It was established the day you mass signed the S45 class at 3M in the SMJHL
By doing so you've established the base salary...
So, it's incomprehensible that if an 'active' member is GOOD enough to drafted into The SHL -a superior league.
WHY the F would HE/SHE accept any thing less than the same contract money's they made in the "J". This BS about budget management shouldn't come at the expense of developing "active" members.
Either increase your budgets or limit the top level contracts. As it stands now you're gonna turn off more and more potential members with this ridiculous double standard.

FURTHER
wether or not the SMJHL Budget is a handout or a joke ..taken from the perspective of a first generation player it's what's being taught ..and that's the standard that's being set
Hindsight says you set salaries commensurate to the standards you have (500K)and either lower the training costs in the "J" or abolish the need for pay training in the "J" and base it on activity checks with all media money to be banked till after the players SHL draft .

(29 minutes ago)ToeDragon84 Wrote:
the downsides of your team spending 9M on 2 regressing IFAs who'd cost $4M at minimum.

By IFA you mean "Inactive" right?
What if there was a "relief claim" that a team could apply to these IFA's and it would immediately drop them to the 500 k base.