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History for andrewvoerman

Auckland Pride - Make Auckland Great Again

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Posted May 25, 2026 21:38 · last edited May 25, 2026 21:40

Bullion wrote:
AucklandPhoenix wrote:
Would take the radio nz article with a grain of salt. They have said it before and are repeating it again. I have heard that they initially figured that out by looking at transfermarket one day. An actual quote from someone at the club would be more accurate.

Director of football Terry McFlynn told Stuff last week they were spending “nowhere near twice as much” as the figure of AU$3m (NZ$3.2m) that Australian Professional Leagues wants to institute as hard salary cap from the 2026-27 season, with a lone exception for one marquee player.
“I think there are clubs that are spending double the salary cap and more, but I think we’re about fourth or fifth across the league, from what we can understand.”
The salary cap is AU$2.6m (NZ$2.79m) this season, though Auckland were allowed to spend roughly $400,000 extra, because as a brand-new club, they don’t have access to the exceptions for loyal or homegrown players other clubs do.
“The APL’s metric they used was a blended average across the other 12 clubs in the competition and what that spend looked like outside of the cap and that's what we were afforded,” McFlynn said. “It was the same when Western United and Macarthur joined a couple of years ago.”
Auckland have made full use of the exceptions for marquee players (two players whose salaries don’t count against the cap at all) and designated players (two players whose salaries – between AU$300,000 and AU$600,000 – don’t count against the cap).
Two marquees and two designated players and you're possibly at 80% the salary cap level with 4 players - chuck in the $400k quoted exemptions (for like loyalty players) and you have almost an entire salary cap worth not in the cap. The Nix only have 2 players eligible for loyalty exemptions, Rufer the only one the full 50% (I assume the period where he wasn't renewed and had to trial doesn’t reset the clock) and Payne who was eligible for 20% this year. Even if the Nix used them, Rufer and Payne's deals would be nowhere near enough to get $400k outside of the cap. Its also convenient the calculation allowing afc to spend more was when all clubs were aud$1.5m wealthier, certainly impacting average spend across the league.

While the Phoenix's potential loyalty exemptions wouldn't get close to $400k by themselves, once you add in their homegrown exemptions – four fully exempt salaries of under-23 players who have come through the club – which are also part of that figure, they would.

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andrewvoerman edited May 25, 2026 21:40

Bullion wrote:
AucklandPhoenix wrote:
Would take the radio nz article with a grain of salt. They have said it before and are repeating it again. I have heard that they initially figured that out by looking at transfermarket one day. An actual quote from someone at the club would be more accurate.

Director of football Terry McFlynn told Stuff last week they were spending “nowhere near twice as much” as the figure of AU$3m (NZ$3.2m) that Australian Professional Leagues wants to institute as hard salary cap from the 2026-27 season, with a lone exception for one marquee player.
“I think there are clubs that are spending double the salary cap and more, but I think we’re about fourth or fifth across the league, from what we can understand.”
The salary cap is AU$2.6m (NZ$2.79m) this season, though Auckland were allowed to spend roughly $400,000 extra, because as a brand-new club, they don’t have access to the exceptions for loyal or homegrown players other clubs do.
“The APL’s metric they used was a blended average across the other 12 clubs in the competition and what that spend looked like outside of the cap and that's what we were afforded,” McFlynn said. “It was the same when Western United and Macarthur joined a couple of years ago.”
Auckland have made full use of the exceptions for marquee players (two players whose salaries don’t count against the cap at all) and designated players (two players whose salaries – between AU$300,000 and AU$600,000 – don’t count against the cap).
Two marquees and two designated players and you're possibly at 80% the salary cap level with 4 players - chuck in the $400k quoted exemptions (for like loyalty players) and you have almost an entire salary cap worth not in the cap. The Nix only have 2 players eligible for loyalty exemptions, Rufer the only one the full 50% (I assume the period where he wasn't renewed and had to trial doesn’t reset the clock) and Payne who was eligible for 20% this year. Even if the Nix used them, Rufer and Payne's deals would be nowhere near enough to get $400k outside of the cap. Its also convenient the calculation allowing afc to spend more was when all clubs were aud$1.5m wealthier, certainly impacting average spend across the league.

While the loyalty exceptions wouldn't get close to $400k by themselves, once you add in the four fully exempt salaries of under-23 homegrown players, which are also part of that figure, you would.