Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue made the word “parity” into a mantra, while fans of European football are normally realistic enough to admit that before a single ball has been kicked in anger only a handful of teams will in earnest compete for the title.
In the NFL, with the enforced balance of free agency, revenue sharing, salary cap (re-introduced with the newly minted CBA after the uncapped 2010) and the draft system, gone are (mostly) the days of the dynasties of the past. The way the Steelers, 49ers and Cowboys dynasties in the 70s, 80s and 90s respectively were constructed would not be possible in today’s regulatory system.
Since the introduction of the free agency in pro football in 1992, the Super Bowl has seen 13 different champions, with only Dallas, Denver, Green Bay, New England and Pittsburgh winning more than once during the 19 Super Bowls of that era.
13 teams have gone from last in their division in one year to first in the next and since the re-alignment to 8 divisions in 2002 and in 1999 St.Louis Rams went from 4-12 to 13-3 and Super Bowl Champs behind a former shelf-stocker from Iowa.
Green Bay, the only top league team in the world owned completely by its fans, is the pundits’ favourites for a repeat Super Bowl ring but without revenue sharing, the little city in Wisconsin (pop. 104,057 though roughly 300k in the metropolitan area) would not be able to compete with the large market teams.
The MLB has less of a complete parity mainly due to the salary luxury tax instead of a fixed cap and very limited revenue sharing, but even the World Series has seen ten different winners since the 1994 strike year with only the Yankees, Marlins(!) and the Red Sox winning more than once in the last 16 years. Small-market teams like Oakland and Tampa have showed that with shrewd scouting, drafting and trading you can still compete, although only for a shorter period until your star players hit the money years.
The current MLB season has been a slight shift back towards big money power with the top three teams in baseball (Philadelphia, Boston and NY Yankees) occupying the top three spots in the salary table ($173m, $162m and $203m respectively) as well.
Still, teams like Milwaukee ($85m), Atlanta ($87m) and Arizona ($53m) are in the running for post season spots while money whales like Cubs ($125m) and NY Mets ($118m) are showing that money doesn’t solve everything.
The window for small market teams exist, but as Tampa have found out after a few years at comparatively stratospheric levels, that window is small and closes pretty fast.
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