CBA 21/22 contracts explained
At the beginning of the 21–22 season the CBA introduced a raft of new provisions regarding the 20 clubs and players of the association. With the offical statement focused on ensuring a competitive CBA landscape, better player prospects and more transparency for clubs, the changes were met with a lot of controversial across China and this culminated in the Zhou Qi saga and strong rumours that a number of CBA clubs are actually running at a loss.
Nevertheless let’s take a look at one of the big changes which was the introduction of a six tiered contract system introduced to shift the CBA towards a salary cap model much like the NBA.
The six types of contracts are:
A Type Contracts: There are two A type variants A-1 and A-2 contracts, these are your youth and rookie contracts, essentially serving those who are drafted via the CBA draft or coming through a clubs internal youth development camp.
A1 Contract: These are for players who have been cultivated by the club, aka played through the different youth teams. These players need to be under 21 years old and they can be signed to a maximum 4 years and and there is a minimum 1 year guarantee.
Players on A1 Type Contracts: Xu Jie of the current title holders Guangdon is on a one year contract which will expire at the end of the season. Wouldnt be surprised to see him on a long term B type contract due to his recent performances.
A2 Contract: Players who have been drafted. With a maximum 2 year contract and minimum 1 year.
Players on A2 Type Contracts: Zhang Ning the former 8th round pick of the CBA draft essentially signed a two year deal with one more year left on his contract with Shanxi.
A Type Contracts cannot be less than $150,000 rmb.
B Type Contracts: Used to to secure the signing of young/rookie players, ther are 5 different conditions for a B type contracts. 1) A1 Contract players who are either in the last year of their contract or their contract has expired. 2)Those players who are on the old standard contracts and have extra years added on such as player/club rights to extension. 3) Players who clubs feel fall within the B type salary range. 4)For trade purposes, securing the exclusive right of a player to be transferred. Similar to player options in the NBA. 5) Clubs retain the exclusive rights to sign rookie players from the CBA draft at the expiration of their contract. B type contracts has a maximum 5 year cap and minimum 1 year guarantee.
B Type Contracts cannot be less than twice the annual salary than the players annual A Type Contract.
Players on B Type Contracts: Benson Lin signed for 2 years from his rookie deal.
C Type Contracts: These are your regular fixed term contracts. For players who do not qualify for contract types A,B,D and E. These contracts have a maximum of 5 years and a 1 year minimum. These contracts give both players and club flexibility as these contracts allow for player and club options.
C Type Contracts can not be less than $300,000 RMB.
Players on C Type Contracts: Sun Siyao who joined Beikong Fighters at the beginning of the season signed a two year deal with his new club.
D Type Contracts: These are your NBA equivalents of the max-contract type. Players that are able to sign these contracts need to be either at the expiration of their contract (B,C,D and E)or free agents. Players need to be signed for a minimum of 2 years, if a player signed back with their original club they can extend the contract to 5 years, while if they choose to sign with a new club the max extension can only be 4 years. Each club can only have 3 type D contracts at the same time on the books. If there is only one D type contract for a club it needs to be the highest salary for the club. For two, it needs to be the two highest in the club. There needs to be a minimum difference of $500,000 between the max contracts to other types of contracts.
D Type Contracts have a cap of 8,000,000 RMB.
Players on D Type Contracts: Wang Zhelin has a 4 year deal with Shanghai. Fang Shuo of Beijing has a 2 year contract.
E Type Contracts: The CBA veteran contracts. Each club can only have two E type contracts. Players need to be atleast 34 years old or older or must have been with their club for atleast 12 seasons and atleast 32 years old (Not including loans to other clubs).
Players on E-Type contracts: No players are currently on E Type Contracts.
A break down of contract type and player number below:
A majority of players on C-type contracts, while only 33 players are on the max d type contracts. The league though as expected is has an influx of younger players as they take up 35% of the total contract market.
Going forward it will be interesting to see if the CBA is able to garner post-season interest that the NBA is notoriously well known for such as their transfer sagas which keeps the NBA popularity and attention in the off season.
Note: The above does not take into account the 14 players on older contracts and is based on the full registration of 15 rather than 20 clubs.
