allow an owner to pay for a free agent or contract extension out of, literally, his own pocket. Like if the Royals wanted a free agent and he wanted five million more than they could afford, can John Sherman just make it up with five mil of his own money? Not team expenses or revenue?

Never knew this and was curious.

[Jordan]

I'm confused because MLB isn't capped (yet, maybe ever). Nothing except an owner's own personal self interest keeps them from spending that theoretical 5 million you refer to in your post. Teams aren't confined to just spending what they earn

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by ForeverRoyalKC

I was wondering if sports rules (league guidelines, I guess) allow an owner to pay for a free agent or contract extension out of, literally, his own pocket. Like if the Royals wanted a free agent and he wanted five million more than they could afford, can John Sherman just make it up with five mil of his own money? Not team expenses or revenue?

Never knew this and was curious.

Your question doesn't really fit non salary cap leagues. In the MLB, the owner decides the budget and what they can afford. So if a player's demands exceed the parameters laid out for the front office, all they would need to do is ask the owner to raise the ceiling.

In a cap league, I am pretty sure all player contracts have to be approved by the league office. So any deal that puts a team over the threshold would be voided.

Then, you have the LAClippers case, where they arranged for a separate company their owner invested in, to give Kahwi a no show endorsement deal as inducement to sign w/LA. So they hid salary that should have applied to the cap. That was illegal, but Adam Silver seems to have little desire to deal out any punishment. And I'm willing to bet it is because a lot of owners have done something similar. That is a can of worms he wants closed.