We're $10,000,000 UNDER the salary cap

[jefftheshark]

“They can spend a lot of money on one receiver (free agent Nate Burleson), they can trade for another receiver (Branch), they get to do a lot of different things,” Green said.

It's a shame that the Bidwill family didn't revolutionize the computer industry a couple of decades ago, so they could have bundles of cash laying around for free agents.

The Shark

 

[ajcardfan]

I know two things.


We have the most cap money at the end of the year AGAIN!


We have a new stadium to pay for...... hmmmmmmmmmm


Coincidence?

I think not.

We've been in this situation for like four seasons now and THERE IS NO CONNECTION between these two things.

The money that the Bidwills are putting into the stadium are all loans. What I was told, is that those loans are being repaid by giving the loaners a cut of stadium revenues. So, the Bidwills are not making as much money as they could, but, overall, their revenue is still going to be WAY up over SDS. The cap is still primarily TV money. There is just no way they holding some of that back to make stadium payments.

 

[conraddobler]

It's a shame that the Bidwill family didn't revolutionize the computer industry a couple of decades ago, so they could have bundles of cash laying around for free agents.

The Shark

The salary cap is roughly equivalent to the tv money each team gets.

So Bidwill if they spend every $ would still roughly pocket the ticket and and concession money.


you multiply 63,000 times 50$ avegage seat price times 10 home games then add about 10,000,000 for the suites and call concessions the tax money and tell us where else the money should go?

Every other team spends the money, we are the only one who seems to NOT be spending it.

When I was a kid they did this excercise for little kids, which one is not like the others....... um that'd be us.

 

[conraddobler]

We've been in this situation for like four seasons now and THERE IS NO CONNECTION between these two things.

The money that the Bidwills are putting into the stadium are all loans. What I was told, is that those loans are being repaid by giving the loaners a cut of stadium revenues. So, the Bidwills are not making as much money as they could, but, overall, their revenue is still going to be WAY up over SDS. The cap is still primarily TV money. There is just no way they holding some of that back to make stadium payments.

They could be buying land in Mexico for all we know, but I'm telling you they are pocketing more money than any other owner is right now, you tell me why?

 

[40yearfan]

The tough thing in all this is we really don't know who the cards pursued and what the real reason is that they are 10 mil under. It leaves so much room for speculation. For those that say Bidwill is cheap.. you're probably right... for those that say they did didn't want to spend on overpriced mediocre players... you're probably right as well. BUT NO ONE REALLY KNOWS!

The thing I draw my conclusion from is this. If the cards are so damn cheap then why did they offer edge so much money? There has to be some plan in place right or wrong.

Good post Clif.

 

[vinnymac]

at this point and time i am looking for someone to help the cardinals now. not next season. so who is out there right know that can help the cardinals.

i am sure if the cardinals offer dion sanders some money he would come out of retirement and play.


seriously though who can help the cardinals right now. who is up for trade right know.

 

[40yearfan]

The salary cap is roughly equivalent to the tv money each team gets.

So Bidwill if they spend every $ would still roughly pocket the ticket and and concession money.


you multiply 63,000 times 50$ avegage seat price times 10 home games then add about 10,000,000 for the suites and call concessions the tax money and tell us where else the money should go?

Every other team spends the money, we are the only one who seems to NOT be spending it.

When I was a kid they did this excercise for little kids, which one is not like the others....... um that'd be us.

Uhhh CD, you're forgetting a few little things like coaches and team executive salaries, taxes, maintainence and operation of the stadium, flights and hotel costs when visiting other NFL teams, footballs, uniforms, etc, etc, & etc. I don't know what the overhead is to run an NFL team, but I'll betcha it's a bunch of bucks.

 

[Nasser22]

The problem is that very few decent offensive linemen actually hit the free agent market in the first place.

How many were worse than what we have now?

Dyson could've been a good option at CB. I was dissapointed to hear that the Cards still weren't spending the money. I was confused when they said they were done during the off-season and now I'm just pissed.

 

[EndZone]

They do this every year and every year the use the money to extend someone so it doesn impact the following years cap.

 

[joeshmo]

They do this every year and every year the use the money to extend someone so it doesn impact the following years cap.

When you have 50 Mill the next offseason does that really help next years cap.

Its like trying to make fresh orange juice taste more like oranges by adding more oragnes to it. It is already orange juice and we already have more then enough money for next years cap.

 

[joeshmo]

Uhhh CD, you're forgetting a few little things like coaches and team executive salaries, taxes, maintainence and operation of the stadium, flights and hotel costs when visiting other NFL teams, footballs, uniforms, etc, etc, & etc. I don't know what the overhead is to run an NFL team, but I'll betcha it's a bunch of bucks.

Coaches are still some at the bottom 1/4 of the league in salary.

Mainainence and Operation of the stadium - doesnt the city of Glendale do that or at least a large portion of it? I could be wrong.

Road Games - Teams make a portion of the home teams game day revenues and those revenues more then make up for the cost of a road game and still come away with a big profit. In fact flights are usually free for the team as they have deals in place with the airlines in return for some advertisement time.

There are a lot of other things though that effect overhead and the bottom line, stadium loans is one.

Also lets be clear on the revenue sharing. The Cap is only a little over 60% of the TV revenues and other revenues. They they are pocketing a little under 40% of it. Also teams share NFL merchandising contracts which means every time some buys a Raiders jersey at Reebok, the cards get a portion of that. Also in the new CBA the top 10 revenue teams get a smaller portion of the revenue sharing while the bottom 10 teams (we are in the bottom 10) get a bigger portion of it, that list changes every year. The NFLs way of making parity a bigger part of the game.

Now I dont know how their Stadium loans were set up so that could be a big issue here. That just better not be an excuse next year though.

 

[conraddobler]

When you have 50 Mill the next offseason does that really help next years cap.

Its like trying to make fresh orange juice taste more like oranges by adding more oragnes to it. It is already orange juice and we already have more then enough money for next years cap.

I honestly don't see how they are going to hit that 50 million mark without spending like drunken fools.

Should be interesting but we should be able to buy a Super Bowl team if it's possible to do.

They have to get rid of about 35 of it minimum or they'll go under the cap minimum, now that would be news worthy, the wrong kind of newsworthy.

 

[conraddobler]

Uhhh CD, you're forgetting a few little things like coaches and team executive salaries, taxes, maintainence and operation of the stadium, flights and hotel costs when visiting other NFL teams, footballs, uniforms, etc, etc, & etc. I don't know what the overhead is to run an NFL team, but I'll betcha it's a bunch of bucks.

Ok 40 you document how what we are spending isn't near last in the NFL and I'll agree you're right.

However you want to slice it, we spend less than everyone else year after year in a sport that's about maximizing your roster $ we fall short.

You can still spend the money foolishly like some teams do but you show me one Super Bowl winner who's ever spent as little as we do.

I defend the Bidwill's all I can but this one issue is blatant, they don't talk about it, they just do it year after year, it's obvious 40, now they have so much money, no one even has a clue how they're going to spend it next year.

50 million is monsterous, I have no idea how you could spend that without just spending it on roster fillers.

It's going to be interesting.

 

[ActingWild]

Its like trying to make fresh orange juice taste more like oranges by adding more oragnes to it. It is already orange juice.

LOL. I don't know why, but that cracked me up.

 

[ajcardfan]

They could be buying land in Mexico for all we know, but I'm telling you they are pocketing more money than any other owner is right now, you tell me why?

I'd guess they are planning to do what they've done the past four seasons. In October, they'll do an extension or two and then another one or two in December.

The problem with that is, with the way the cap has, and will continue, to increase, that is not the most effective way to use those dollars. Even more cap space will be created the next few seasons so that extensions in the offseason should not be the problem they used to be.

 

[jefftheshark]

There is only one team in the NFL that releases its profits, that team is the Packers and it is because they are a public company. In 2002 the team had a little over $153M in revenues and reported a small profit of $2.8M. The next year, when their stadium was mostly refurbished, their revenue increased about 10% to $179M but their profit went up to $20M, close to 7X.

The lesson? Don't confuse revenue with profits. The Bidwill family will make a lot more money this year than they did last year, but I doubt that over the last few years they have been raking it in. The time to get on them about spending money is next year, not this one.

The Shark

 

[WildBB]

The time to get on them about spending money is next year, not this one.

The Shark

They've been spending wisely, no matter what Green is whining about. They've added the right mix over the last few years. I have very little to complain about them spending on FA's. Reward the players from within the org. 1st. That's how you build team unity and chemistry. Just spending for names sometimes is counter productive. You build with youth anyway , it's allways been the way for any champion and add a vet or two a yr. like they've been doing.

 

[BACH]

4. We are not following the PHI, PIT, MIN, BAL cap strategy model. They use creative contracts and cap loopholes to greatly lower their cap totals by utilizing strategiclly placed bonuses and incentives. I have alluded to this before and there have been a few articles on it. We are not on their level of cap strategy.

I disagree, Joe. Big picture-wise, we do.

1. We built through the draft

2. We only target younger free agents that are able to play out their entire deal, so a forced release or a sudden retirement doesn't hurt the cap in teh future. If one of these players fit the FA profile then we have no problem out-bidding other teams for those players.

3. We never overpaid for over-the hill players or marginal players regardless the need.

4. We use our existing cap space to extent our young players. That creates more money in future years and gives the team a discount because we offer huge base salaries in year one and often extent players 1 or two years before the become FAs.

5. If we sign older player, we always sign them to short-term deals. We have no problem giving them nice deals, as long as they are signed to short-term deals. If an older player wants a long-term deal with a huge signing bonus, they are allowed to walk.

All similar actions/strategies used by PHI, BAL, MIN, PIT. Correct, we have not used the ST playtime loop-hole used by PHI and MIN, BUT we never had to. We're a young team with lots of players on their rookie deals AND with only one player (Edge) on a mega-deal (like McNabb, Culpepper, Kearse, Lewis). There hasn't been any need to use the loop-hole for us yet. It might come when all these rookie deals starts to run out.

 

[EndZone]

I honestly don't see how they are going to hit that 50 million mark without spending like drunken fools.

Should be interesting but we should be able to buy a Super Bowl team if it's possible to do.

They have to get rid of about 35 of it minimum or they'll go under the cap minimum, now that would be news worthy, the wrong kind of newsworthy.

True they are 50 mil under the cap...but they have only 25 signed players. So not only do they need to either resign Davis or find a replacement, they also have to sign 27 other players (current 25 + davis or replacement + 27 = 53)

 

[Duckjake]

.

We never overpaid for over-the hill players or marginal players regardless the need

Well there was Emmit Smith. Signed because of the need to try to do something,anything, to get people to watch the horrible product the Cards were going to put on the field in 2003.

 

[40yearfan]

.

Well there was Emmit Smith. Signed because of the need to try to do something,anything, to get people to watch the horrible product the Cards were going to put on the field in 2003.

Speaking of Emmit, did you see him on Dancing With the Stars last night? Pretty nimble and one of the better dancers.

 

[40yearfan]

Mainainence and Operation of the stadium - doesnt the city of Glendale do that or at least a large portion of it? I could be wrong.

.

Regardless of who does it, the Cards still have to pay for it as it pertains to their use of the building. It's part of their rental agreement with the TSA.

 

[MadCardDisease]

Speaking of Emmit, did you see him on Dancing With the Stars last night? Pretty nimble and one of the better dancers.

He did look like a big teddy bear dancing up there. The guy has some moves on the dance floor.

 

[MadCardDisease]

This $10 million under the cap will end up biting us in the butt this weekend.

With that $10 million we could have signed Julian Peterson. Instead he signed with our rivals and now we have to deal with him twice a year. Not to mention we are thin at LB and could really use him right now!

 

[kerouac9]

Uhhh CD, you're forgetting a few little things like coaches and team executive salaries, taxes, maintainence and operation of the stadium, flights and hotel costs when visiting other NFL teams, footballs, uniforms, etc, etc, & etc. I don't know what the overhead is to run an NFL team, but I'll betcha it's a bunch of bucks.

Actually, TMQ occaisionally breaks down how finances work for NFL Franchises.

Salaries and signing bonuses are paid for exclusively from monies paid through TV contracts, accounted for by the salary cap.

Ticket sales pay for all overhead: facilities, coaching salaries, equipment, staff, advertising, etc.

The profits that owners make are from luxury boxes and other side deals like exclusive radio deals (which I don't think the Cards have--I wonder if they're not paying KTAR to broadcast the games), merchandising, concession sales, etc.

It's nearly impossible not to make money running an NFL team.