Should the NHL salary cap adjust for local income tax?

[Gnashville]

Tavares rumored remaining list of possibile teams
San Jose (high tax)
Boston (high tax)
New York (high tax)
Toronto (high tax)
Teams he is rumored to no longer be considering
Nashville (low tax)
Dallas (low tax)
Tampa (low tax)
But yes let’s adjust the cap because the low tax teams get all the good free agents!!!

 

[JianYang]

Then what about cost of living difference?

Vancouver, Toronto, New York, are a fair bit more expensive places to live in than say Buffalo.

To play devil's advocate, the rangers seem to have no problems recruiting players to new york, and it's been that way as long as I can remember.

What new york can offer is relative anonymity, while being able to enjoy all that a big city has to offer.

I don't feel like they need further assistance to attract talent.

 

[dumbdick]

To increase parity should every team's cap be set individually, so that the take-home contract values are approximately even? In the event of a trade, teams would adjust the value of the gross payout accordingly to keep the net pay stable. What do you think?

 

[Filthy Dangles]

This probably shifts more power to the larger markets as opposed to leveling the playing field already slanted in big markets favor.

Edit: at least for US based teams as larger markets are generally the higher taxes. Canada has high taxes across the board from my understanding

 

[Echo Roku]

This probably shifts more power to the larger markets as opposed to leveling the playing field already slanted in big markets favor.

Edit: at least for US based teams as larger markets are generally the higher taxes. Canada has high taxes across the board from my understanding

How exactly?

 

[Seanaconda]

To increase parity should every team's cap be set individually, so that the take-home contract values are approximately even? In the event of a trade, teams would adjust the value of the gross payout accordingly to keep the net pay stable. What do you think?

I think there will always be reasons that teams will have advantages signing guys no matter what you try to do to make it equal

 

[Dustin]

I think there will always be reasons that teams will have advantages signing guys no matter what you try to do to make it equal

Yup. California and Florida has great weather. New York had the greatest city in the world, Toronto/Montreal have history. It's impossible to create a fair across the board league.

 

[SupremeNachos]

They need to add these kind of posts as prop bets on the VBookie.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

No.

 

[Seanaconda]

This probably shifts more power to the larger markets as opposed to leveling the playing field already slanted in big markets favor.

Edit: at least for US based teams as larger markets are generally the higher taxes. Canada has high taxes across the board from my understanding

Canada has different taxes based on province as well , someone in another board said that our federal taxes are cheaper for the bracket most nhlers would be in anyways

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

This is solutionism at it's finest.

Terrible idea that attempts to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

 

[badboy1994]

Or maybe just lower the taxes instead of screwing you’re own citizens. Just because states like Texas is smarter then most states shouldn’t mean that they get punished by loser states.

 

[PittsburghPens8771]

Tavares rumored remaining list of possibile teams
San Jose (high tax)
Boston (high tax)
New York (high tax)
Toronto (high tax)
Teams he is rumored to no longer be considering
Nashville (low tax)
Dallas (low tax)
Tampa (low tax)
But yes let’s adjust the cap because the low tax teams get all the good free agents!!!

Lower state income tax = higher utility costs, higher cable costs, higher cost of goods, etc.

You’re almost equal when all is said and done (as it relates to other states).

It’s pro business so they turn significantly higher profits but as a citizen it’s not all it’s hyped up to be.

I feel bad for the majority of you who seem clueless as to how the world works.

 

[LeafFever]

It's cute that Habs/Leafs want to pretend that taxes are the reason players sign with other teams instead. The California and NY teams have high tax rates as well and don't seem to have problems attracting players/ free agents. I wonder why that is?

That said, they will never do this anyways because taxation rates are variable. No team/owner is going to go for any plan that means a huge expense like salary is not fixed a expense.

Last I checked Tavares is very interested in the Leafs. Marleau left a California team after 2 decades to join the Leafs last summer.
It is indeed very unfair the Habs/Leafs give the most in revenue sharing and get punished with taxes.

 

[TOGuy14]

Kind of weird that so many fans think it is outrageous that big market teams like Toronto, NYR etc could spend huge amounts of money giving them an unfair advantage, and then I read from fans in low tax markets like TB that UFAs should sign for far less because of the favorable taxation rate (Stamkos)

 

[PittsburghPens8771]

Kind of weird that so many fans think it is outrageous that big market teams like Toronto, NYR etc could spend huge amounts of money giving them an unfair advantage, and then I read from fans in low tax markets like TB that UFAs should sign for far less because of the favorable taxation rate (Stamkos)

Tax markets? Lol... I’m hoping you meant Low Income State Taxes.

You do realize Tampa Bay is a city in Florida, right?

Also, clearly it isn’t working for Toronto and NYR as they haven’t won anything in what feels like centuries.

Just another misinformed youth who needs to try harder in grade school.

 

[valet]

Last I checked Tavares is very interested in the Leafs. Marleau left a California team after 2 decades to join the Leafs last summer.
It is indeed very unfair the Habs/Leafs give the most in revenue sharing and get punished with taxes.

why do you even care?

it's not your money. all of these people are millionaires. get over it

the idea of this thread is laughable. change the cap to account for taxes. give me a break. no one in the NHL is pulling down less than 300k a year after taxes just from team salary

 

[glovesave_35]

Lower state income tax = higher utility costs, higher cable costs, higher cost of goods, etc.

You’re almost equal when all is said and done (as it relates to other states).

It’s pro business so they turn significantly higher profits but as a citizen it’s not all it’s hyped up to be.

I feel bad for the majority of you who seem clueless as to how the world works.

Higher cost of goods? Like what? If you do a price index comparison of Dallas vs NYC things are cheaper in Dallas. Case closed.

 

[Seanaconda]

Tax markets? Lol... I’m hoping you meant Low Income State Taxes.

You do realize Tampa Bay is a city in Florida, right?

Also, clearly it isn’t working for Toronto and NYR as they haven’t won anything in what feels like centuries.

Just another misinformed youth who needs to try harder in grade school.

Rags won a cup by buying the oilers old team sans gretzky so it can work

 

[Jeti]

What if the point of the cap is to ensure the owners had cost certainty so that players could only be paid a set %?

Exactly this. People in Toronto and Montreal complain about the cap as if they were winning cups every other year without it. Revenue sharing is about parity but the cap is primarily about controlling costs. The Habs and Leafs are making more money than ever.

 

[Turin]

Maybe some states should stop stealing.

 

[Gnashville]

Lower state income tax = higher utility costs, higher cable costs, higher cost of goods, etc.

You’re almost equal when all is said and done (as it relates to other states).

It’s pro business so they turn significantly higher profits but as a citizen it’s not all it’s hyped up to be.

I feel bad for the majority of you who seem clueless as to how the world works.

Tennessee has some of the lowest utility costs in the country along with gasoline. It’s really not that simple. I looked at some Cost of living calculators and it’s no comparison Nashville has a vastly lower cost of living than most NHL cities.

FYI: The income tax is prohibited by the constitution in TN and it’s never affected any cost of living to balloon.

 

[badboy1994]

Taxation is theft

 

[tucker3434]

This is one of those no-upside, all-downside ideas for the league. The NHL’s legal costs would skyrocket, you alienate fans in the exact markets you’re trying to grow, and for what? To make big-market fans happy? Those teams are already selling out arenas. Not to mention those teams are having zero trouble attracting big time UFA’s as is.

I know what people are really after is for big, rich teams to be able to just outbid everyone else, but it’s just not how salary caps work. What you should really be throwing your weight behind is a luxury tax system. There’s almost no chance it ever happens, but the odds are a lot better than an income tax adjustment.

 

[NoName]

Yes.

Otherwise it means effectively, that teams like Florida and Vegas without state tax have substantially more dollars to spend on FAs then teams like Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. The salary cap system was meant to level the playing field; if you don't incorporate different tax rates then you are not doing this.

NHL needs to peg the base salary cap number (say $80million) to say just the US federal tax rate for the average player salary and then adjust the actual salary cap for each team based on the added state and provincial rates for teams because as it stands right now you have:

tax for players earning $3 million per season (rough NHL average salary): League high- 52.4% (Tor, OTT), Low- 38.14% (LV, FLA, TBL - there is no state income tax) That means the take home for a player with a cap hit of $3 million is really $1.42 million in Toronto or Ottawa vs $1.85 million in Vegas or Florida.

Tax for players with an $11 million per season cap hit (ie. Superstar caliber player range): League high- 53.22% (Tor, OTT), Low- 39.2% (LV, FLA, TBL)
That means the take home for a player with a cap hit of $3 million is really $5.14 million in Toronto or Ottawa vs $6.68 million in Vegas or Florida.


These are big differences in actual take homes. Across a roster it effectively means that teams in tax-free states effectively have around $10 million more in cap space to the teams in the most heavily taxed provinces or states. There is no way you can argue that this is not an enormous competitive advantage. A team in a state like Florida or Vegas (if the owner is willing to spend to the cap) can simply outspend everyone else... by a lot.







NOTE: grabbed these stats from The Hockey Guy who took the effort of doing this for all the teams by sorting though the Cap Friendly data.