Section 7. Four-Year Player Qualifying Contract
(a)
For purposes of this Article, a “Four-Year Qualifying Player” shall be defined as a player with four or more Credited Seasons whose contract with a Club has expired after four or more years of continuous, uninterrupted service with that Club (i.e., the player must have been under contract to that Club and on that Club’s 90-player roster for the immediately prior four or more consecutive League Years without interruption prior to the contract’s expiration. For the purposes of determining whether a player qualifies as a Four-Year Qualifying Player in accordance with the immediately preceding sentence, a player must have been on the Club’s 90-player roster for every regular season and postseason game in which the Club participated during each of the four consecutive League Years.) Such a player may sign a Four-Year Qualifying Contract, which shall be defined as a Player Contract that covers only a single League Year and contains a Paragraph 5 Salary for up to $1.25 million more than the applicable minimum Active/Inactive List Salary for a player with the Four-Year Qualifying Player’s number of Credited Seasons for the 202021 League Years and, in the case of a split contract, for up to $1.25 million more than the applicable minimum non-Active/Inactive List Salary for a player with the four-year Qualifying Player’s number of Credited Seasons for the 2020-21 League Years. In any League Year, a Club may sign a maximum of two Four-Year Qualifying Players to Four-Year Qualifying Contracts; provided, however, that the combined amount by which the players’ respective Paragraph 5 Salaries may exceed the players’ respective minimum Active/Inactive List salaries or, in the case of a split contract, the players’ respective minimum nonActive/Inactive List salaries, shall be limited to a total of $1.25 million. For example, without limitation to other examples, in the 2020 League Year, a Club may sign one player for $1.0 million more than his applicable Minimum Salary and a second player for $250,000 more than his applicable Minimum Salary. In the case of a split contract, under no circumstances may the difference between the player’s stated “down” amount and the Minimum Salary for a player not on Club’s Active/Inactive List be greater than the difference between the player’s stated “up” amount and the Minimum Salary for a player on Club’s Active/Inactive List. A Four-Year Qualifying Player Contract must be so designated at the time of signing. A Four-Year Qualifying Player shall be eligible to receive Additional Compensation subject to the terms and conditions of Sections 2 and 3 of this Article; provided, however, that such a player may receive a guarantee for salary and/or salary advance of up to the Four-Year Qualifying Player’s stated Paragraph 5 Salary. A Four-Year Qualifying Player Contract may not be extended or renegotiated in any manner except as provided in Section 11 below.
(b)
The maximum combined amount by which a Club’s two Four-Year Qualifying Players’ respective Paragraph 5 Salaries may exceed the players’ respective minimum Active/Inactive List Salaries or, in the case of a split contract, the players’ respective minimum non-Active/Inactive List Salaries shall be increased to $1.35 million for the 2022-23 League Years; $1.45 million for the 2024-25 League Years; $1.55 million for the 2026-27 League Years; $1.65 million for the 2028-29 League Years; and $1.75 million for the 2030 League Year.