Friday 6 April 2007

Inflation Calculator for the NHL


The following is an inflation charting series for the NHL. A visual calculator of sorts.

According to the CBA the players are guaranteed a % of leaguewide Hockey Related Revenues (HRR). That % changes as HRR shrinks or grows but can never fall below 54% (at $ 2.2 billion in HRR) and never go above 57% (at $ 2.7 billion in HRR).

Chart One

The first chart gives the Salary Cap # per team based on the estimated leaguewide HRR.

$b ........ Player % / $m ..... Cap $m

2.200 ..... 54.0 / 1.188 ..... 39.60
2.300 ..... 55.5 / 1.277 ..... 42.55
2.400 ..... 56.0 / 1.344 ..... 44.80
2.500 ..... 56.3 / 1.408 ..... 46.92
2.550 ..... 56.5 / 1.441 ..... 48.03
2.600 ..... 56.7 / 1.474 ..... 49.14
2.700 ..... 57.0 / 1.539 ..... 51.30
2.800 ..... 57.0 / 1.596 ..... 53.20
2.900 ..... 57.0 / 1.653 ..... 55.10
3.000 ..... 57.0 / 1.710 ..... 57.00

Chart Two

The next chart shows the effect of actual, and projected, inflation during the course of the CBA.

Given the factual inflation numbers generated 2005-06 and 2006-07, the remaining estimates of 2% a year are conservative in nature. Max Salary, the 2nd last column, represents the most any one player can be paid by any one team in each respective team. Bonus points (not worth anything) to anyone who figures out what the last column represents.

Year ..... Inflatn ... $b ... Player % / $m ..... Max Sal ... ??

2005-06 .. _._% .. 2.20 .. 54.0_% .. 39.600 .. _7.92 .. 13.9%
2006-07 .. 9.1% .. 2.40 .. 56.0_% .. 44.800 .. _8.96 .. 12.3%
2007-08 .. 6.3% .. 2.55 .. 56.5_% .. 48.025 .. _9.60 .. 11.5%
2008-09 .. 2.0% .. 2.60 .. 56.7_% .. 49.159 .. _9.83 .. 11.2%
2009-10 .. 2.0% .. 2.65 .. 56.85% .. 50.275 .. 10.05 .. 10.9%
2010-11 .. 2.0% .. 2.71 .. 57.0_% .. 51.416 .. 10.28 .. 10.7%
2011-12 .. 2.0% .. 2.76 .. 57.0_% .. 52.444 .. 10.49 .. 10.5%

Interesting to note that the Cap number will be near, or exceed, the $ 52 mill/yr mark by the end of the deal. At that point in time I would have to figure that we are right back to where we started before the lock-out - low revenue teams simply won't be able to compete with their larger budget brethren.

It will be very interesting to see what happen with actual salary inflation in the future. For a player to break the $ 7 mill/yr mark it may be a major accomplishment.

BTW: I tried to do the Cap floor calculations given in the CBA copy I printed out - the results didn't quite match up to what made sense to me so if anyone wants to comment on that feel free. i.e. the CBA language indicates that the 2005-06 number should be ~ $ 23.6 million but the math they gave returns a number of $ 31.6 million. The 23.6 is closer to 'right' but I didn't want to muddy the chart with numbers that could easily be wrong.

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Have a great evening everyone.

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