Brutus
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http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...put-storm-back-in-a-teacup-20100505-uanu.html
ROY MASTERS
May 6, 2010Bad ol' days ... a Broncos player is tripped in the 1999 Super Bowl. Photo: Reuters
The biggest scandal in Australian sport, or the biggest punishment handed down in Australian sport? The view from America, where I have been since shortly before the story of Melbourne Storm's salary cap breaches broke, is clearly the latter.
One American sportswriter said: "You mean a team was stripped of two national championships and can't compete this year because it spent $1.7 million above an annual $4million cap over a five-year period? That's cheating by less than 10 per cent. That's standard fudging by most employees with expense accounts.''
Matt Astill, a young Australian who arrived in New York a few months after September 11, 2001, and co-owns The Australian Bar in New York, says: "It's not as if the Storm won two comps by plundering stars from other clubs. They developed their teams." Considering Matt once played for the Manly Sea Eagles - a team known for its raids on other clubs - his words carry additional significance.
NFL fans compare the Storm's breaches with the Denver Broncos, who won two Super Bowls (1997 and 1998) and were twice fined for salary cap breaches. In December 2001, the Broncos were fined $US968,000 and lost a round-three draft choice relating to $US29m in deferred payments to two players. Less than three years later, they were fined $US950,000 and lost a round-three draft choice for circumventing the cap between 1996 and 1998 for again violating the rules on disclosure of deferred compensation to players.
The Broncos were fined less than $US2m for a $US29m over-spend on a cap of approximately $US60m, while the Storm were fined $1.6m for a pro-rata annual $340,000 over-spend on a $4.1m cap.
OK, there are serious differences between the crimes of the two clubs. The Storm set out to serially deceive and the additional payments probably helped retain their stars in a non-rugby league city. The Broncos' "circumvention" of $US29m resulted from cash flow problems. They were forced to contribute $US100m towards the cost of a new stadium.
Like the Storm, when the breaches emerged, the Broncos officials who organised the deferred payments were "no longer with the organisation". But this didn't stop rival clubs wanting more scalps. Al Davis, the bitter owner of the Oakland Raiders, called upon Denver owner, Pat Bowlen, to be sacked.
Similarly, NRL clubs voted a rumoured 12-3 in favour of the David Gallop's sanctions.
Major League Baseball, which has a very aggressive players' union, does not have a salary cap. Instead, it has a luxury tax - an arrangement where teams whose aggregate payroll exceeds an annually agreed figure, are taxed on the excess amount. As of the 2009 season, only four teams have ever paid any luxury tax, with one of them - the New York Yankees - paying 95 per cent ($US164.1m) of the total tax gathered. The tax is paltry to a club whose revenue is 100 times greater than the poorest MLB club.
The Yankees were at the White House last week to be honoured by President Barack Obama for winning last year's World Series, their 27th title. Jean Afterman, the Yankees assistant general manager, let slip a nasty remark when President Obama was about to hoist the trophy for a photograph with Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "Let him hold it," she said of Obama whom she suspects is a one term president. "He may never get another chance again."
Obama, a White Sox fan, responded: "And you wonder why the other teams don't root for you."
No one at the Storm can be accused of crassness but like the Yankees and the Broncos, they became too successful for their rivals.
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