Another step and game changer for Fastpitch

Congrats Monica!!


Pitcher Monica Abbott signs $1 million contract with National Pro Fastpitch expansion team

indianafp said:

Congrats Monica!!


Pitcher Monica Abbott signs $1 million contract with National Pro Fastpitch expansion team

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That is some serious salary cap circumvention there, as only $120K of the $1M will be her actual salary and count against their cap, if I'm reading it right. Rest comes from attendance bonus, both home and away games.

I would love to see this work out, but wonder how financially viable it is for the team.

I hope it is not only viable but profitable. I would love to see this league grow to be as big and popular as MLB (in a perfect world) and give the girls an entirely new level of play to strive for as well as actually being able to make a career out of it. It's one of the unfortunate aspects about this sport that many top level SB players have an extremely limited avenue to explore if they decide they want to continue playing the sport after college.

YOCOACH said:

I hope it is not only viable but profitable. I would love to see this league grow to be as big and popular as MLB (in a perfect world) and give the girls an entirely new level of play to strive for as well as actually being able to make a career out of it. It's one of the unfortunate aspects about this sport that many top level SB players have an extremely limited avenue to explore if they decide they want to continue playing the sport after college.

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First, in the article it mentions a women's soccer player being signed to some huge deal, and the team ended up folding. Hope that doesn't happen here

Also today on espn.com is an article about Diana Taurasi and Britney Griner playing in Russia. Russia pays a lot more (Griner made $1M and Taurasi $1.5M this year) and Taurasi, one of the best in the game, didn't play WNBA this year as her Russian team paid her $200K not to, which is more than she would have made playing. I'm not clear if that $200K was included in her $1.5M or in addition to.

It mentioned Monica can still play in Japan, but this deal may cause her to rethink it. If she doesn't play because of the money she is making here, I wonder if Monica's NPF deal will be seen by the Japan league powers that be as a need to step up their game and go after players even harder, and financially "motivate" them to not play NPF...

I haven't seen the ESPN article yet but you raise a good point. I'd really hate to see the opportunities limited further due to outside financial influences. Then again, if this situation comes true, it could open up more opportunities for other players. Someone has to fill the holes left behind by the others not playing. How many times have we seen a "no-name" player get a start for the first time due to injury or the starter leaving in a sport and turn out to be a superstar? A couple of NFL quarterbacks come immediately to mind.

That said, the players being asked to forego their participation can always say no to these types of contracts. It's either that or the NPF will have to find alternative ways to finance and increase the salaries. How that could be accomplished is anyone's guess.

ETA: Unfortunately, SB isn't like the NFL where we have a stranglehold on most of the talent, marketing and the league itself. SB is played just about everywhere like soccer and there are multiple professional leagues.

I just worry about the financial viability long term, as in order to pay Monica her "bonus" they need to average about 600 fans a night at $10 a ticket for 25 home games. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Looking at the 2015 stats, average attendance across the league was about 1,000, maybe less as Akron didn't report attendance for about half their games, and the ones they did averaged well under 1,000. There were a couple of Pride games that had large crowds, one about 12,000, one about 9,000. Don't know if that was all paid or a special free even that I've seen them advertise for before. Or if someone fat-fingered the number into the stats, as the days before and after those big ones had less than 1,000 fans.

So even if they can get 1,000 PAID butts in seats each night at an average of $10 a ticket, that leaves $4,000 per game to pay field operating expenses, player salaries, travel, equipment, management, etc. Times 25 home games and that's only $100K of revenue...with $20K going to Monica. So $80K for EVERYTHING else.

Now that doesn't count money coming in from advertisers, TV contract with CBS Sports (can't imagine that is all that much), concessions, parking, merchandise, etc. But I think you can see that this is a monumental undertaking for them to commit that much of their potential revenue to one marquee player. Don't get me wrong, maybe they'll average 2,000 fans per game, maybe more. I would love to see this work, and for attendance to rise, TV ratings to rise, and the financial stability and viability of the league to rise to the level to pay the players substantially more than they make now. In the case of the Scrap Yard Dawgs, they have to pay 17 other girls with $130K of salary cap space. That's less than $8K apiece. I'm sure they find ways around the cap for some of the better players, but still it is a tall order. I for one would love to see their financials and what assumptions they used to get this done.

I would think that with that contract ownership has deep enough pockets to absorb losses for the next few years as the NPF brand builds.

I wonder if Cat would come out of retirement for a similar deal???

Remember Steve Young with the USFL?

This reminds me of that.

chinamigarden said:

Remember Steve Young with the USFL?

This reminds me of that.

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Not even close. That was part of a raid on the NFL talent pool. Talent at which the NFL scoffed and stated wasn't worth the money. Yet every NFL team went crazy and threw a load of money at all the "less talented" stars and coaches from the USFL.

But the USFL was playing in NFL stadiums with TV contracts with ABC & ESPN and in the spring which meant there was no competition for the football fans' dollar and viewing time. The league was developed for the purpose of being bought out by the NFL which was precluded by the USFL announcing a move to the fall in direct competition to the NFL and among the TV networks. Unfortunately, the NPF is not fortunate enough to have that "problem". Luckily, the NPF probably doesn't have the greed and ego issue that tore the USFL apart.

MTR said:

Not even close. That was part of a raid on the NFL talent pool. Talent at which the NFL scoffed and stated wasn't worth the money. Yet every NFL team went crazy and threw a load of money at all the "less talented" stars and coaches from the USFL.

But the USFL was playing in NFL stadiums with TV contracts with ABC & ESPN and in the spring which meant there was no competition for the football fans' dollar and viewing time. The league was developed for the purpose of being bought out by the NFL which was precluded by the USFL announcing a move to the fall in direct competition to the NFL and among the TV networks. Unfortunately, the NPF is not fortunate enough to have that "problem". Luckily, the NPF probably doesn't have the greed and ego issue that tore the USFL apart.

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The Steve young contract was a huge dollar contract designed to gain attention. And he never made the full announced value of the contract. So yes this is a lot like that.

chinamigarden said:

The Steve young contract was a huge dollar contract designed to gain attention. And he never made the full announced value of the contract. So yes this is a lot like that.

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He was still getting paid as of a few years ago.

edit: Young made sure his contract was insured so when the USFL went under, he still got his money.

Steve Young Will Make $1 Million in 2014 from USFL Deal Signed in 1984 | Bleacher Report