Dazz
Years ago

Are the Wildcats paying LESS this season?

Serious question, how do you think the rosters stack up salarywise?

My understanding is that the Cats have been self-sufficient since moving to the Arena. (Which considering the revenue, is still a cushy gig.)
They made a huge surplus in 13/14, lost money in 14/15 due to hosting only one final, and presumably made out like bandits last year in the finals.
But nobody would suggest they maintained strict adherence to the old Salary Cap. (Whether we're talking creative accounting, or just luxury mansions, who knows.)
Like everyone, they were theoretically constrained by the points cap, but received huge help from loyalty discounts.

This season (despite what has transpired to date) the threat was that salaries would be independently assessed, then made public, and tax levied. The Cats need to maintain self-sufficiency, can't budget on more than one final, consequently would prefer to minimise their tax bill, and would presumably like to avoid the published numbers being too embarrassing.

Martin and Knight would be on good coin, but I'd imagine similar to previous. Wagstaff also similar. Redhage would have dropped, and he, Brandt, Hire, KD, and Kenny would be the 5 under $400k.

Last season I imagine Jawai and Beal would have been amongst the highest paid. Surely no way McKay and JJ and getting the same. Although Prather has undoubtedly increased.

Makes me think maybe this is why they have gone for role players like McKay and JJ (and Ingram) rather than chase guns?

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Isaac
Years ago

Jawai would've been expensive last season. Doubt Beal was too ridiculous. Would've benefited from having a year in the league, but still not considered a scoring star.

Martin, Wagstaff and Knight would all have been paid well. Prather obviously went up. Brandt likely ate Jervis' salary.

Remember that teams have gone to 11 players and three imports. It's probably mostly Jawai's number that made this difficult to answer.

I'd be surprised if they lost money due to a solitary finals game, unless they had spent up very aggressively on non-core staff. I think they'd be raking in money.

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Anonymous
Years ago

I got the same impression about them this year.

I was also told by a Cats insider that he was pretty confident they wont exceed the cap this season.

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Dazz
Years ago

The certainly raked it in for 13/14.
IIRC the media claimed a $1M surplus?

For 14/15 Marvin claimed a loss. Maybe spent up big in anticipation of the usual windfall?
Keep in mind that (as part of Jack's directive) the Cats are a vehicle for spending on community programs.
And yes, they have staff coming out their ears.

I'm not suggesting they're doing it tough, it just seems to be that apart from Prather who was their MVP and obviously a priority to get back, they seem to have gone for role-players as imports, rather than big-scoring stars?

Keeping Martin was obviously a huge priority, and he and Knight would be on good money, but I wouldn't think massive, and not much of an increase?
Hard to know what Jawai was on? Rumour was HE was their Marquee player last season.

Remember that Beal re-signed for two years, after winning GF MVP, and one of the rumours was he was cut because he wanted too much.

Can't imagine the extended bench would be costing them too much. DKD wouldn't be on much, Redhage would be playing for peanuts at this point, Kenny would have gone up, and maybe Hire a bit.

Be interesting to know whether Prather is as highly paid as some might think. Obviously it would be decent, but the issue with him was always whether he could land an NBA gig, not how much the Cats were offering him to return.

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