Aug 05 2008
The Superliga Final is Just the Start
One of the strange side effects about becoming a USL club supporter is that I suddenly find myself more interested in MLS — not so much because I care about on-the-field events, but because I would just love to see the entire league spectacularly self-destruct in a mushroom cloud of its own self-importance.
It’s already headed down that path with tonight’s Superliga final, which has suddenly morphed into a bargaining tactic for the MLS Players Association. Three weeks after that union ripped the league for offering players only $150,000 of the made-for-TV tournament’s million-dollar prize, the MLSPA announced yesterday that players for the New England Revolution and the Houston Dynamo, the two finalists (natch!), have decided to split the difference in prize money. So instead of winning players getting $5,400 each and losing players getting $3,600 each, everyone gets $4,500, and tonight’s game means squat.
MLS commish Don Garber has already called this move out to be negotiating ploy by the union. Of course, he’s right. It is a negotiating ploy. And you know what? It’s a pretty damn good one.
After all, who’s going to side with a league that boasts about a million-dollar tournament, then only gives the players a $150,000 share for winning it? Garber can talk all he wants about how Pachuca players got only $300,000 total for winning last year, but that’s still double what any club in MLS will give its players, and Garber acts like that $150,000 is some huge concession. He also acts like $17,700 is a reasonable yearly salary for a developmental player.
The sad thing is that Garber probably doesn’t have a clue why Kenny Cooper and Taylor Twellman would rather play in the Coca-Cola Championship right now.
There are plenty of things MLS could give the union at the bargaining table that could also improve its stature as a professional soccer league. It could dump those stupid allocation rules. It could raise the salary cap. It could increase minimum salaries. It could give developmental players a living wage; as I’ve said before, those $17,700 contracts are the reason Matt Kassel and Martin Nunez aren’t Red Bulls right now.
I suspect, however, that MLS owners will be happy to keep things just as they are, which should result in a wonderfully ugly public negotiation and, if we’re really lucky, a players strike and a mass exodus to Europe. And all the while, USL clubs will keep poaching CONCACAF Champions League spots from MLS. The Montreal Impact got one. The Charleston Battery could get another if they win the U.S. Open Cup. I hope they do. Really, this couldn’t happen to a nicer league.
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“I would just love to see the entire league spectacularly self-destruct in a mushroom cloud of its own self-importance”
Bite your tongue, Dave. I’m older than you. I went through the NASL collapse. It was f_cking painful. We are not going to put American soccer through that EVER again.
MLS is set up the way it is for a reason. I want to see MLS players make more money, but it can only happen slowly as MLS itself makes more money. We’re headed in the right direction but these things will take time.
As for a mass exodus to Europe, this cannot happen and you damn well know it. Only a select few are going to make the move across the pond. Sometimes in your enthusiasm you write the most utter rubbish.
No, apparently, MLS is going to put American soccer through exactly the opposite. Instead of overspending and collapsing spectacularly, it’s going to stay cheap and marginalize itself to death. And if Edson Buddle could legitimately move across the pond, anyone could.
Pay close attention to the Open Cup. The last thing MLS will want to see is the Charleston Battery in the CONCACAF Champions League. If that happens, they’ll start considering raising the salary cap, increasing roster sizes and paying developmental players a living wage. When you think about it, those are pretty small things to ask here, and they’ll go a long way toward improving the quality of play in the league without bankrupting it.
Dave, you are simply out of your depth here.
First of all, complete rubbish about your Edson Buddle comment. If anyone could legitimately move across the pond, THEY WOULD. Nothing is stopping them. I realize you are joking, but please.
Charleston Battery isn’t winning the US Open Cup. If they do it’s because either DC or NE isn’t trying to win it. Unfortunately no one really cares about the US Open Cup - and yet a non-MLS team has not won it since 1999.
All your comments about the salary cap and roster size and developmental players are well known by everyone interested in MLS and we’ve been talking about this for YEARS. You aren’t telling us anything we don’t already know.
If MLS was going to stay cheap and marginalize itself, there would never have been a Beckham rule in the first place. The fact is, MLS owners have already lost a few hundred million dollars, at the very least, over the past dozen years or so. You’re going to tell them how to spend their own money? We are ONLY NOW just beginning to get a very few MLS clubs breaking even - the vast majority still lose money, although not as much money as they were losing a few years ago.
The next CBA will see raises in the salary cap, justified by the improved economics of MLS over the past few years. This will happen. It won’t happen because the Charleston Battery are/aren’t in the CONCACAF Champions League. MLS owners aren’t stupid, they know perfectly well what they have to do to stay competitive.
I’ve been following the North American soccer scene for over thirty years. How long have you been following soccer? Things are improving; MLS isn’t stuck in its current state forever; the situation is dynamic and things are changing constantly - mostly for the better. Stop acting like an impatient five year old child. Sheesh!
First of all, complete rubbish about your Edson Buddle comment. If anyone could legitimately move across the pond, THEY WOULD. Nothing is stopping them.
Tell that to Taylor Twellman. The look he gave Robert Kraft last night was about as dagger-filled as the looks my ex-girlfriend would give me when she was PMSing.
Did you also notice how the Revs donned Dynamo jerseys after the game in a show of unity, or how fast Steve Ralston got off the podium after collecting the trophy? This next CBA negotiation is already turning ugly, and if I keep repeating why, it’s because people need to be reminded — and because it gives me another outlet for schadenfreude beyond the Baltimore Ravens. I don’t think MLS cares about staying competitive as much as they care about selling you a David Beckham jersey.
Oh, and lest we forget, FC Dallas 1-3 Charleston Battery. Don’t discount the USL side yet.