BIAW! wrote:
I disagree slightly with it doesn't happen in sports with a salary cap, look at the NFL. I see you maybe a fan with a Broncos helmet. Kirk Cousins as a free agent went to the Vikings on a $28 million contract. Then Matt Ryan (debatable whether he is as good as Cousins) gets a $30 million dollar contract. Dak Prescott is in his final year as a rookie and it is rumoured to be to be trying to get $34 million a year or he is going to go elsewhere. There's obviously space on their caps and there is a hell of a lot more money in the sport but it happens.
I do agree with the not so much in RL, but it is there to be manipulated if you can bag a marquee spot.
The difference here is that these kind of £5m salaries in RL are only viable 'outside' the normal salary cap through the marquee spots, which are scarce. There are only 2 available per team, and even then how many of the 12 SL teams can actually afford exceptional salaries. A player's ability to bargain a mega wage depends on him having credible options to go elsewhere.
In the NFL those huge salaries fit inside the cap and there are 32 teams who can pay up to the cap (although have different cap space available at any point in time). There are more potential landing spots for someone who wants big money so top players can leverage that. In practice you tend to see these exorbitant deals go to quarterbacks who are on the market at the right time, when a team who is already strong and thinks its in a window to win now/soon (so won't be anywhere near a high draft pick), needs to retain/recruit a quarterback. Teams will overpay rather than risk the lottery of not having the right quarterback which could undermine the whole rest of their team. So the guys like you say like Cousins, Ryan, get big deals and Jared Goff too.
The interesting thing to look for now is whether that really has set a benchmark effect. Are the next group of quarterbacks who are coming off contract going to be able to negotiate hugely inflated deals...Prescott, Winston, Mariota? Dak maybe, although I think he needs a strong end of this season. I think Winston and Mariota will struggle to beat the market. Other teams have seen the problems that come when you overpay for someone who doesn't give really elite production.
Also look at what happened to Melvin Gordon who went on strike then came back with his tail between his legs and also will probably struggle to cash in on the kind of deal he hoped for.
It will happen in RL too where other clubs will see what Toronto really get for SBW. They won't expect him to win Toronto SL, but they'd need to see some return such as SBW being close to MOS level and it having a transformative effect on marketing for Toronto and bringing the crowds in. If he was just so-so, or got injured a lot, or his presence didn't excite the city, then other clubs will be more risk-averse when it comes to sinking huge money in to one player.
