This is all something I just threw together based on my previous work in designing the current ASRL system.
I'd love thoughts and suggestions.
FFBRL Contracts & Salary Cap Proposal
As a means to increase the competitiveness and strategy involved in the FFBRL, I am proposing a number of changes be made at the conclusion of the current season.
1. Comprehensive Rerate
MrCharisma and I are working out a way to make better use of stats to provide a comprehensive rerate of all players.
While we recognise that stats do not always tell the whole story, we think it is a far more efficient way to manage ratings than individually re-rating every player at every team.
Coaches will still retain the ability to request rerates on their players during the season as is usual.
2. Establish Salaries
Once all players have been rated, they will be allocated a salary based on their stats. The exact means of reaching this salary is still open to discussion, although MrC’s proposal in the Improving the FFBRL thread seems like a good starting point to me.
3. Establish Salary Cap
Once we have an idea of player value, I propose that we institute a salary cap. My personal preference would be to set it at 3.5 million. This will mean some clubs have to make cuts while others will have room to make a move on free agents.
Breaches of the salary cap would be met with points deductions and/or financial penalties for the club.
4. Lower Squad Size
As a part of later steps in this process, I am proposed that we reduce squad size to 25 players (down from 29).
5. Set up Reserves
Each club will have the option to have a ‘reserves club’. This club has a different name to the parent club, but is essentially reserve grade.
This club has a maximum squad size of 20 players. Players in this squad cannot have a combined attack/defence rating of 14.
For the first season, players eligible can be ‘dropped’ from the top squad and placed into the reserves squad. There will be no bidding on reserve players during the first season.
Reserves do not count towards a club’s salary cap or contracts, but are essentially free agents able to be poached at any time by rival clubs wishing to put them in their top squad.
The exception to this would be a group of ‘Safety Net’ players. These players would be unable to be poached during the season, but would enter contracts/drafts at season’s end if they were not promoted to the top squad and assigned a contract/salary.
6. Decide Contracts
I propose that each club have a combined 50 years’ worth of contracts to assign to their top twenty five.
Players cannot be given a contract longer than 5 years. A player thus contracted will not have their salary change during the duration of their contract, and will remain with the club unless released.
Releasing a player does not remove them from a club’s salary cap, but does free up the ‘years’ assigned to their contract.
At the end of each season, all contracts go down by 1 year. Five year contracts become four, two years become one, and one year contracts become ‘off contract’.
7. Renewing Contracts
At the end of each season and before rerating or contract bidding/draft, clubs have the option to extend up to five contracts.
Extending a contract sets the player’s salary to the current level appropriate to their level + 10% of their total value per year of the contract beyond the first.
A player worth $300,000 would therefore go up to $330,000 on a two year deal, $360,000 on a two year deal, and so on.
Any players not extended or promoted from reserves to the top squad would be listed as off contract.
8. Signing New Players
During the season, players can be picked up for the top squad or for the reserve squad from the Player Pool.
When this is done, their salary will be set at the appropriate level for their current rating and they will automatically be assigned a one year contract.
In the case of reserves, no contract or salary requirement exists, but they must fit into the maximum 14 rating.
9. Demoting Players
While players with a combined attack & defence cannot be kept in a reserves side, they
can be demoted from the top squad. This does not remove their contract or salary from the top squad, but allows them to play and gain form in reserves.
On the flip side, players from reserves can be promoted to the top squad regardless of their contract status. They do not count towards the salary cap or contract cap in this case.
10. Contract Bidding/Contract Draft
At the conclusion of the season, all off contract players as well as the contents of the player pool can be added to a club.
The exact process for this is up to debate. The options as I see them are:
1. Draft: Based on reverse finish order, random draw, or salary cap expenditure (lowest to highest). Players picked up are assigned a salary based on their current rating and must be given a contract at the time of their pick-up.
2. Auction: Any player wishing to bid on a player makes a thread for that player
or posts in the existing thread for that player. Players post their bid (in salary) and the length of the contract (in years) for the player. They must beat the combined total of the previous bid (1 year x $100,000 would lose to 2 years x $100,000). The minimum bid will be set prior to the auction process. Bidding continues until a decision has been made, although new bids (from a new club) on a player will not be accepted beyond a certain point.
A player could also ‘bid’ to place a player in reserves, although any genuine bid for a first grade spot would trump it.
3. Auction (Timed): As above, but with a set time limit. The last, highest bid at the deadline will get the player. This allows for ‘sneaky’ last minute bids at 1 minute to the deadline.
I am, of course, open to other opinions with regard to this. My personal preference would be for a draft, as it is less complicated and occupies considerably less forum space.
11. Rerating Again
Once the squads are decided, new ratings are compiled and released. This is a way to allow people to scout players they think will be potentially upgraded, rather than having to fight with a dozen other people who have spotted them at their new rating in the player pool.
12. Finalizing Contracts & Salaries
Once this is all done, squads are checked for their salary cap and their contract years. The season commences.
It is also at this time that players are able to claim players from the player pool to ‘fill out’ their reserves squad. The same ratings rules would apply.
The Mole@RLW_Mole · 
