The National Basketball Association announced Tuesday that the Salary Cap for the 2009-10 season will be $57.7 million. The tax level for the 2009-10 season has been set at $69.92 million. Any team whose team salary exceeds that figure will pay a $1 tax for each $1 by which it exceeds $69.92 million.

The 2008-09 Salary Cap was $58.68 million and the tax level was $71.15 million. Although league-wide revenue increased 2.5% this past season, the decrease in the Salary Cap and tax level for the 2009-10 season is the result of the formula used to set the Cap and tax under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

It is the first time that the Cap has decreased in the league since the 2002-03 season.

The new Salary Cap and tax level went into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday, July 8, when the league’s “moratorium period” ended and teams can begin signing free agents and making trades.

The mid-level exception is $5.854 million for the 2009-10 season and the minimum team salary, which is set at 75 percent of the Salary Cap, is $43.275 million.

In related news, Marc Stien of ESPN reports that not only does the league see a decline in the Salary Cap this coming season, but the 2010-11 season. As reported:

In a memo announcing next season's salary cap and luxury-tax threshold, sent out shortly before the league's annual July moratorium on signings and trades was lifted at 12:01 a.m. ET Wednesday, NBA teams also received tentative projections from the league warning that the cap is estimated to drop to somewhere between $50.4 million and $53.6 million for the 2010-11 season.

The official league memorandum, obtained by ESPN.com, forecasts a dip in basketball-related income in the 2009-10 season of 2.5 percent to 5 percent, which threatens to take the 2010-11 cap down some $5 million to $8 million from last season's $58.7 million salary cap.

A significant drop for the luxury-tax threshold is also projected going into the summer of 2010. If basketball-related income drops by 2.5 percent in 2009-10, league officials are projecting a 2010-11 salary cap of $53.6 million and a luxury-tax line of $65 million.

If BRI, as it is referred to in the NBA, decreases by 5 percent, teams would be looking at a $50.4 million salary cap and a luxury-tax line of $61.2 million in 2010-11.

News of the projected drop for the 2010-11 season immediatly raised serious concerns by the NBAPA

"A memo of this nature can have a chilling effect on the market for free agent and rookie signings," executive director Billy Hunter said through a spokesman. "If it later turns out that the league did not have a good faith basis for making these projections, the NBPA will pursue all available legal remedies, including a treble damages claim for collusion."

With the release of the Salary Cap information for the 2009-10 season, The Biz of Basketball has collected historical data for each year under the Salary Cap in the NBA. Below is the Salary Cap data, both in table and graphical format:

Source: National Basketball Association