Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderball
I understand the need to build a base, but North American fans are pretty fickle though.
I’m not saying that the cap should suddenly rise to MLS levels, but a bit of growth (say 5%) to allow teams that can afford to keep their players and add to them for Canadian Championship and CONCACAF League is important too. That amount, while relatively small (probably $50k or so) could mean the difference between a Pasquotti or Borges being a CanPL star or MLS sub. If people see stagnation, or too much of a revolving door of their favourite players, they may walk. Even fans willing to pay today.
MLS didn’t start taking off until teams began to splash cash on names within a salary cap environment (and not every team did it). That should be the medium term goal here too.
North Americans seem obsessed with parity, but a better playoff system will be far more exciting to fans than parity and holding every team down to the lowest team’s abilities. York might have been healthier if they had something to play for in September and October.
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I think if there is going to be a cap exception, I'd make it for homegrown stars. This incentivizes development of young Canadians, and promotes stability in the league.
My proposal would be that any Canadian player you first sign young (say under 24?) only counts against the cap at his first contract salary as long as he's continuously under contract for the club. So maybe Pasquotti has a great year and earns a $25k raise, then cavalry could give it to him and still remain cap compliant because he's a homegrown product.