Congratulations to the Yankees and their fans for the Yankees' victory over the Philly Phil's in the 2009 World Series. Now that that's over, I predict we'll hear more calls for salary restrictions in the name of competitive balance now that the big, bad Yanks have returned to the throne. Never mind that baseball already has a luxury tax, aka a Yankees Tax, that is designed to alter the balance of competition in baseball and never mind that it has been several years since the Yanks last made the Series, let alone won it. What many people want is a salary cap.
Keep in mind that college sports already has a salary cap on player wages. Still, the same teams keep showing up in the top 25 rankings year after year after year. Sure, there is always going to be some churning in the polls and within conferences. Randomness is inherent in sports and is a big reason for the churning. But in football, Texas and Oklahoma continue to dominate the Big 12. Michigan and Ohio State continue to dominate the Big 10. And the same teams keep showing up in the gutters. Yes, I'm thinking of you Baylor and Duke.
Nebraska has been down for some time now, but I expect they'll be back on top of the heap that is the Big 12 North. If you haven't noticed, they have sold out there stadium (which now seats over 80,000) for the better part of the past 5 decades. Every. Game. Since. The. Early. Sixties.
And what of women's basketball in college? They also are encumbered by a salary cap and the competition is dominated by Tennessee, Duke, Baylor and a few others.
The main driver of competitive balance, especially when considered over the long haul, is the underlying demand that each team faces. It is this demand that drives the revenue schools bring in and that drives the demand for players, coaches, facilities, etc. The Yankees and Red Sox have had the upper hand in the AL east for years because they have a higher demand for their games relative to their divisional bretheren. Duke and North Carolina dominate ACC basketball because they have higher demand relative to their conference mates.
So what do salary caps do? Instituting salary caps forces teams to find other ways to compete for talent, but it does not alter the underlying demand that teams face. So salary caps will, therefore, not alter competitive balance. If you want to level the playing field, you need to level the demand that teams face first.
Good luck with that.
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