@ColdSteel2 and
@RememberTheRoar There are simply too many different variables between cities, let alone countries, to make it completely fair...
Cost of Living Comparison Between Toronto, Canada And Tampa, FL, United States
...Toronto is also a world class city, Tampa is not (no offense). Miami is pretty awesome, especially if you’re filthy rich, but it’s nearly 300 miles away from Tampa. So there are opportunity costs to living in Tampa over Toronto as well. So yeah, you’re hypothetically saving more on income taxes but you don’t get to live in and experience one of the best cities on the planet.
If you’re going to level the field in regards to income tax, where does the line get drawn? You have property taxes, social security, cost of living, quality of life, etc...all of those things vary from team to team and players are free to use that info as they like when it comes to contract negotiations and evaluating what’s best for them.
Also a few quickies...
-Tampa is not the only hockey town with no/lower income taxes, it’s not a benefit exclusive to the Lightning and is literally only being brought up because Stamkos teased going to Toronto
-Lightning players are signing more team friendly deals in part due to lower income taxes, but that’s absolutely not the only reason and it’s probably not even a major consideration. Yzerman has all these guys buying into winning a Cup and Tampa has been one of the best teams in the league for years now. The players know that and they want to be a part of it, even at the cost of a few million dollars
-rich people don’t pay taxes. It’s not as simple a comparison as $10m in Tampa vs $10m in Toronto. I’m not even close to a tax expert but there are so many ways around high tax rates, it’s ridiculous.
Bottom line, guys are not NOT signing in Toronto (or New York x2, New Jersey, LA, San Jose, Anaheim, Minnesota, Washington DC all which have the highest income tax rates in the US) because of income taxes. It’s a stupid thing to wine about and it comes off incrrrrrredibly petty.
And bottom bottom line, Toronto just paid out contracts to Tavares and Matthews where 96% of their money was paid out in signing bonuses, saving those guys tens of millions. That’s absolutely not something every team can do. Life isn’t fair, not all hockey markets are either