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A17
Saturday 2 March 2019

NFL salary

cap jumps CAT

$11 million

to $188.2M CHECK

NEW YORK (AP) — The
NFL's salary cap will jump
$11 million next season to
$188.2 million.
In the ninth year of the 10-
year labor agreement, the
cap moves up from $177.2
million. It has increased in
every year of the contract,
with the biggest move in
2015 to 2016, when it went
up by just under $12 million.
This is the third year out of
four in which clubs must
reach 89 percent in cash
spending, and the NFL
Players Association said
Friday that four teams are
under that threshold: Dal-
las, Buffalo, Indianapolis
and Houston.
League expenditures for
benefits are $40.5 million
per team. Add that to the
salary cap number and
each club's player costs
are above $228 million.
Benefits includes pension
payments to former play-
ers; the Bell/Rozelle retire-
ment and disability plan for
active players; annuities
and 401 (k) plans; health
care; injury protection
and severance; veteran
performance-based pay;
a separate pool of perfor-
mance-based pay that's
essentially a cash bonus
to players who outperform
their contracts.
With the NFL's revenues at
more than $14 billion and
every team worth at least
$1.6 billion (Buffalo), with
a high of about $5 billion
(Dallas), it's hardly a sur-
prise how high the cap has
gone. In the first year of
the current CBA, reached
after a lockout of the play- Shootout goal lifts Vegas past Florida 6-5
ers from March-July 2011,
the cap was $120 million.
It has increased by at least
$10 million every year since Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Jon Merrill (15) checks Florida Panthers center Jayce Hawryluk (8) into the boards during the
2014, when it went up first period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, in Las Vegas.
to $133 million from $123 Associated Press
million.q Page 20