Players on the New York Riptide playing roster have salaries based on experience and performance.
The franchise usually gives one-year contracts that rise from year to year. Top players can negotiate a longer and more lucrative contract.
The NLL has a salary cap but the Riptide can provide top-ups from a discretionary bonus pool. Read on for the details.
This article has been updated to reflect the final 2022/2023 Riptides roster.
How We Calculate Salaries
NLL franchises don’t publish player salaries. However, some details across the league were released during the 2018/19 negotiations between the NLL and the players association.
The salary ranges (based on experience) were reported in 2018. Since then, the new agreement resulted in a 25% increase phased over four to five years.
Our calculations have applied this as a 4-5% increase per year to date.
We also learned more about the bonus structures during a bidding war for Doug Jamieson between the Halifax Thunderbirds and the franchise that was the Black Wolves.
We know that clubs have a $30K bonus pool that can take individual players over the maximum salary range.
The Riptide doesn’t have to pay out the full amount but they must distribute at least $16K each season.
How Much Do Players Earn At New York Riptide?
Rookies at New York Riptide receive a base contract of US$13K. They make from $15K to $21K in their second year.
A veteran player earns a minimum of $19K. This rises every year to a maximum salary of $37K.
The average salary across the Riptide’s playing roster is $25K.
Apart from the average, the above numbers are rounded to the nearest one thousand dollars. We have the raw numbers later.
Franchise tag exception
There is one exception where a player’s base contract can be above the maximum we specified above.
Every club can offer what’s known as a franchise tag to one player per season.
This is a one-year contract of $46K. It ties the player from switching to another team.
Players who are over 34 can reject the tag. As we’ll see later, a Riptide player accepted the tag in the summer of 2022.
Monthly wages
The figures we’ve listed may seem low for hard-working athletes. But bear in mind that the NLL season is about six months long.
I’ve put the pro-rata monthly equivalent in the table below. These numbers aren’t rounded.
| Status | Annual (US$) | Monthly (US$) |
| Rookies | 12,408 | 2,068 |
| Second-year minimum | 14,824 | 2,471 |
| Second-year maximum | 20,215 | 3,369 |
| Veteran minimum | 18,433 | 3,072 |
| Veteran maximum | 36,626 | 6,104 |
Who are the top earners?
The outstanding Callum Crawford was offered a franchise tag in July 2022. He accepted the tag that comes with the special contract of $46 thousand.
This gives Crawford the highest contract on the team. However, he only signed a one-year contract.
Who else is at the maximum of the veteran salary range? We expect the players who have leadership duties to be at the top end.
And what about the veterans? We expect the players who share captaincy duties to be at the top of the range.
Dan MacRae was captain and there is no shortage of admirers for his leadership. He had previously been captain when with the Calgary Roughnecks.
MacRae signed a two-year extension in the summer of 2022. We expect him to be on a base contract of at least $36K.
The veteran player Jay Thorimbert signed a two-year extension from 2022. The Riptides Head Coach added him to the leadership group within the club.
We expect that MacRae and Thorimbert aren’t just at the maximum for veterans. They are likely given additional income from the bonus pool for their leadership roles.
Which Riptide players are getting rising contracts?
Jeff Teat was a rookie last season so wouldn’t usually expect a big rise in his contract the following year.
However, he had such a great season in 2021/22 that he was awarded the Rookie Of The Year.
Teat was the fourth top-scorer with 108 points from 37 goals and 71 assists. The club wants to retain that kind of talent.
We expect Teat to be at the higher end of the second-year contracts. He is likely earning about $21K per year.
Which players are paid the least?
The Riptide had two players on the practice squad by the opening weekend of the new season. As they are not on the active roster, they don’t even get the minimum contract.
The practice squad players earn about one to two thousand dollars per season.
Playing In The PLL
Some players finish their season in the NLL and then play outdoors in the Premier Lacrosse League.
Jeff Teat is one player who switches between the two leagues.
We take a detailed look at his PLL club in our review of player salaries at Atlas Lacrosse Club.
Employment Outside The Lacrosse World
NLL players are employed by their franchise for about six months of the year.
They also don’t train full-time during the season. The standard schedule is to travel for training on Thursday evening or Friday morning.
That allows Riptide players to work outside of the sport. Let’s look at a few to get a flavor of what they do.
I’ve focused on some of the older guys who are most likely to have senior positions in professional roles.
Dan MacCrae is a business manager at Brunel Canada. His team recruits and supplies specialists in the mining and energy sectors.
Scott Johnston is a senior acquisitions editor at Kendall Hunt, an educational publishing company.
How Do New York Riptide Afford Player Wages?
You may be wondering if gate receipts are enough to cover player wages now and in the future.
Part of the challenge for NLL teams is that the new Premier Lacrosse League has raised the bar on payment and benefits. You can find out more in our review of salaries in the PLL.
Fans understandably get worried about whether the franchise owners can withstand financial pressures in uncertain times.
Check out our review of the father-and-son duo who own the New York Riptide. We assess the depth of their pockets.
