National Football League The new
Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) formulated in 2011 had an initial salary cap of $120 million. While the previous CBA had a salary floor, the new CBA did not have one until . Starting with that season, each team is required to spend a minimum of 88.8% of the cap in cash on player compensation, and 90% in future years. However, the floor is based on total cash spent over each of two four-year periods, the first running from 2013 to 2016 and the second from 2017 to 2020. A team can be under the floor in one or more seasons in a cycle without violating the CBA, as long as its total spending during the four-year period reaches the required percentage of the cap. increased the cap to $34.6 million. Both the cap and the floor are determined by a formula that is the league's revenue multiplied by the CBA percentage of the collective bargaining agreement to determine the player revenue share for the season. That value is then subtracted from the projected cost of player benefits for the season then divided by the total number of teams to determine the salary cap for a given season. Since its introduction the salary cap has increased each season (with the exception of the 2021 season due to a decrease of league revenues in the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic). In , the final capped year under that agreement, the cap was $128 million per team, while the floor was 87.6% of the cap. Using the formula provided in the league's collective bargaining agreement, the floor in 2009 was $112.1 million. Under the NFL's agreement with the
NFLPA, the effects on the salary cap of guaranteed payments such as signing bonuses are, with a few rare exceptions,
prorated evenly over the term of the contract. During the offseason and preseason, only the top 51 salary figures are counted towards the cap. Once the 53-man rosters go into effect for the regular season the salaries of all players on the active roster, injured reserve, and practice squad, as well as unpaid bonuses and guarantees for former players count towards the cap. In transitions, if a player retires, is traded, or is cut before June 1, all remaining bonus is applied to the salary cap for the current season. If the
payroll change occurs after June 1, the current season's bonus proration is unchanged, and the next year's cap must absorb the entire remaining bonus. When a player is franchise tagged the salary cap will be affected. When the salary cap can't be met for a tagged player the National Football League will fund the remainder of the contract. Each team may only tag one player per year. Because of this setup, NFL contracts almost always include the right to cut a player before the beginning of a season. If a player is cut, his salary for the remainder of his contract is neither paid nor counted against the salary cap for that team. A highly sought-after player signing a long-term contract will usually receive a signing bonus, thus providing him with financial security even if he is cut before the end of his contract. Incentive bonuses require a team to pay a player additional money if he achieves a certain goal. For the purposes of the salary cap, bonuses are classified as either "likely to be earned", which requires the amount of the bonus to count against the team's salary cap, or "not likely to be earned", which is not counted. A team's salary cap is adjusted downward for NLTBE bonuses that were earned in the previous year but not counted against that year's cap. It is adjusted upward for LTBE bonuses that were not earned in the previous year but were counted against that year's cap. One effect of the salary cap was the release of many higher-salaried veteran players to other teams once their production started to decline from the elite level. On the other hand, many teams have made a practice of using free agents to restock with better personnel more suited to the team. The salary cap prevented teams with superior finances from engaging in the formerly widespread practice of stocking as much talent on the roster as possible by placing younger players on reserve lists with false injuries while they develop into NFL-capable players. In this respect, the cap functions as a supplement to the 55-player roster limit (up from 53 since 2020) and
practice squad limits (14 practice players by 2022 up from 10). Generally, the practice of retaining veteran players who had contributed to the team in the past, but whose abilities have declined, became less common in the era of the salary cap. A veteran's minimum salary was required to be higher than a player with lesser experience, which means teams tended to favor cheaper, less experienced prospects with growth potential, with an aim to having a group of players who quickly develop into their prime while still being on cheaper contracts than their peers. To offset this tendency which pushed out veteran players, including those who became fan favorites, the players' association accepted an arrangement where a veteran player who receives no bonuses in his contract may be paid the veteran minimum of up to $810,000, while accounting for only $425,000 in salary-cap space (a 47.5% discount). The salary cap also served to limit the rate of increase of the cost of operating a team. This has accrued to the owners' benefit, and while the initial cap of $34.6 million has increased to $123 million (maximum in 2009), this is due to large growths of revenue, including merchandising revenues and web enterprises, which ownership is sharing with players as well. The owners opted out of the CBA in 2008, leading to an uncapped season in 2010. During the
season, most NFL teams spent as if there was a cap in place anyway, with the league warning against teams front-loading contracts during the season. The
Dallas Cowboys,
New Orleans Saints,
Oakland Raiders, and
Washington Redskins chose to spend money in the spirit of an uncapped year, and in 2012 the Cowboys and Redskins (the top two NFL teams by revenue in 2011) were deducted $10 million and $36 million respectively from their salary caps, to be spread over the next two seasons. This $46 million was subsequently divided up among the remaining 28 NFL teams ($1.64 million each) as added cap space: this excluded the Raiders and Saints, as they were also over the cap, though to a lesser degree than the Cowboys and Redskins. The actions of the league to punish those teams that were acting within their legal bounds during the uncapped year led to a lawsuit against them by the NFLPA. The case argued that the rest of the league colluded to keep average player salaries from rising in a year they expected them to skyrocket and unfairly punished teams that did not collude. The NFL settled the lawsuit with the NFLPA.
The impact of effective salary cap management on team success in the NFL The salary cap is defined as a rule that places a limit on the amount of money a team can spend on players' salaries. Since its implementation, it has had a widespread impact on teams and organizations in the sports industry. It has changed how organizations invest in their players and the future as a whole. It has proven to be an obstacle in the pursuit of sustained success. Since 1994,
The National Football League has only experienced a handful of repeat Super Bowl appearances. In one of his most prominent studies, James Carrey researched salary and performance data across the NFL over a 10-year period. Ultimately, his study showed that strategic management of player compensation directly resulted in an increase in wins. Salary figures across the four major professional sports leagues in the United States can be compared. Doing so better enables one to understand the impact the cap has on a broader scale. Andrew Zimbalist argues that the data collected by revenue analysts across the respective leagues can be misinterpreted. This misinterpretation comes from the disparities in organizational structures across the leagues. In his study,
Andrew Zimbalist collects compensation logistics for athletes. He subsequently relates it to overall revenue generated by a sports organization. The concept of adjusted data analytics is used in this study to compare the salary and revenue shares of the National Football League, National Hockey League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball. In all, Zimbalist analyzes how salary caps have impacted controlling player costs. The study shows how the cap has affected the way organizations invest in and compensate their players. There is a perceived sunk-cost assumption that has arisen from the NFL's salary cap. This assumption underlines an analytical approach on the topic. In one of his studies, Quinn Keefer ran a regression on the structure of the NFL draft. The regression relates playing time amongst players to the regulations that have come from the salary cap. It was concluded that there is a positive correlation between salary and games started. An increase in salary cap value results an increase in games started for the players who were selected in the first two rounds of the draft. Despite no acknowledgeable differences in productivity, the salary cap enables first round selections to receive compensation premiums and signing bonuses. These benefits result in those particular players starting more games than players who weren't selected early on in the draft. The salary cap, and the regulations that are a part of it, come from the NFL collective bargaining agreement. This is an agreement between the league and its player association that discusses the sharing of revenue and other compensation rules. Quinn Keefer, in his analysis, primarily focusses on the section of the agreement regarding player compensation. He highlights that two major changes came from the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. One major change was rookie wage scale and how their selection in the draft notably affected their compensation and playing time. The second change was a limit placed on the first-year salary for players. Although these changes led to a higher first-year compensation for rookies-especially those selected in the first two rounds–they ultimately resulted in decreased salaries in the years after. Keefer concluded that there were diminishing returns. Overall, the 2011 collective bargaining agreement resulted in a negative effect on player salaries. This effect has led to a restructured management of rookie contracts over the last decade. Salary dispersion and incentive pay affect team performance across the NFL. Mike Mondello and Joel Maxcy examine this effect through collecting data from the NFL between 2000 and 2007. Mondello and Maxcy performed regression analyses that used both fixed and random effects models. Their study was geared towards establishing a relationship between performance and payroll. A positive relationship between on-field performance and increased payroll was found. Mondello and Maxcy also found a relationship between on-field performance and salary dispersion. Team revenue production, analyzed as a means to measure team performance, was also used in this analysis. Mondello and Maxcy's findings suggest that incentive pay is effective when a pay structure differentiates players based on productivity and quality of performance. The findings in their study have implications that could expand across different sports leagues. Player compensation across the NFL has been widely examined since 1994. Richard Borghesi analyzed the relationship between player compensation and franchise performance in the league between 1994 and 2004. The evidence gathered from these years shows that team success is dependent on both the actual and perceived fairness of player compensation. The data collected also shows that teams who implement the super-star approach to personnel decisions were worse on average when compared to teams who took a different approach. Borghesi shows how the most successful approach to player compensation and salary cap management is to concentrate on players' salaries on a group level. The super-star approach to player compensation leads to a lack of success on the field due to the dissatisfaction among players who recognize a substantial inequality in salaries. Year by Year Salary Cap
National Hockey League A salary cap existed in the early days of the
National Hockey League (NHL). During the
Great Depression, the league was under financial pressure to lower its salary cap to $62,500 per team and $7,000 per player, forcing some teams to trade away well-paid star players in order to fit the cap.
Pre-salary cap Prior to the resolution of the
2004–05 lockout, the NHL was the only major North American professional sports league that had no
luxury tax, very limited
revenue sharing and no salary cap. During the
Original Six era through to the early years of the
expansion era, the NHL's strict
reserve clause negated the need for a salary cap.
Player salaries first became an issue in the 1970s, when
Alan Eagleson founded the
NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) and the upstart
World Hockey Association began competing with the NHL for players. Not all NHL owners were willing to engage in a
bidding war, in particular,
Harold Ballard of the
Toronto Maple Leafs spent as close to the league minimum on rosters as he could. Since
Maple Leaf Gardens was consistently sold out no matter how poorly the Maple Leafs played, economically it made more sense for Ballard to spend the least amount of money he could, with his team being by far the most profitable. The
1994–95 NHL lockout was fought over the issue of the salary cap. The
1994–95 season was only partially cancelled, with 48 games and
the playoffs eventually being played. Eight NHL franchises were based in
Canada at the time of the lockout. Until the 1990s, the Canadian teams usually paid player salaries in Canadian dollars, but with the rise of free agency and a decline in the value of Canadian dollar, players and their agents increasingly demanded to be paid in U.S. dollars. Canadian teams' revenues were, then as now, mostly in Canadian dollars, and the effects of the discrepancy were particularly acute for the small market franchises. The financial difficulties and uncertainties of competing in smaller Canadian markets led to two clubs moving to the U.S.; the
Quebec Nordiques to
Denver, and the
Winnipeg Jets to
Phoenix.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman successfully persuaded the US-based teams to donate towards a pool to mitigate the adverse effects of the exchange rate.
Negotiations The negotiations for the 2004–05
NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement revolved primarily around players' salaries. The league contended that its clubs spent about 75% of revenues on salaries, a percentage far higher than existed in other North American sports; NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman demanded "cost certainty" and presented the NHLPA with several concepts that the Players' Association considered nothing more than
euphemisms for a salary cap, which it had vowed it would never accept. The previous CBA had expired on September 15, 2004, and a
lockout ensued, leading to the cancellation of the entire
2004–05 NHL season, the first time a major sports league in North America had lost an entire season to a labor dispute.
Current salary cap The lockout was resolved when the NHLPA agreed to a hard salary cap based on league revenues, with the NHL implementing revenue sharing to allow for a higher cap figure. The NHL salary cap is formally titled the "Upper Limit of the Payroll Range" in the new CBA. For the
2005–06 NHL season, the salary cap was set at
US$39 million per team, with a maximum of $7.8 million (20% of the team's cap) for a player. The CBA also mandated the payment of salaries in U.S. dollars, codifying what had been a universal practice for more than a decade. Revenues for the six Canadian teams that were in the league at the time of the lockout have all increased significantly since then, and because the US dollar fell to relative parity with its Canadian counterpart in the early 2010s, league-wide revenues measured in U.S. dollars were inflated accordingly. As a result of these factors, the cap was raised each year of the 2005–12 CBA to $64.3 million for the
2011–12 season, with a cap of $12.86 million for a player. The CBA also contains a salary floor which is formally titled the "Lower Limit of the Payroll Range", the minimum that each team
must pay in player salaries. The lower limit was originally set at 55% of the cap, but is now defined to be $16 million below the cap, therefore the 2011–12 minimum was $48.3 million. Since the current CBA was approved after
a later lockout in 2012–13, league revenues have stagnated due to a significant fall in the value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar. The cap was $69 million for the
2014–15 season and will be $74 million for
2016–17. The difference between the salary cap and a team's actual payroll is referred to as the team's "
payroll room" or "cap room". Each year of an NHL player contract, the salary earned contributes to the team's "cap hit". The basic cap hit of a contract for each year it is effective is the total money a player will earn in regular salary over the life of the contract divided by the number of years it is effective. This, in theory, prevents a team from paying a player different amounts each year in order to load his cap hit in years in which the team has more cap room. Teams still use this practice, however, for other reasons. Performance bonuses also count towards the cap, but there is a percentage a team is allowed to go over the cap in order to pay bonuses. A team must still factor in possible bonus payments, however, which could go over that percentage. Salaries for players sent to the minors, under most circumstances, do not count towards the cap while they are there. If a player has a legitimate long-term injury, his cap hit is still counted; however, the team is permitted to replace him with one or more players whose combined salary is equal to (or less than) that of the injured player, even if the additional players would put the team over the salary cap. If the team's cap room is larger than the injured player's cap hit, they may take on as much as their cap room; however, the injured player may not return to play until the team is again compliant with the original cap. The NHL has become the first of the major North American leagues to implement a hard cap while retaining guaranteed player contracts. Guaranteed player contracts in the NHL differ from other sports, notably the NFL, where teams may opt out of a contract by waiving or cutting a player. NHL teams may buy out players' contracts, but must still pay a portion of the money still owed which is spread out over twice the remaining duration of the contract. This does not apply for players over 35 at the time of signing; in this case a team cannot buy out the player's contract to reduce salary. Any other player can be bought out for of the remaining salary if the player is younger than 28 at the time of termination, or of the remaining salary if the player is 28 or older.
Trading cash for players or paying a player's remaining salary after trading him have been banned outright in order to prevent wealthier teams from evading the restrictions of the cap. Players, agents or employees found to have violated the cap face fines between $250,000 to $1 million or suspension. Teams found to have violated the cap can face fines of up to $5 million, cancellation of contracts, forfeiture of draft picks, deduction of points and forfeiture of games determined to have been affected by the violation of the cap.
National Basketball Association (soft cap + luxury tax) The
NBA had a salary cap in the mid-1940s, but it was abolished after only one season. The league continued to operate without such a cap until the
1984–85 season, when one was instituted in an attempt to level the playing field among all of the NBA's teams and ensure competitive balance for the Association in the future. Before the cap was reinstated, teams could spend whatever amount of money they wanted on players, but in the first season under the new cap, they were each limited to $3.6 million in total payroll. Under the 2005
CBA, salaries were capped at 57 percent of basketball-related income (BRI) and lasted for six years until June 30, 2011. The next CBA, which took effect in 2011–12, set the cap at 51.2 percent of BRI in 2011–12, with a 49-to-51 band in subsequent years. The salary cap for was set at $94.14 million, with the salary floor at 84.73 million and the luxury tax limit at $113.29 million. The current CBA took effect with the 2017–18 season. The NBA uses a "soft" cap, meaning that teams were allowed to exceed the cap in order to retain the rights to a player who was already on the team. This provision was known as the
"Larry Bird" exception, named after the former
Boston Celtics great who was retained by that team until his retirement under the provisions of this rule. The purpose of this rule was to address fan unease over the frequent changing of teams by players under the free agency system, as fans became displeased over their favorite player on their favorite team suddenly bolting to another team. The "
Larry Bird" provision of the salary cap gave the player's current team an advantage over other teams in free agent negotiations, thus increasing the chances that a player would stay with his current team. The provision tended to result in most teams being over the cap at any given time. Teams that violated the cap rules faced fines of up to $5 million, cancellation of contracts and loss of draft picks, and are prohibited from signing free agents for more than the league minimum. The NBA also has a salary floor, but teams are not penalized as long as their total payroll exceeds the floor at the end of the season. The NBA also uses a "
luxury tax" which is triggered if the average team payroll exceeds a certain amount higher than the cap. In this case, the teams with payrolls exceeding a certain threshold had to pay a tax to the league which is divided amongst the teams with lower payrolls. However, this penalty was levied against teams in violation only if the league average also breached a separate threshold. The NBA implemented a maximum salary for individual players. This was done following a dramatic increase in player salaries, in spite of the salary cap, in the mid-1990s. Under the CBA, a player's maximum possible salary increased along with his time of service in the league. For a player of five years' experience, the maximum salary threshold began at 25% of the salary cap, with annual increases of up to 10.5% possible beyond that for players re-signed by their original team, or 8% annual increases for free agents that signed with new teams. For players of greater experience, the salary limit was higher – but the 10.5% limit on annual increases remained the same. The 2011 CBA resulted in several major changes to the salary cap scheme. Most of these changes were retained in the 2017 CBA. The cap remains a soft cap; the Bird exception remains in place, but teams have less financial room to retain a player with Bird rights than under pre-2011 agreements. The 2011 CBA also reduced the maximum length of a contract by a year, and reduced allowable annual raises. Bird free agents are entitled to 5-year contracts with 7.5% raises; all other players (including sign-and-trade acquisitions) are limited to 4-year deals with 4.5% raises. Maximum salaries remain at 25, 30, or 35% of the cap, depending on years of service. These provisions remained intact in the 2017 CBA. Under the current CBA, a player coming off his rookie scale contract, who would normally be eligible to receive a salary of 25% of the cap, is eligible to receive 30% if he has been named MVP in any of the previous three seasons; named the
Defensive Player of the Year in the immediately preceding season or two of the three most recent seasons; or named to an All-NBA team in the immediately preceding season or two of the three most recent seasons. These criteria are the same that determine eligibility for a new type of contract introduced with the 2017 CBA—the Designated Veteran Player Extension (DVPE), popularly known as a "supermax" contract. Players entering their eighth or ninth season in the league who meet the aforementioned criteria may be eligible to sign an extension of up to 5 years at 35% of the cap, a salary normally allowed only for players with 10 or more years in the league. Such an extension can only be offered by the team that had the player under contract in the immediately preceding season. A team can use this extension on either a player under contract or its own free agent, but only if the signing team had originally drafted the player or obtained him in a trade during his rookie contract. Substantial changes were made in 2011 to the luxury tax regime. The dollar-for-dollar tax provisions of the 2005 CBA remained in effect through the 2012–13 season. Starting in 2013–14, the tax changed to an incremental system. Tax is now assessed at different levels based on the amount that a team is over the tax threshold, which remains at a level above the actual cap. The scheme is not cumulative—each level of tax applies only to amounts over that level's threshold. For example, a team that is $8 million over the tax threshold pays $1.50 for each of its first $5 million over the tax threshold, and $1.75 per dollar for the remaining $3 million. In addition, "repeat offenders", subject to additional tax penalties, are defined as teams that paid tax in four of the five previous seasons. As in the previous CBA, the tax revenue is divided among teams with lower payrolls. However, under the new scheme, no more than 50% of the total tax revenue can go exclusively to teams that did not go over the cap; the use of the remaining 50% was not specified in the new agreement. cannot receive a player in a sign-and-trade deal. A team that goes over the luxury tax threshold for the first time in a five-year period pays a penalty of 22.5% of the amount they were over the threshold, second-time violators pay a 30% penalty, and teams that exceed the limit three or more times pay a 50% penalty from 2013 onwards. There is also an incentive to lower payroll; if in any year a team goes under the threshold, the penalty rate decreases to 17.5%, 25% or 40% (depending on prior record over the previous five years) for the next time the tax is paid. The threshold for 2018 was $197 million, and rose to $206 million in 2019, $208 million in 2020, and $210 million in 2021. The following teams have been subject to the luxury tax between 2003 and 2017: , the New York Yankees have paid 61.75% of all luxury tax collected by MLB. Money collected under the luxury tax is apportioned as follows: The first $2,375,400 and 50% of the remaining total are used to fund player benefits, 25% goes to the Industry Growth Fund, and the remaining 25% is used to defray team's funding obligations from player benefits.
Criticism Measuring the success of the luxury tax in bringing the benefits of parity has brought mixed results. A team with a $100 million plus payroll won the
World Series 12 times between 2004 and 2018 (the 2009 Yankees; the 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2018 Red Sox; the 2011
St. Louis Cardinals; the 2010, 2012 and 2014 Giants; the 2015
Kansas City Royals; the 2016 Cubs; and the 2017
Houston Astros). While a top tier payroll increases a team's chances of making the playoffs, it does not guarantee they will consistently win championships. On the other hand, the New York Yankees have consistently had the highest total payroll in MLB, and they have appeared in 40 of the 114 World Series for 27 wins as of 2018 (35.1% of all World Series for a 24.6% success rate). In the past 30 years, 18 different teams have won the World Series. In comparison, only 14 different teams won the NFL Super Bowl, 13 won the NHL Stanley Cup and 10 won the NBA championship in that same time frame. Other pundits, such as
Michael Lewis, the author of the bestseller
Moneyball, have argued that using World Series championships as an example of parity may be misleading, and playoff appearances may be a better indicator of relative team strength. The playoff system used in baseball comprises a small number of games compared to success over a long season, and has been described as a "crapshoot" by
Oakland Athletics general manager
Billy Beane (the central figure of
Moneyball). In fact, teams with consistently high payrolls, including the Yankees and Red Sox, have secured high numbers of playoff berths (the two teams have combined to win the
American League East 19 out of 25 seasons from 1994 to 2018). In contrast, teams with low payrolls are far less likely to make the playoffs: for example, the
Pittsburgh Pirates went 20 years without a winning season before making the 2013 playoffs. A number of the small market teams, notably the
Milwaukee Brewers, have called for the introduction of a salary cap, but any introduction has been opposed by the
MLB players' union and the Yankees' ownership group; the latter have threatened
legal action if such a cap is implemented. Although some saw the success of NHL owners in their
2004–05 lockout as an opportunity for MLB to reform its collective bargaining agreement, baseball owners agreed to a new five-year deal in October 2006 that did not include a salary cap. Unlike the other three major North American sports, MLB also has no team salary floor: the only minimum limits for team payrolls are based on the minimum salaries for individual players of various levels of experience that are written into MLB's collective bargaining agreement. The players' union has also historically been vehemently opposed to a team salary floor, considering any floor proposal to be a prelude to a later request for a cap.
Major League Soccer Here are some major points of the MLS rules and regulations for the 2017 season. • A team's roster can be made up of up to 30 players. They are eligible to be selected to the 18-player team for each game. • The salary cap is $4.035 million per team in 2018, not counting the extra salary of designated players. Players in the first 20 roster spots will count against the cap. • Roster spots 19 and 20 are not required to be filled, and teams may spread their salary budget across only 18 players. A minimum salary budget charge ($67,500 in 2018) will be imputed against a team's salary budget for each unfilled senior roster spot below 18. • The maximum salary for any non-designated player is $504,375. • A designated player counts $504,375 against a team's cap. However, if a player joins his team in the middle of the season, the charge against the budget will be $252,187. • Players who are in the roster spots from 21 to 30 will not count against a team's cap. They will be known as off-budget players. • Those in roster slots 21–24 must be a senior minimum salary player ($65,000 base salary – will increase to $67,500 in 2018) or
Generation adidas player. • Those in slots 25–30 must be a reserve minimum salary player ($53,000 base salary – will increase to $54,500 in 2018). Additionally, those who earn the lowest possible league salary must be 24 or younger during the 2017 calendar year. • Those in slots 29–30 must also be
homegrown players. • In addition to the salary cap, each MLS team can also spend additional funds on a player in the form of
allocation money and homegrown player subsidy. Since the 2012 season, the cap number for designated players has depended on the players' ages. Since the 2013 season, players 20 or younger have counted $150,000 against the cap and those age 21 to 23 have counted $200,000, with older players remaining at the standard cap number ($368,750 for 2013, $387,500 for 2014, $436,250 for 2015, $457,500 for 2016, $480,625 for 2017, and $504,375 for 2018). For the purpose of determining a cap number, the player's age is determined solely by his year of birth.
Canadian Football League On June 13, 2006, a proposed salary management system featuring a Maximum Salary Expenditure Cap (SEC) was ratified at the
Canadian Football League board of governors meeting in
Winnipeg,
Manitoba. The CFL began enforcing strict salary cap regulation for the
2007 season and the cap was initially set at $4.05 million. The cap will be $6,062,365 for the
2025 season or an average salary of $131,791 per active roster player. However, most clubs spend more than the salary cap amount per season on salaries due to injury exemptions allowed under the cap. For instance, the
Edmonton Eskimos spent $8.6 million on salaries in 2018, $8.8 million in 2017 season and $7.9 million in 2016, while still compliant with the then salary caps of between $5 million to $5.2 million. Penalties for teams found to have breached the salary cap or salary floor regulations are: The following breaches of the salary cap have occurred (no team has yet been penalized for violating salary floor regulations): • In 2007, the
Montreal Alouettes were fined $116,570 and forfeited a first-round draft pick after a CFL investigation found that they had exceeded the salary cap by $108,285 during the season. • The
Saskatchewan Roughriders were also fined in 2007 ($76,552) for a string of minor breaches in relation to benefit payments to injured players. • In 2008, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were fined $87,147 for exceeding the salary cap by that amount. • In 2009, the
Winnipeg Blue Bombers were fined $44,687 for minor breaches in relation to player bonuses. • In 2010, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were fined $26,677 for exceeding the salary cap by that amount. • In 2013, the Saskatchewan Roughriders were fined $17,975 for exceeding the salary cap by that amount.
Major League Rugby The current team salary cap in the
Major League Rugby is $500,000.
Other North American leagues Salary caps are common in other leagues. The salary cap of the first
Arena Football League was $1.82 million per team in its final season in 2008. In 2005, the
Tampa Bay Storm were fined $125,000 for salary cap violations and their
head coach Tim Marcum was suspended for four games (last two of the 2005 season and first two of the 2006 season) and fined $25,250; Marcum was suspended for a fifth game the next day for criticizing the decision at a press conference. When the Arena Football League returned in 2010, it instituted a standard salary of $400 per game and a salary cap of $1.5 million, considerably lower than that paid by teams in the previous AFL; given that the new AFL had a 16-game season in 2010, this effectively means that its players are semi-professional. The
National Women's Soccer League, launched in 2013, was initially planned to have a team cap of $500,000, but that was later lowered to $200,000. However, the sport's three North American national federations—the
United States Soccer Federation, which ran the league through the 2020 season; the
Canadian Soccer Association (CSA); and the
Mexican Football Federation (FMF)—committed to paying the league salaries of many national team players. For the league's first season, 23 US players, plus 16 players each from Canada and Mexico, had their salaries
paid by their respective federations; these players' salaries originally did not count against the team cap. Mexican players have not been allocated since FMF launched
Liga MX Femenil in 2017, but the CSA continued to allocate players to the league through the 2021 season, after which the national team allocation system was abolished. For 2021, the NWSL team salary cap was $682,500, with a cap of $52,500 and a floor of $22,000 for individual player salaries. In a practice similar to that of MLS, "allocation money" can be used to supplement salaries of selected players. Although the salaries of U.S. and Canada national team players allocated to league rosters were paid by the USSF or CSA, these players remained subject to a modified form of the cap. U.S. federation players had a specified cap value of $33,000, with Canadian federation players having a cap value of $27,500 or their actual salary, whichever is lower. The national team allocation system was eliminated after the 2021 season. The league and
its players' union entered into their first collective bargaining agreement during the 2021–22 offseason. For 2022, the team cap was raised to $1.1 million, with standard player salaries limited to between $35,000 and $75,000. However, in a system similar to that of MLS, each team is also entitled to use $500,000 per year in "allocation money" (which can be traded) to supplement the salaries of select players. For 2023, the team cap was further raised to $1.375 million, and allocation money increased to $600,000. Also, the maximum salary was redefined as a "maximum cap charge", which includes all team-provided compensation in the player's contract, excluding benefits provided to all league players. The maximum cap charge was set for 2023 at $200,000. The cap does not include healthcare, which is funded fully by the team; housing, provided by the team either directly or via a stipend of up to $3,000 per month; or transportation, specifically by allowing teams to provide each player with a car with a maximum value of $50,000. After the 2024 season, the league and its players' union entered into a new CBA that will run through the 2030 season. The new CBA has no individual salary caps, but retains the "maximum cap charge" concept and a team salary cap, with the team cap initially set at $3.3 million for the 2025 season and increasing annually to $5.1 million for 2030. Depending on league revenues, stated cap figures are subject to increase. The
Premier Hockey Federation, which had been the main women's professional ice hockey league in the US and Canada before it was shuttered in 2023 and effectively replaced by the
Professional Women's Hockey League, had a team salary cap of US$750,000 and a floor of $562,500 in its
2022–23 season. This was a dramatic increase from the $300,000 cap in the
2021–22 season. In the PWHL's inaugural
2023–24 season (played entirely in calendar 2024), the team salary cap was US$1.265 million. ==In Europe==