Some of the competition’s highest earners are already on just 17 per cent of their agreed terms, plus JobKeeper, until the end of August. Most are down at least 50 per cent.
Those tied to ongoing deals were expecting to revert to their original agreements next season.
However, club sources have confirmed that with the salary cap set to be slashed to as little as $1.6 million - and the Fox Sports TV deal already shaved from $57 million to around $30 million - player wages are in the firing line.
If the cap drops down to 1.6m million, this off season is gonna be nuts. Even teams with half their rosters signed are gonna be looking to offload their big earners, teams like Sydney and Brisbane have almost a full roster signed already.
Surely this is the death knell to any hopes of Hooper signing on for next season or beyond. The generosity of Welnix owners can only go so far - though who knows after all they have been through over the years, emotion & some beers may briefly over rule the P&L statement if Nix did win the toilet seat!!
Also getting a transfer fee for Cacace would be useful.
However haven't read any news yet about player wages being slashed in The Championship for season 2020/2021. That yes of course could all change if Britain got a '2nd wave' and all football again had to be halted.
But Hooper's had a good 6 month run now of being injury free in the A League. He a proven player at that level, and some Championship clubs will be interested in him. If he's on the reported nearly $NZD1M, that's about GBP10,000/week. Read somewhere that pre Covid that's about an average wage in The Championship.
Steinmann is the other future uncontracted visa player? DM is pretty well covered with Rufer, Devlin and Wilson. Yes not a like for like, but Clayton Lewis would sign on cheaply you'd think.
If Devere (also off contract) goes. Then TAHW gets his chance. Tom Doyle to return as a back up CB. James McGarry as LB.
And yes this is a shark time for everyone who has taken a financial hit due to Covid. But FFA/NLWG have effectively had a 50% reduction in income (TV rights cash). Players Union & players can complain all they like, but big (team) pay cuts have to happen.
Hopefully new revenue streams can be found, but a low budget CCM, almost NSL model could exist for 2020/2021 and beyond. For most clubs anyway! The Big 3 spending teams to exploit all the various salary cap loopholes.
So Nix won't be only A League club affected by any means - and hopefully they can keep the nucleus of this side - apart from likely Hooper and maybe Steinmann & Devere.
