NHL salary cap
The NHL salary cap (Eng. NHL salary limitation ) refers to the maximum amount which a team of the National Hockey League must spend in a season for their players' salaries. It is a " hard" limit, which excludes exceptions such as the usual in baseball " luxury tax ". Like many other professional sports leagues in North America, has the NHL a "salary cap" to prevent (with more revenue) take the teams in large markets the best players to large sums under contract and thus reinforce their competitive advantage over teams in smaller markets. Since there are none in the NHL and losers, is the "salary cap" next to the NHL Entry Draft is an essential part of securing a long-term balanced competition.
The maximum amount varies each year and is calculated as a proportion of the revenue of the league in the previous year. In the 2007-08 season, the upper limit was approximately $ 50.3 Mio.US per team, in 2008-09 at 56.7 Mio.US $, in 2009-10 at 56.8 Mio.US $, in 2010 -11 59.4 Mio.US $ and in 2011-12 at 64.3 Mio.US $.
Teams that violate the salary cap, can with a penalty of up to $ 5 Mio.US, the cancellation of contracts, loss of draft picks, point deductions and / or automatic defeats in games that were influenced by the violation be proven.
Before the salary cap
Before the introduction of the salary cap was decided following the lockout of 2004/ 05, the NHL was the only major professional leagues in North America who had neither a luxury tax, a system for the redistribution of income, nor a salary cap or lower limit.
Players' salaries in the NHL were before the 1970s not a big issue until Alan Eagleson, the players union NHLPA founded and launched the new league World Hockey Association got in with the teams in the NHL in a competition for the best talent. Owner, such as Harold Ballard of the Toronto Maple Leafs paid their players minimum wages to make the teams as profitable as possible. It was particularly in Toronto have little incentive to invest money for top players, as the home games of the team were always sold out, regardless of their success. The Leafs, who had concluded in its long history before Ballard's departure in 1972, only 10 seasons with more defeats than victories, closed until his death in 1990 twelve more seasons with a negative balance from.
The lockout of 2004/ 05 has already passed over the salary cap issue, which led to the cancellation of part of the 2004/05 season. At that time was only 48 games and the subsequent play-offs were played.
Although at the time of introduction of the salary cap came six NHL franchises in Canada, almost all NHL salaries were paid in U.S. dollars. This led to the beginning of the 21st century due to the weak Canadian dollar major financial problems for teams in smaller Canadian markets, to the proceeds of which were to a large extent from Canadian dollars. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made it successfully to convince the U.S. teams from a post at an exchange rate adjustment.
Salary Cap
2004-05 negotiations
The negotiations of the 2005-12 collective agreement (NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement ) had the players' salaries to the main point of contention. The League argued here is that teams spend about 75 % of their revenue on player salaries; a percentage is far higher than that in other North American sports leagues. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman demanded " cost certainty " and put the NHLPA different concept before, but these were quickly dismissed as a euphemism for a salary cap.
Due to the strict rejection of a salary cap by the NHLPA the labor dispute resulted in a lockout of the players by the NHL, which ultimately led to the cancellation of the entire 2004-05 season NHL. This was the first time that one of the major sports leagues in North America lost an entire season because of a labor dispute. The dispute was ultimately resolved by a give in the players' union agreed to a hard limit. In return, the NHL expanded from the redistribution of income between the teams.
2012-13 negotiations
2012-13 set a new, lower restriction following the lockout. To help teams at the transition to the new limit each team was given the right to two Amnesty buyouts. After the season 2012-13 season and after Saision 2013-14, each team is allowed a player dismissed the " bought out " of his contract. This amount will be added to the total income of all players, but not the total expenditure of the team against the salary cap. The new agreement also prohibits content fluctuations of more than 35% from year to year within a contract and requires that the lowest- paid year of a contract can not be less than 50% of the highest paid year. Thus, mechanisms to circumvent the salary cap should be prevented.