Sonny Bill Williams (SBW) has reportedly threatened to challenge the legality of the salary cap in a New South Wales court. According to Fox Sports in Australia, this can have huge consequences across Australia’s four codes of football, league, union, AFL and soccer. All four codes currently regulate to a salary cap created by each governing body. But if SBW’s challenge were to be successful, it is feared clubs may cease to exist by putting themselves out of business striving to be successful. The salary cap was put into place to prevent such incident occurring as well as making the competition more competitive. However, it won’t just be Australian sports that will suffer. Its likely Super League players will also challenge, and then English union players will copy until it snowballs out of hand and all professional sport becomes like the English Premier League. It’s boring, predictable and with a few dominant teams.
However that’s worse case scenario. The reality is SBW’s challenge won’t get off the ground, which will leave him in a rut over his future providing Canterbury get a move on with this injunction preventing him from playing elsewhere but for the Bulldogs. His argument though, that the salary cap is preventing trade is not quite as bullish as you might think.
There is currently no limit to how much an individual player can earn from his employers (or club), however all twenty five squad players salaries must fit under the (current) $4.1 million salary cap. But each club must also spend a minimum of (again, currently) $3.75 million. These figures are per year, so for example, if a player signs a contract for $2 million over a four year period, then his basic salary for one season is $500,000. However there is a restriction to individual player sponsorship and endorsements. This is where I think these restrictions should be dropped for reasons I’ll explain later. A player can earn as much as they like out of third party sponsorships, except if the sponsor is already sponsoring the club the player is playing for. Therefore, the player’s earnings from that sponsorship go towards the club and player’s salary cap. An example would be, Cronulla are sponsored by LG, the mobile phone and electronics manufacture. If, say Brett Kimmorley was sponsored by LG then the money he earns from them goes towards the salary cap. If, however Brett Kimmorley were sponsored by Adidas that has no connection to the Cronulla club what so ever, he could earn as much as he likes from that particular company.
Now, back to Sonny Bill Williams. While I see his point that he is not earning as much as he would like and what he is probably worth, and I sympathise with him on that, but I see the salary cap as an essential form of keeping the competition stronger and keeping the clubs financially stable as they can be. But if the restrictions on player sponsorship were to be abolished, I very much doubt SBW would be in a rush to earn a few extra pennies and catch the next Quantas plane to France. The fact of the matter is, top quality players know how much they are worth and want to release that potential. And for the sake of the game, the David Gallop and the NRL need to realise that as well.
Why? Well this could be the key to the NRL’s recent problems. If a high profile NRL player is seen to be advertising or supporting a product, then people will buy that product. This is good for the company, as well as the player’s club attendances as people are more inclined to watch that player. Take another example. A youngster sees Darren Lockyer wearing a Nike shirt on telly, in the newspapers or wherever. That kid will buy that top to be like Darren Lockyer. He will then go and watch Darren Lockyer and boost the Brisbane attendances. It can even work the other way round. A kid sees a player in a recent NRL game and is amazed by what he sees. He, or she, then sees that player advertising a pair of trainers. The child buys that pair of trainers and, more importantly, keeps coming back to the player’s club to watch that player play. Obviously we have to start with what we have got, and that is using current competition and club sponsors who already have firm relationships with the sport. As the sport gets bigger due to increased attendances, public interest and whatever then the NRL branches out and looks for sponsors on a national scale, as opposed to just Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. By looking for sponsors nationally, the game generates interest in Perth, Adelaide and everywhere else across Australia and eventually making it a truly national sport.
So there’s your problem, Gallop. Let the players earn what they deserve, and you won’t be seeing the likes of Danny Buderus, Micheal Crocker, Micheal Monaghan and Matt King deserting your competition for more money and a better lifestyle in Super League. As well as that, you won’t see Mark Gasnier and Sonny Bill Williams drifting off to join French rugby union either.
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