Post by GuinnessMan on May 14, 2011 7:36:38 GMT
Panthers Neil Black: Wrong wage-cap figure degrades the sport.
NEIL Black, chairman of double-winners Nottingham Panthers, is angry that the players' salary-cap figure widely bandied about "degrades the sport" in the UK.
It is widely reported that the nine Elite League clubs are restricted to a cap of £7,500 per week for the entire squad, to help address the great disparity of the teams.
But Black says that is a net figure and the league would be better thought of if it was instead talked in terms of the correct £12,000 gross amount.
"It annoys me when I see people talking about this £7,500 weekly cap," said Black, who rescued Panthers from going out of business in 1997.
"Such a low cap degrades the sport, but it's incredible that this is the only figure which is ever mentioned.
"It doesn't take into account tax and National Insurance payments, in which case it will be £12,000 per week."
But Black agrees the wage-cap will be virtually impossible to properly police.
Some teams pay players' council tax and utility bills and others don't, while there is the 'jobs for wives' smokescreen that some clubs have utilised down the years.
A salary cap may also encourage the less scrupulous teams of the old 'cash-in-brown-envelopes' way of paying wages outside the cap.
"It can be best policed by telling clubs not to spend more than they can afford – simple," said Black, who also owns Braehead Clan.
"I know some people don't agree with me here, but rather than a strict salary cap, it would be easier for teams with less resources to be allowed some flexibility on the recruitment of imports.
"It wouldn't be to the detriment of British players and would make the league more competitive.
"The problem now is that all teams are restricted to ten imports, but the leading five teams have signed all of the best Brits, the entire GB team, in fact.
"The supporters won't come to watch if teams are turning up every week and being heavily beaten.
"Possibly, for instance, let the lower end teams be allowed to sign a couple of EU players."
Millionaire entrepreneur Paul Ragan, who took on ownership of Cardiff Devils last year, added Sheffield Steelers to his hockey portfolio in December.
And he is strongly supporting salary restrictions, even threatening to take his two teams out of the league and into the English Premier League if clubs didn't strictly adhere to the cap.
It is perhaps ironic that Ragan now owns a team that, in season 2000-01, won all the titles on offer in an achievement known outside Sheffield as the 'Grand Sham', because it was later discovered the Steelers had greatly exceeded the then wage cap.
However, not long after moving in at Sheffield, Ragan proclaimed in the local newspaper that for next season he was going to cut Steelers' wage bill, which "was 20% more" than that of Cardiff.
Then, with Sheffield on the verge of clinching the league title, he 'dared' the league to carry out the threat to fine Steelers and dock them points, because he admitted paying over £10,000 a week in wages instead of the '£7,500' cap – which it has to be said, was only a gentleman's agreement.
"Those players were not signed by me," was his argument.
But by basically admitting to Sheffield's excessive £10,000 wage figure, Cardiff must then also have been over the cap at over £8,000 per week by virtue of his earlier statement.
Without doubt, the league needs new blood, new money and new ideas from someone like Ragan, not steeped in the tired formats of yesteryear.
And it could be refreshing to have a new outlook on the game.
But his well-publicised views on a game he has been associated with for such a short time, gives the appearance of the team owners – the people who run the Elite League – being forever at loggerheads.
They probably are, but it demonstrates once again why the league needs a paid chief executive to pull all the owners together for the sake of the league and the game as a whole in this country.
www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/panthers/Panthers-Neil-Black-Wrong-wage-cap-figure-degrades-sport/article-3555862-detail/article.html
NEIL Black, chairman of double-winners Nottingham Panthers, is angry that the players' salary-cap figure widely bandied about "degrades the sport" in the UK.
It is widely reported that the nine Elite League clubs are restricted to a cap of £7,500 per week for the entire squad, to help address the great disparity of the teams.
But Black says that is a net figure and the league would be better thought of if it was instead talked in terms of the correct £12,000 gross amount.
"It annoys me when I see people talking about this £7,500 weekly cap," said Black, who rescued Panthers from going out of business in 1997.
"Such a low cap degrades the sport, but it's incredible that this is the only figure which is ever mentioned.
"It doesn't take into account tax and National Insurance payments, in which case it will be £12,000 per week."
But Black agrees the wage-cap will be virtually impossible to properly police.
Some teams pay players' council tax and utility bills and others don't, while there is the 'jobs for wives' smokescreen that some clubs have utilised down the years.
A salary cap may also encourage the less scrupulous teams of the old 'cash-in-brown-envelopes' way of paying wages outside the cap.
"It can be best policed by telling clubs not to spend more than they can afford – simple," said Black, who also owns Braehead Clan.
"I know some people don't agree with me here, but rather than a strict salary cap, it would be easier for teams with less resources to be allowed some flexibility on the recruitment of imports.
"It wouldn't be to the detriment of British players and would make the league more competitive.
"The problem now is that all teams are restricted to ten imports, but the leading five teams have signed all of the best Brits, the entire GB team, in fact.
"The supporters won't come to watch if teams are turning up every week and being heavily beaten.
"Possibly, for instance, let the lower end teams be allowed to sign a couple of EU players."
Millionaire entrepreneur Paul Ragan, who took on ownership of Cardiff Devils last year, added Sheffield Steelers to his hockey portfolio in December.
And he is strongly supporting salary restrictions, even threatening to take his two teams out of the league and into the English Premier League if clubs didn't strictly adhere to the cap.
It is perhaps ironic that Ragan now owns a team that, in season 2000-01, won all the titles on offer in an achievement known outside Sheffield as the 'Grand Sham', because it was later discovered the Steelers had greatly exceeded the then wage cap.
However, not long after moving in at Sheffield, Ragan proclaimed in the local newspaper that for next season he was going to cut Steelers' wage bill, which "was 20% more" than that of Cardiff.
Then, with Sheffield on the verge of clinching the league title, he 'dared' the league to carry out the threat to fine Steelers and dock them points, because he admitted paying over £10,000 a week in wages instead of the '£7,500' cap – which it has to be said, was only a gentleman's agreement.
"Those players were not signed by me," was his argument.
But by basically admitting to Sheffield's excessive £10,000 wage figure, Cardiff must then also have been over the cap at over £8,000 per week by virtue of his earlier statement.
Without doubt, the league needs new blood, new money and new ideas from someone like Ragan, not steeped in the tired formats of yesteryear.
And it could be refreshing to have a new outlook on the game.
But his well-publicised views on a game he has been associated with for such a short time, gives the appearance of the team owners – the people who run the Elite League – being forever at loggerheads.
They probably are, but it demonstrates once again why the league needs a paid chief executive to pull all the owners together for the sake of the league and the game as a whole in this country.
www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/panthers/Panthers-Neil-Black-Wrong-wage-cap-figure-degrades-sport/article-3555862-detail/article.html
