Here in the heartland things are simple and happy: the Bengals are optimistic after an almost-winning season, replicas of the new unis are flying off the shelves and there’s quite a demand for those luxury boxes. In Washington, things have gotten a bit more complicated, as managment tries to find new ways to load up on big-money performers while staying under the most lusted-after salary cap in sports.

The Post looks at the Redskins’ attempts to win now, something Daniel Snyder has been trying for a few years now. Jason La Canfora (who covered the Wings for the Free Press many moons ago) helps chronicle the ‘Skins moves to build a roster that will be paid $110 million while technically being under the cap of $80.6 million.

Contrast that with a few lines about the economic state of the mighty Bengals:

In NFL economics, the sales revenue is mostly profit for the team or is used to pay for operations. In most seasons, the player payroll is covered by the league’s television contract, which is divided equally among all 32 NFL clubs.

At least if you’re only interested in spending the league average of around $72 million. So take the money you’re being handed by the league office and, if you can fill the stadium, feel free to rake in the added t-shirt money that doesn’t need to be reinvested in the product.

No wonder the other major league sports want a salary cap.

This entry was posted in the following categories: Economics