We prove that for all $$n\in {\mathbb {N}}$$
n
∈
N
, there exists a constant $$C_{n}$$
C
n
such that for all $$d \in {\mathbb {N}}$$
d
∈
N
, for every row contraction T consisting of d commuting $$n \times n$$
n
×
n
matrices and every polynomial p, the following inequality holds: $$\begin{aligned} \Vert p(T)\Vert \le C_{n} \sup _{z \in {\mathbb {B}}_d} |p(z)| . \end{aligned}$$
‖
p
(
T
)
‖
≤
C
n
sup
z
∈
B
d
|
p
(
z
)
|
.
We apply this result and the considerations involved in the proof to several open problems from the pertinent literature. First, we show that Gleason’s problem cannot be solved contractively in $$H^\infty ({\mathbb {B}}_d)$$
H
∞
(
B
d
)
for $$d \ge 2$$
d
≥
2
. Second, we prove that the multiplier algebra $${{\,\mathrm{Mult}\,}}({\mathcal {D}}_a({\mathbb {B}}_d))$$
Mult
(
D
a
(
B
d
)
)
of the weighted Dirichlet space $${\mathcal {D}}_a({\mathbb {B}}_d)$$
D
a
(
B
d
)
on the ball is not topologically subhomogeneous when $$d \ge 2$$
d
≥
2
and $$a \in (0,d)$$
a
∈
(
0
,
d
)
. In fact, we determine all the bounded finite dimensional representations of the norm closed subalgebra $$A({\mathcal {D}}_a({\mathbb {B}}_d))$$
A
(
D
a
(
B
d
)
)
of $${{\,\mathrm{Mult}\,}}({\mathcal {D}}_a({\mathbb {B}}_d))$$
Mult
(
D
a
(
B
d
)
)
generated by polynomials. Lastly, we also show that there exists a uniformly bounded nc holomorphic function on the free commutative ball $$\mathfrak {C}\mathfrak {B}_d$$
C
B
d
that is levelwise uniformly continuous but not globally uniformly continuous.