Isaac
Years ago

Franchise players in the NBL

It's been raised before, but I'd be interested in hearing others' opinions on the pros and cons with this idea:

Follow the lead of the A-League and allow each NBL team the option of having a designated Franchise Player who does not come under the salary cap. They can pay this player whatever they want. $250k, $500k, $1m, who cares. If they can afford it, let them do it.

That player can be ex-NBA, fringe NBA, a European or an Australian who would otherwise be in Europe for the money.

There are already players being paid beyond the maximum permitted by the league and there are teams going beyond the cap - neither team that I'm aware of doing this is still alive in the post-season, so I don't know that it's given them an unfair advantage.

e.g., I'm pretty sure that the Wildcats would have a cheaper roster than Adelaide, Townsville, Hunter and Brisbane yet Perth outlasted these three teams in 05/06.

A franchise player won't necessarily be THAT far above the other marquee players of the league, but the potential hype and publicity they'd bring could be worth the expense for some teams.

Thoughts?

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EC
Years ago

That discriminates against clubs that can afford to pay for a good franchise player and those that can't. I thought the whole idea of the salary cap was to put every club on an even playing field. By having a franchise player, a club has individual control over what the salary cap should be because there is no difference between a salary cap of $1m and a salary cap of $750K plus a $250K franchise player. Besides that, Adelaide would not benefit from this because they barely have the money to keep under the salary cap.

I can see sponsors such as Nike sponsor a franchise player, thus paying that extra money to have him play for a team. In return this player would be promoting their products. The only problem would be that it would be Sydney to benefit from it as the sponsor would have a lot more exposure from this. Sorry Isaac, I see too much discrimination and disadvantage to lower budget clubs.

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Joe M
Years ago

Isaac initially I liked the idea and agreed with it but after reading what EC said I have to agree with him and can see the floors in it.

I can see how a side would manipulated the rule to suit themselves, especially the larger city sides like Sydney and Melbourne (now that M Cowen has major connections in Advertising and business)

If the NBL paid for this franchise player (The talk is that the A league are going to pay for each club to have 1 franchise player) and it doesn't hinder the salary cap then it may be ok, but the NBL and basketball Australia are broke as a joke and would not approve something like that.

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Isaac
Years ago

Clubs are already paying outside of the salary cap so your point is moot. If they've got the money to burn, they'll burn it.

And as I said, those clubs are not necessarily beating those who are playing within the cap anyway. Tight clubs are already being "discriminated against" because they can't afford the cap as is. And they're still competing. e.g., once New Zealand got their import combination right, they were competitive.

I didn't have Adelaide in mind with this at all because there's a bigger picture - the league needs more hype and more entertaining, better quality players. This is the sort of thing that will keep guys like Anstey, Harvey and so on in Australia rather than Europe.

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Anonymous
Years ago

Its a great idea. I agree that there has to be some controls. IE I am all for the salary cap but those clubs that run their business more profitable are generally in a key market and / or better managed as well and should get some kind of advantage for their profitibility. All for the concept!!! Imagine bringing in a Euro or NBA star.

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Anonymous
Years ago

As anon said, IT'S A GREAT IDEA!

who would you choose out of the people you know to be it?

maybe Farley and free up salary cap space or what???

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Groucho
Years ago

I'd choose that fella, lebron something, whats his name? He'd be good for adelaide methinks.

In conclusion, leauge and clubs cannot afford it, face it our league is going bankrupt due to mismanagement and lack of bums in seats.

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$talks
Years ago

If its about retaining talent then could have an eligibility criteria for franchise player such as must have played 50 games under salary cap structure for the club then could be offered retention arrangement that falls outside of the cap.

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Hoops

Franchise players in the NBL

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