Just wondering ... when will we see athletes taking salary cuts?

If the cap is down, who's going to take the contracts?

 

Jeff Gordon has said he'll accept a pay cut in order to maintain Dupont 24 team performance standards.

 

Doesn't the NHL CBA allow for a buyout period at the end of each season? I don't cover the league nor follow it super closely, so maybe someone with more 411 can fill me in.

 

Yeah. But all those season ticket sales were recorded well before any huge economic downturn.

 

Salary cuts? No.
Lesser contracts?

Well, in September K-Rod and his agent were talking about 5 years, $75 million. Today they happily accepted 3 years for less than half that amount.
The downsizing (to use management bullshit corporate speak) is beginning to hit athletes.

 

Manny (and all the others) are able to make what they do because millions of fans continue to go to games, buy merchandise, etc. When 10,000 fans from a city decide they've got to cut their season tickets from their budget, you'll see player salaries fall accordingly. I don't know why this hasn't happened already.

 

Speaking for just myself here, but I'm a pretty big fan and I'm lucky if I make it out to two games a year. I'm in Red Sox country, so it's not exactly strapped for demand or a quality team, and the capacity is tight. Unless you're talking about straight-up Great Depression style bread lines, I think the bigger markets are all insulated from severe ticket drops.

I'm sure some people will decide to drop season ticket packages, but in places like Boston, NYC and L.A., I imagine there is still plenty of money around to scoop up the few that come free. There are also going to be the teams driving and setting the market prices for free agents. If there are problems with tickets, you're going to see it more in the franchises that aren't good anyway, and I imagine more as a scapegoat thing. The Pirates will be quick to mention the bad economy, as opposed to the fact that they've been irrelevant since Bonds left.

 

The leagues will all use this as an excuse to pare back well in advance of the point at which they are actually struggling financially (as both the NFL and MLB already are), and then will be slow to re-build when things return to "normal." End result: massive profit taking.

 

There will be no pay cut for CC Sabathia. 7 years/$160 million.

 

I was thinking buyouts.