Get the balance right

In order to strengthen the uncertainty of outcome, sporting contests require competitive balance. There are several ways to achieve this balance including a player draft system, salary caps, wage to turnover ratio caps and so on. The aim of such measures is to equalise the participants taking part in a contest. Could such measures ever work in, say, football or Formula One motor racing? Do they need to, do we actually need them? Can non-US sports learn anything from the interventionist approaches of US sports and their governing federations? Are there new and different ways of creating effective balance? Could there be a generic approach that will work for all sports, or will different measures be needed according to the degree of imbalance that exists in different sports?