Local footy salary caps to be cut for next three years
AFL Victoria is set to reduce the salary cap to $100,000 for all five metro leagues, with one chief executive saying the move will be a great thing for the industry and mark an end to “the days of players shopping themselves around”.
Southern
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Salary caps in metropolitan football are set to be slashed for the next three years as leagues and clubs try to regain their financial footing in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
AFL Victoria is expected to apply a $100,000 ceiling for match payments for all five leagues: Eastern, Essendon District, Northern, Southern and Western Region.
This year each league had its own cap – Eastern, for example, was set at $200,000 for its Premier competition and Southern $150,000 for Division 1.
But AFL Vic will make them uniform from 2021-23.
Southern league CEO Lee Hartman said heavily reduced salary caps would be “a great thing for the industry’’.
“Community footy payments have been out of hand now for 10 years-plus,’’ he said.
“I think clubs have paid the money because they’ve been able to, and players have asked for the money because it’s been available. If we get it down, it’s a re-education for players. Gone will be the days of them shopping themselves around.
“It’s got to get back to making sure clubs are sustainable into the future. There are clubs that can afford to spend the money but the ones that can’t always feel they need to keep up with the Joneses and end up overspending. You’ve only got to overspend for a year or two and it sets your club back 10 years.
“In this climate that we’re in, with COVID-19 and clubs struggling to retain their sponsors and members and things like that, it’s a smart move to set it at $100,000 across the comps.’’
Hartman said the prospect of a $100,000 ceiling over three years would give clubs certainty.
“It puts up a road map. Currently we set it annually. Those figures don’t normally come out until September and clubs are recruiting before then and talking to players. I think if they’ve got as road map, they can say, ‘OK, for the next three years the maximum is $100,000 and we know where we stand and where everyone else stands’.’’
Hartman said large salary caps placed an enormous strain on club officials and volunteers to raise funds, and it would only get more difficult.
He said a lot of businesses that would typically support clubs, such as hotels, had been doing it tough.
Hartman said Southern had given its clubs proposed numbers for next year, and clubs in the lower division had asked for the caps to be even lower.
Eastern league CEO Troy Swainston told his clubs this month that there had been discussion – but no confirmation – that AFL Victoria would set a limit of $100,000 in 2021.
It had been proposed in “consideration of COVID-19, the rebalancing of football payments across all levels of the game (elite to community), the long-term health and sustainability of clubs and the volunteers that work so hard to generate the revenue’’.
Swainston said Eastern would ensure its cap was the same as other leagues.
Clubs have been told Premier will be $100,000, Division 1 $80,000, Division 2 $70,000, Division 3 $60,000 and Division 4 $50,000.
Swainston also said the league “strongly discourages’’ clubs paying sign-on fees to players.
“Any monies paid to a player should be based on a per game rate. Whilst they are not illegal, they must be disclosed and recorded in the final player payment declaration counting towards the cap,’’ he said.
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