The salary cap only makes up a small portion of what a team could spend. LA and NY are around $14m in salary this year compared to the $2.8M salary cap That being said, I don't really buy that MLS, in just ten years, can generate the revenue needed to become one of the top leagues.
I found the paragraph below to be the only truly ridiculous portion of the interview. Is YSA stupid and played out? Of course. Has Garber ever sat behind goal in any European country? Evidently not. Do whole Mexican families down to toddlers shout "p*to" at El Tri friendlies in major U.S. stadiums? Yes. What's hilarious about this is how much profanity comes from coaches and assistants toward 4th officials on a regular basis--I literally can't count the number of times I've heard a mic pick up "you gotta be f*cking kidding me" coming from an MLS bench out onto live TV. Is Garber going to "correct" that, too? "I was sitting on the sidelines at a San Jose game with [coach] Frank Yallop's wife when supporters were using profanity against the Galaxy and Josh Saunders, and she turned to me and apologized and said she and Frank were trying to work with supporters to eliminate that. I was sitting in an on-field box next to a young family, and the dad turned around to me and said, do you think Commissioner this is the right kind of language for my 8-, 12- and 15-year-old kids? And I could say nothing other than no. We've got to try to find a way to correct that. It wouldn't be tolerated in any other stadium in any other sport -- and frankly not tolerated in most European countries, either."
If MLS has decided to follow a Harvard Business School Plan, then it may be time to start wagering on when exactly the league will collapse.
Garber has been great on the business end of things, but he really doesn't understand the soccer fan's perspective. In this same interview, he argues for instant replay in the case of ANY disputed call by a ref, which would kill the pacing of the only freeflowing major sport that isn't yet riddled with constant time outs and commercial breaks. It's a trade off to have to deal with a bad call every now and then, but it's worth it. He also denies reality and says that no other sports leagues have fans that yell profanity during games - insisting that it has to stop in MLS. Was it my imagination when the whole stadium was chanting "bull s**t" after that controversial call during the Braves - Cardinals play off game? While bigoted remarks should definitely be stamped out, some profanity every now and then is par for the course if you allow passionate fans to attend the games. Now that he's stabilized the league, let's hope that a dyed in the wool soccer fan replaces him as commish before he jumps the shark.
They should rebrand to Major Soccer League just so all those transpositions over the years would actually be correct.
Whew. Wasn't finding much reaction to his ridiculous comments on profanity elsewhere. Glad to see others feeling the same way I do.
It will be interesting to see the results they get by tapping into the supporters' culture and using that as their main focus going forward. I assume this new target demo is the 20-35 yr old male. Then from that you can expand a bit lower to those between 14-19 that may perceive supporters' sections as a cool place to be and hope to grow some young fans from there. But what do they do to catch the eye of people who don't necessarily live near an MLS team and who can only experience games on TV? The full supporters' section experience doesn't come full force over a satellite or cable. We all know sports in the US live and die by TV ratings so you need a away to get these folks as well as casuals to tune in. I guess there thinking grow and promote culture > fill stadiums > look legit on tv with full stadium + better on field play = more casual and non-local fans = higher ratings
That sounds like the same rubbish the USSF has with the tifo ban issued by Gulati, because of the YSA chant.
To answer the OP: Squad players in MLS get paid a fraction of what UK players in the Championship or Mexican league players do. Comparing overall wage bill therefore doesn't tell the story. Dane Richards is probably about to see a decent pay raise at Burnley--is he really a better player than he was a month ago? Former US international Johnny Bornstein makes 3 times more as a scrub at Tigres than he ever did as a starter in MLS. Conversely, even Robbie Keane makes much more than the top-paid players in the Mexican league like Humberto Suazo. How many guys in the Championship make $3M+/year? Or $5M+ like Thierry Henry? If MLS gets to a point in a few years where it has 4 $5M players on each team, surrounded by an underpaid supporting cast making $5M total, you could easily make the argument that those top players make the level better than the Championship, even if the overall wage bills are the same or even less in MLS.
You guys do realize this is for a magazine that millions outside of MLS scope read right?? How is he suppose to answer those questions?? "Shit happens!"??? He answers in a PC way that readers aren't frightened by. If he said "yea, there are thousands of young males running around cussing what can you do" parents reading the mag go "o no I'm not taking my kid there"
The re-branding will begin with a crusade against salty language and banners that say--"Ruin Your Life". The MLS will have ,by golly, the most polite supporters in the world.
Who watches a sporting event on tv due to the crowd? I don't think I've ever known anyone in real life who cared. OTOH, a great atmosphere does get people excited about going to the stadium. So if you're going to show a game, show one in a packed stadium so people will come to the games to experience the energy firsthand.
I enjoy a lively crowd when I watch on tv. Atmosphere means a lot to me as a viewer. Watching a dead or empty stadium in any sport lessons the viewing experience for me.
You are confusing the web site with the magazine. This was for the Internet only. Maybe a tiny portion of this makes the mag as a side bar at best assuming there is even an article on the final. Even then the side bar would likely be on Becks. This was in the Planet Futbol section of the web site and 99% of the readers are soccer fans.
Except that I don't think they were using the Championship as their bench mark. Remember, we're talking about turning MLS into one of the top leagues in the world. Look what he's saying: They expect to have quality comparable to the other top leagues in nine years time. And not just a couple super clubs, oh no, they want to achieve those goals "with an enterprise that is valuable for all." In other words, a league of quality clubs. And where does this money come from? Even in your example, they need to boost payroll spending over $20 million a team. We're talking about a league where every owner will shell out more money than RBNY and LA now do. By 2022? I'm sorry, they better check the furnace at MLS HQ because the fumes are getting to these guys.
But you can bet that if he said that there was nothing he could do about the swearing, that would make the magazine. Hell, it'd probably be the headline used by anyone linking to the website: Major League Soccer's commissioner says swearing is the way of life in the league!
I know it is good to set goals, even ones that seem somewhat difficult to achieve but this really does seem like an impossibility.
I haven't read the interview yet - will do so tomorrow when I have more time. But Garber actually said that about YSA? I guess he isn't aware that the German version is "Arschloch, Wichser, Hurensohn" - and while it's kind of played out, you still hear it fairly often. YSA is like the Kindergarten version of that. I can't even imagine the kind of stuff you hear in the stands at Serie A. Would probably give The Don a heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack.
Care to elaborate? I can think of any number of sites which would use such tactics to generate page views. Hell, it is done already with tons of other things. I'm not referring to SI.com doing that, just tons of other sites which people pay attention to.
Well maybe he was under valued before, now you do have a point that because of foreign player limits around the world comparing wages to wages is not very accurate across countries, in free spending countries with small allotment of international players, local players wages will be inflated, in MLS with a cap that drives down the salary of the local players. But in the international market would a 2M Argentinian player be better than a 300K Argentinian player? sometimes yes, sometimes no, so in that sense being able to pay multiple International players more than a million USD would usually mean a better opportunity to get a very good player compared to being limited to 3 players (some will also be hit or miss) and a bunch of lesser valued international players. But the 8+ International player rule does help MLS, even if they are cheap South American/non EU players. And Gomez as a sub makes a lot more in Liga MX than Wondo in MLS, is Gomez really that mush better than Wondo? But as you know, to level the playing field and not have NYRB and LAG run away with the league, those teams are "punished" when they have to buy lesser players to fit the cap, I think that 3 DPs take up 1/3 of the Cap limit right? Maybe would 5 Top players surrounded by ok players, be better than 11 good players? Well I guess the CCL is a good place to test this theory (the only place really).
If the total wage bill is the same, you would normally expect the team that distributes that money more evenly to be stronger than the team that spends most of it's money on just a few players. That said, MLS does have some advantages. The top tax rates in the US are lower than the tax rates for rich people in the UK, meaning it is possible to pay players less but still have them take home more money. It is also a lot easier for MLS teams to recruit cheap non-EU players than it is for UK teams to do so due to UK work permit requirements. A third advantage of MLS is that there are various rules set up that prevent two teams from ever getting into a bidding war for the same player. If MLS ever gets good at player development, that would be another way to acquire quality players without spending a lot. Due to those reasons, it is possible for MLS to reach the same level as the Championship in terms of quality without matching Championship teams in terms of overall salary.