BS, the NBA employs a similar soft cap system to the one that you are supporting in this post (strong teams punished for every dollar over the cap, more lucrative revenue sharing), and while it reduces the problems of a non-cap system, it still suffers from many of the same problems argued above. The same large market teams dominate year after year, smaller markets struggle to compete with consistency etc.Cuntacular Chris wroteCOLONYou're not getting it. A capped system doesn't mean small-market teams will be able to pay to keep their stars. Florida and Tampa Bay struggle with spending money because of their exceptionally small fan-base. People say that teams need to create winners to develop a fan-base -- Florida has won two World Series and still struggle to get over 15,000 a game.
What's needed is a more lucrative revenue sharing system that punishes teams like the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the New York Yankees without impunity. How that concept continues to escape the most casual of fans is beyond me.
I personally don't think a hard cap would solve all of the issues in baseball, not even close. My opinion is that it is the lesser of two evils, my ideal solution is a balanced schedule (no inter league) with more playoff seeds. It balances the competition so that teams in stronger divisions don't suffer from harder competition, and vice versa. The increased playoff slots will drive interest in more markets, and the sport as a whole which leads to greater revenue.
