One of the primary reasons for maintaining the softcap has been to allow smaller market teams to hold onto star players who might otherwise leave for a bigger contract.
The softcap in the NBA is more conducive to parity in terms of the ability to win championships because while it helps to level the free-agent market, it also allows teams with larger budgets the ability to maintain good teams instead of forcing them to let a player go.
Hagel has a third proposal, one that would place limits on soft-money contributions and would raise the cap on how much donors could contribute to candidates.