Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
Existing contracts aren't subsidizing new, inflated contracts - all contracts are adjusted pro-rata. So the largest (new) contracts take the biggest hit. But all players share the adjustment at the same percentage.
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They are though. Imagine two scenarios:
Scenario #1:
-Cap stays relatively flat and lines up with revenues
-new contracts are signed in a similar marketplace to existing ones
-little to no escrow holdback, so contracts are paid out at nearly their dollar value
Scenario #2:
-cap jumps up (due to inflator, optimistic projections, etc.) but revenues don't match
-new contracts are inflated due to a leaguewide surplus of cap space as a result of the big increase
-high escrow holdbacks to account for the disparity between cap level and HRR
The end result of scenario #2 is that players with existing contracts give up a larger portion of their contract to escrow holdbacks in order to create more cap space for a few free agents. That's the subsidization I'm talking about.
And it's not at all surprising that players with existing contracts would want things to line up more with scenario #1 than #2 and that's likely what they'll work towards.
Though I do agree it's pretty much all the players' faults as they kept bumping up the escalator every year which is responsible for pretty much all of this.