Former AFL player agent Ricky Nixon outlined how he manoeuvredย around the salary cap in two extraordinary Facebook posts.
Nixon's first post outlined a deal he put together for Wayne Carey before the 2000 season. North Melbourne had just won a premiership and Nixon was aiming to get Carey a deal worth $1 million.
According to Nixon, in 2000 the AFL club salary cap was $2.5 million, so Carey's salary would have taken up 40% of North's cap.
North wanted to keep the premiership side together, so Nixon came up with a creative way to get his client the money.
"I created a company owned by Wayne Carey called Carey Promotions Pty Ltd. Wayne contractually sold his Intellectual Property (his identity, likeness etc) to the company for $2," Nixon said.
"The company then licensed Wayne Carey's IP to Flying Start (my company) for exclusive exploitation. I then licensed Wayne's IP to North for $400,000 non exclusively."
Nixon said after the deal he was called into the office of former AFL CEOย Wayne Jackson and warned about his dealings. But that didn't stop him.
He was also representing Essendon duo James Hirdย and Matthew Lloyd in the same year. Nixon explains that after the Carey deal was made, the AFL had cracked down on third party deals.
The timeline gets a little messy, but Nixon statesย that Essendon needed $500,000 salary cap relief to keep Hird and Lloyd at the club for the 2000 season.
Nixon came up with another way to get his clients the money.
"I registered the domain names www.jameshird.com.au and www.matthewlloyd.com.au, sold the domain names to Essendon for $250,000 each .... Salary Cap problem gone," he said.
"Instead of 3%, the usual fee, I classed it as marketing deal and took 20%.
"The boys didn't care they were $200K richer and i upgraded from the SAAB to a BMW and whacked a deposit on the holiday house at Pt Lonsdale."
Essendon went on to win the premiership later that year.
