Some MLS players?
Random weekend googling led me to discover that the MLS Players Union has released the 2011 MLS salaries recently (PDF Warning). (I know it was recently because just a few weeks ago I was looking for the information on the MLSPU’s website and it wasn’t up yet.) Even though the league and players entered into a new collective bargaining agreement last year supposedly more beneficial to the players, it is shocking to see that Freddie Braun with the Timbers is making $32,600.04 this year as a professional athlete in the top level of a sport.
That four cents is really going to make the difference for him though.
Seven players are making over a million dollars a year headed by David Beckham in LA with Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez in NY. The gap between Marquez and the next highest player is quite stark. The former Barcelona defender’s salary is double that of Landon Donovan–the league’s marquee player in terms of talent but not necessarily marquee in selling jerseys.
Obviously the salaries pale in comparison to many leagues around the world, particularly Europe, but they also demonstrate the need for MLS to focus even greater on developing talent. The league needs some big names to help sell tickets and sponsorships to be competitive in the US sports market. Rafa Marquez and David Beckham will not make the league better just more marketable. The league’s lifeblood is the players it develops because they cannot afford to buy ready made talent. This makes the re-emergence of the reserve squads under the new CBA that much more important.
In a few years time the clubs that take advantage of the reserve squads, foster development of the players, and invest in scouting will likely see great returns. Sure LA and NY will still have the cash to buy the top players but the rest of the squad will not be up to snuff if they do not invest in player development.
*I wish the data was available in a spreadsheet to tease out additional information regarding median salaries, individual team salaries and the like. So, if anybody can provide that for us it would be greatly appreciated.
What email should I send the spreadsheet to?
I make more money than lots of MLS players! Ego boost complete!
@dan: thefansattic [at] gmail [dot] com ; thanks. that’s great.
@JT: yeah, it strokes your ego but i think it adds to the romanticism of it as well.
What does everybody think of each MLS team becoming a “farm team” for the “major league” teams in Europe/Mexico (in the case of Chivas) as an alternative to the MLS franchise ownership model ? /Nomex status: On
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Here’s my thought (very simplified): there are a number of regional ice hockey leagues, with teams that are independently owned. They have their own season, own championship, etc. These teams can choose to affiliate with the NHL teams. Affiliations can also change (i.e., the minor league ownership can decide to affiliate with another NHL club and an NHL club can drop one of its minor league affiliates).
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Re: relevance, I was thinking that this may result in greater investment by the parent club in the affiliate and higher salaries for the players. For example, the Arsenal/Kroenke connection with the Rapids. This “affiliation” results from overlapping ownership, but is the most obvious example, I think. It may result in more exposure for Rapids players to loan moves in England (although maybe not if Arsene doesn’t like them stylistically.) Play style/philosophy would patterned on the parent club and may result in more technical skill development as well. Another example (just to use recent history), Everton and LA (on the back of the Landon loan). Moyes liked Landon, looks to create affiliation and have access to additional LA players for loan moves…
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Don’t know if this has been discussed before
/toolazytosearch
Rooney’s little brother makes $58K. I wonder who covers the tab when they have dinner in downtown NY? Hmmm…
@wedel: i think it would be difficult to allow this with the system devised by MLS to ensure a significant amount of parity between clubs. it would be tough to have one club aligned with barcelona and another with everton as far as the equities are concerned.
@TFA: I hadn’t thought of it that way (i.e., comparison of wealth of respective parent clubs), as I was simply thinking that the Euro/Mex clubs would be in position to invest comparably greater amounts than the MLS corporate body was investing in each team currently. Also, since they were investing in a potential pipeline, they would be more motivated to do so than the MLS simply seeking to maintain parity.
@Wedel: I guess I was looking at as a way for those clubs to ship players to MLS for further development like what Barcelona was maybe going to do with a Florida club. Going the other way you would think that a club would have to prove that it is able to scout and develop talent for these European clubs. I just don’t think MLS could prove itself worthy of that right now.
Really wish we could stop talking about MLS in terms of a farm system for top Euro clubs. This is our top level of American soccer. And while I understand the economics of the Euro clubs, awash in cash and debt, being able to lure away some of our top talent, I think there will come a day when most of our top Yanks can have financially productive professional careers here it home. MLS can stand on it’s own two feet as evidence by the recent successes (on and off the pitch) of clubs like RSL, Seattle, Philly, Portland, and Toronto.
@TFA: I don’t follow MLS enough to know if they have that capability – you have just provided actual insight to me (and for free)! Thanks :-)
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I had two reasons for proposing the concept.
*The first is that I will not simply adopt an MSL team, whether because of a likable player or proximity. I would however instantly and firmly align with an MLS team that had a minor league affiliation with United. Wears the colors, shares badging, derivative name, etc.
*Second, and related to your point, I would think that the major leagues worldwide would want to gain a toehold in the American market even if they felt they had to staff it with their own scouts. You always hear that if our best athletes stayed with soccer instead of dropping out for the big money sports here, we’d be better internationally. Wouldn’t aligning our clubs with the major clubs spur investment more than parity in a off-season league? Kids think, hey, I could get a trial/schoolboy papers with XYZ club in the motherland if I do well at the local club.
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Just thinking out loud …
@RFCSean: I saw your comment after mine (I didn’t refresh). My point isn’t to knock on our league at all. I just disagree with business model that the MLS has set up. FWIW, I don’t the like franchise model in any of our American/Canadian sports. I really hate contrived parity.
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I cannot manufacture allegiance to an MLS club simply because it is near me. As stated though, I would instantly bond with a club that was linked to United.
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Lastly, the quality of play in the MLS is inferior to the major leagues. I don’t think of this as a knock, just a fact, as expected given its relative newcomer status as a league. In terms of developing the talent, I think it makes sense to not re-invent the wheel and borrow the institutional knowledge of the more developed leagues as a method of improving play, developing American players and improving salaries (if this last part indeed follows, as I am assuming here).
The Chivas USA – Chivas Guadalajara partnership doesn’t seem to producing the results you would predict from your model.
Also to your point about borrowing the institutional knowledge of more developed leagues in developing players, teams are already beginning to do that, and their academies are already beginning to produce players.
@Ryan: I read something about the particularities of the California-American/Mexican rivalries meant that “real” Chivas fans didn’t support the American version. I could be wildly off-base with that recollection however.
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That said, how closely are they integrated? Is it a true affiliation or just a branding exercise? Do they share training and scouting staff?
@Wedel: No offense taken. What I think is a critical point here is that MLS, like the NFL, MLB and NHL are American sports leagues with structures very different from the club models of Europe. Each model works for their intended audience.
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I will be the first to admit that the level of play in MLS is not at the level of the EPL, La Liga or Serie A. I get it. But there’s nothing as much fun as going down to see the Union play at PPL Park and sing and chant to my hearts delight while supporting my local team. I can’t get that same experience following my favorite club, Reading FC, on a laptop thousands of miles from the game. Someday, I’d love to experience a game at the Mad Stad or another of England’s historic grounds. For now, you’ll find me at PPL Park on Wednesday night cheering on Le Toux and Mwanga and letting Davey Becks now how much of a wanker I think he really is.
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As far as improving play, MLS has made great strides in improving the product on the field. Take two hours out of your day and watch an MLS game. If you can, watch a replay of the Galaxy-Red Bulls match. It was highly entertaining, packed with plenty of intrigue. On the player development subject, Jurgen Klinsmann made a very enlightening observation about youth development after the Nats’ exit from the World Cup. Here it is: “This is the only country in the world that has the pyramid upside down. You pay for having your kid play soccer,” he said. “Because your goal is not to have your kid become a professional soccer player, your goal is that your kid gets a scholarship in college, which is complete opposite rest of the world.” He nailed it, but still things are changing. Many of the MLS teams have their own academies, and are a cultivating talent in-house. All of this will take time, but IMO, we don’t need Europeans to make American player development better.
@Ryan: Produce players that can play in Europe or the States? When we have more Deuces and Holdens and McBrides, we will be more a threat internationally, no? Until such time as we regularly produce players that can compete at the top club level, I think we are stuck in the plucky underdog role of international competition.
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There was a post here on UF about how the MLS was roughly equivalent with somewhere between high-League 1 and low-Colaship IIRC. Great, but what if instead (or in addition to) of loaning kids to League 1 or Cola, they played in the American Reserves. Wouldn’t our boys benefit from playing with and against the best youngsters from the big clubs?
@RFCSean: Timbers Win!
@RFCSean: Good points all and I should clarify that I often watch the MLS, but don’t follow it or one club. You’re right; some games are fantastic affairs and others are dreck (just like every other league).
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I guess I’m wondering if the MLS will ever become a “major league” or will it remain relegated to the European off-season, which is completely fine – like I said, I’m kind of a disinterested observer here as I don’t have a particular team. But if the goal is to continue to move the league and American soccer forward, I think stealing a page (and some players) from the Euros would jumpstart the development process.
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Appreciate your thoughts and respect your position that we can do it on our own.
@TFA: Bite me!!!
@RFCSean: ha. was a good game though. Union despite their park the bus tactics for the first 60-65 minutes made a run at it. several good chances but couldn’t get it over the line.
@TFA: Great atmosphere at the Timbers’ home pitch. Timber Joey is a crazy ass gimmick, very cool, just not when the Union are in town. Timber Army is the second best supporters group in MLS, after the SoBs of course.
@Wedel: It’s far to early to tell on whether they’ll be able to play in Europe, because the programs are just starting to churn out their first batch of players right now. I have no doubts that someone like Andy Najar (DC Academy product) will be able to play in Europe, should he so choose. Same with Juan Agudelo (Red Bulls Academy product).
@RFCSean: Not sure Timber Joey is a gimmick. His predecessor, Timber Jim, was around in the NASL days, and was simply a fan that the team co-opted.
@RFCSean: oh, and you are wrong Timbers have the best fans in MLS. Second to none.
Juan Diego Gonzalez making $200K = the MLS version of Eddy Curry
The designated player thing definitely needs some tinkering. Let’s face it, no big name player is ever going to Colorado, or San Jose, or even Philly. The worst thing MLS can be doing is alienating fans who are already fans by catering to the theoretical fans they’ll get in LA/NY. Plus, there’s no way Beckham is worth his salary, or Henry worth his. I hope someday the league realizes the folly in going for star power over substance. It’ll buy some attention from ESPN and the fakes, but it’s not in any way sustainable.
also, @RFC: OOOOOOOHHHHHH BECKHAM’S A WANKER
You could totally build a pretty good team for under $1 mil. Hence why MLS is still around: Don’t need to make a huge amount of money to pay a mil in salaries, at least, not a huge amount of money for a sport.
Median salaries, team salaries and such.
http://www.matchfitusa.com/2011/05/by-numbers-mls-2011-salaries.html