NFL Players Expect Increase in Cap : Pro football: Union head Gene Upshaw says figures indicate salary cap would gain $2 million.

The NFL salary cap could increase by more than $2 million for the 1995 season, Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Assn., said Tuesday.

According to preliminary figures, he said that the cap is guaranteed to rise from $34.6 million to $36.5 million. But he added that he expects another increase by the middle of March after a full review is completed of league revenues that would send the cap over $37 million.

Player salaries are set at 63% of gross league revenues. That is a drop of 1% from last season, but revenues increased enough to still stretch the cap.

The new figures support the policy of Carmen Policy, San Francisco 49er president, who stocked his roster with big names in 1994, avoiding the restrictions of the salary cap by offering incentive and signing bonuses that carried over to the ’95 cap.

Critics warned that he mortgaged the future for a championship team in 1994.

The 49ers, however, will absorb the $1.58 million in bonuses they owe for 1995 and still have more money left under the new cap than they had a year ago.

The new figures do not include $4.9 million to be paid to players in benefits.

Also, the minimum salary for rookies will increase from $108,000 to $119,000, and the minimum for veterans will increase from $162,000 to $178,000. Upshaw said that he wants to see the veterans’ minimum at $250,000.

He said that the new figures vindicate him for the criticism he received when the cap went into effect. Many players complained that all but the superstars had been sold out. “We depended on the owners to do what they do best,” he said, “and that’s make money. This was not a hard cap, but no matter how many times we said that, nobody believed us. Now they do. It feels good to know that what they put in place is working and working good.”

Upshaw said that there will be higher revenues in the future with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers joining the NFL in 1995 and the Rams apparently moving to St. Louis.

“The Rams should increase their profits,” Upshaw said, “just with what they’ll get from concessions and parking.”