Maximum player clearance fee doubled

[Journeyman]

I hear the board have increased the player transfer fee by 100% this season making the max payable $6000, is this fair in an amateur sport. Could it be seen as a restraint of trade, is it good for baseball?

[espn]

Yes it is a restraint of trade. And average division one player, who is not a constant starter is worth at times over $3000 to transfer. How can the less weathly clubs develop and improve. The strong clubs will continue to get stronger and they then wonder why our state team gets worst! Clubs can't every year pull 3 or 4 junior kids into division one, there isn't enough out there. And developing young players takes time...

[perfeckt]

I can't help but wonder, where do the transfer fees go ? What are the transfer fees spent on ? Who benefits from this rort ? Good luck S.A. I can't wait to see what the fees will be when the pro league gets going.

[Journeyman]

perfeckt, the fee goes to the club They can use the money for whatever they want, maybe recruiting some more players, or development of juniors. The league and the clubs think this will control players moving from one club to another, but it doesn't, what it does is make the strong, stronger and the weak, weaker. they just don't get it I'm afraid.

[tywebb]

it runs deeper than all of this also, the initial $3k transfer fee was brought in with much opposition and raised to $6k without anyone knowing or being told

so now we reduce the amount of games, with a proviso that our claxton team, isnt strong enough, and imports have contributed to this lack of development, we lack offense but lost after scoring double digits in some games, which suggests either pitching or defence is the problem

now the plan is to reduce imports next year, so overall standard of league can reduce even further

a young up and coming player in SA will be without any real chance to push his case for inclusion in national league team only playing 24 games with no imports, no national league pitching to face and a national draft so spread the playing wealth so to speak

something is way wrong here, and the board of course are answerable to no one

we need not get ahead of ourselves in SA either, as we still do not have a purpose built facility capable of night baseball

[Journeyman]

spot on, tywebb, every one of your points make sense to me.

[Journeyman]

Revisiting this thread I thought I would just throw this into the mix. Some members of the board think that by restricting player movement the league will be better. They also think that protecting the clubs who do develop their juniors is safeguarding those clubs from being raped and pillaged by the clubs who don't. It seems to me (and a lot of others) that if a player is happy where they are they will not want to move, if they see an opportunity to better themselves then they are more likely to want to move. Clubs that do develop tend to have a bottleneck at the top and it may be necessary to move clubs to get the opportunity to play at the highest level. The league shouldn't be trying to stop players moving for the right reasons, they should encourage it, surely it makes for a better overall competition in the long run.

Which brings me to the second part, training more and playing less doesn't make a better overall standard, there is no substitute for playing and developing skills as you play.
As a wise man once said, "2 umpires running a league doesn't make them experts in player development."