Quote:
Originally Posted by Aarongavey
There would still be an escrow in that system.
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There wouldn’t be. Escrow exists because the players are supposed to be paid based on the expected earnings of the league for the current year. The league holds back some pay (escrow) in order to make sure that they don’t overpay the players relative to the forecasted league income for the current year. At the end of the year, they pay back the difference.
Of course, my understanding could be off but that’s how I think it’s currently working. Right now the players are still paying off the debt from the lower revenue years of covid, but that should be over soon.
In my system, the pay for the current year is based on the revenue from the past year. So on July 1st, 2023 (or whatever), the league can tell the PA “total hockey related revenue last season was 3.2 billion dollars, so 50% of that will be the player’s share to pay out this upcoming year” and would then set the salary cap of each team to 50 million dollars (3.2 billion divided by 32 teams times 50%) and the players that signed for their percentages would get paid for 2023-2024 as their percent times that 50 million number. Of course, all the numbers are selected here for ease of math.
One problem now would be that all 32 teams aren’t spending 100% of the salary cap, but players still need to get 50% of the revenue. So, to fix that let’s give them a bonus at the end of the year that makes the players whole.
After all that is done, the players get their 50% and are guaranteed to take home their money as of July 1st (or whatever the date is) plus a bonus, the owners get their cost certainty, the GMs don’t have to predict a fluctuating salary cap, which will make salary cap management easier allowing them to focus more on building a team instead of managing money, which allows hopefully a better product for the fans.
Of course there will be a lot of details to iron out (what is this bonus going to look like, how do tweeners affect the cap, what do they get paid in the AHL) but that is what people at the NHL and PA get paid for.