With all this talk of the salary cap - what to root for in the new CBA

With the ongoing talk of the upcoming salary cap for 2020 and beyond, I thought it would be worth mentioning the importance of the new CBA (whenever it does get signed) as it relates to this discussion. As of today, the 2020 salary cap is expected to be right at $200M......for now.

I say "for now" because one thing the owners have been pushing for is an extended season of some sort as part of the new CBA. While talk of reducing the preseason does pacify the players a bit, the NFLPA is going to counter by going hard after several things including a more favorable revenue split from the one negotiated in 2011.

From a straight salary cap perspective you should be rooting for this as that revenue split is what dictates the salary cap figures each year. With new sources of revenue coming online (Amazon streaming of games and legalized sports betting for example) the NFL revenue figures are expected to increase significantly from their current levels of approximately $15-17B. Couple that with a hypothetical 3 percent shift in the player's portion of the total revenue (assuming it moves back to a 50/50 split) would potentially increase each teams salary cap figure by upwards of $15M practically overnight depending on when the agreement is signed and what portion of this revenue goes towards legacy player programs.

Just giving all of the fellow "capologists" one more reason to start following the CBA stories as they begin to unfold in the coming weeks as both sides appear to be motivated to get something in place prior to the start of the new league year.


HR