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THE CAP
By admin | December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas everyone. I said I wouldn’t post until Wednesday, but after reading some emails and what not, I said what the hey. Plus, I slept most of the day away on the bus so I’m still wide awake. Here’s a look at the Christmas tree the fan club gave us for the trip.
We pulled into the Valley a little after 6PM, which is amazing time after leaving Arizona at about 10 PM. Thanks to Benny and Esteban for getting from Arizona to here safely and quickly. They did it in only two stops…one in El Paso (where I got off and brushed my teeth outside…It’s always weird getting off the bus at 5:30 in the morning, stumbling around in the cold brushing your teeth next to diesel pumps, then realizing you have no idea where you are. I had to look at the local newspaper box to figure out where we were) and one in Junction, where we had a lovely Christmas Eve McDonald’s lunch.
Anyhoo, regarding my comments about the salary cap and affiliations during Sunday’s broadcast…I’m not trying to whine or make excuses, just simply make a point. It’s tough to really get into in detail on the air, so here goes…..
Are there teams circumventing the cap in the CHL? Many people say yes. Can anyone prove it? Good luck. I know if someone could, Duane Lewis and the folks in Phoenix would lay the gauntlet down.
Allegations of teams circumventing the cap are nothing new and certainly not singular to this league. The former Tallahassee Tiger Sharks got busted in the ECHL in the 1999-00 season, there were allegations of the old Louisiana IceGators (scroll down for the story) slipping cash under the table and more recently there was the Danbury Trashers farce in the UHL. Other past WPHL infractions include Bossier-Shreveport, Abilene, and of course Tony Martino’s New Mexico Scorpions. Martino even reportedly came clean in an interview while coaching Knoxville after denying the salary cap violations for a few years (I can’t find anything online…anyone?).
I know of an instance in another league where a player began the season in Europe and was convinced to come play back in the States. How? The team in the US bought out his contract in cash, paid him a decent sum on the cap, plus an additional amount under the table. Does the same thing happen in this league? I don’t think to that extent but “under the table” payments are AA hockey’s dirty little secret. Players will tell you off the record that it happens but why would they go on the record? They’d be shooting themselves in the foot. And it’s certainly not everyone; some players say they have never seen any cheating firsthand.
The obvious downside of this is that there are teams that “have” and “have not.” So despite the increased salary cap in the CHL, the playing field still seems a little off kilter. Can teams win that don’t play the under the table game? Sure, but it makes it a lot tougher.
As far as affiliations go, they are hit and miss. Will the parent club have anyone worthwhile to send down? If they do, will they be there for any length of time? I can tell you from working in the AHL that teams can be decimated by callups. Obviously, that’s the point of the AHL. But here in the CHL, the idea is to win. Sure, there’s “development” players and I can see the league becming more of a development league, and that’s great, but 50% of the players in this league are career AA players. And there’s nothing wrong with that either. I think the level of play in the CHL is tremendous.
Just as good as Arizona is now, they could just as quickly fall apart if Phoenix or San Antonio has a few injuries.
My understanding of affiliations at this level is that only X amount of a player’s salary counts against the cap. Meaning, if a player is on a two-way deal with an AHL club only so much ($400?) counts against the cap. Now, in theory the AHL or NHL club is paying the difference in the player’s salary. And that’s fine. The problem is that these affiliations are often “paper” transactions. Take that to mean what you want. For the record, my gut tells me Arizona’s affiliation is legit, so I’m not pointing fingers at them. And I don’t think affiliations are the root of any “cheating” going on this league, if there is any.
I’ve read a few things saying “win at all costs” and the like. Well, what if “cheating” allegations ever came out? Does your reputation mean anything? It reminds me of the baseball steroids thing.
For more on this, read here.
The Killer Bees and Coach Fixter are committed to doing things on the up and up.
Topics: Minor Observations |
December 25th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Rich,
I appreciate the great job that you do. I especially love the boldness of some of your comments. I think someone has got to say something so that perhaps the league starts to look more closely at all the “behind the scene” crap that goes on. It’s too bad you have to be so formal in your opinion about certain topics, but keep it up.