Yet here are the 2012 final team salaries New York Red Bulls - $15,814,369.46 Los Angeles Galaxy - $10,825,821.00 Toronto FC - $5,829,467.00 FC Dallas - $4,865,549.04 Vancouver Whitecaps FC - $4,551,665.00 Seattle Sounders FC - $3,789,781.00 Portland Timbers - $3,776,116.04 Chicago Fire - $3,600,214.00 Montreal Impact - $3,453,853.00 D.C. United - $3,453,679.20 Real Salt Lake - $3,206,785.04 Columbus Crew - $3,111,134.00 Colorado Rapids - $3,111,123.00 Chivas USA - $3,047,728.00 Houston Dynamo - $2,901,166.04 Sporting Kansas City - $2,893,657.00 San Jose Earthquakes - $2,878,166.29 Philadelphia Union - $2,861,006.08 New England Revolution - $2,284,905.96 New York is paying 5 times the league salary average and LA 3 times - not sure what the numbers were back in the old NASL days but I can't imagine it was much different.
The rules are in place. The league due to single entity and tight budgets on league expenditures are not exposed if a singular owner spends an additional 10 million. The league takes its cut to remain solvent prior to the owners ROI. The salary disparity is not the reason NASL went away. Bad financial management was the issue where owners had no controls in place to remain solvent and began to look to expansion fees as a means to stay in the black. Whether you have a $1 million or $100 million roster it makes no difference if you bleed money.
So the movie lied to me (I must admit I was only 10 when the league folded) . Interesting if the league got rid of the stupid playoffs and awarded soccer titles like they should it wouldn't reward LA or NYRB for spending so much. Front-office efficiency in MLS: 2012 edition - http://www.soccermetrics.net/football-business-analytics/front-office-efficiency-in-mls-2012-edition
The movies "Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos" called it keeping up with the Cosmos where teams to compete with the Cosmos on the field had to bring in players which they couldn't afford so the league went bust. The "MLS System" was adopted to prevent this from happening again. So now we don't have this problem because the league at least salaries wise is rigged
The difference is that the least-financially-healthy MLS team is still far, far healthier than all but the three or four healthiest NASL teams ever were.
I don't get it. The "NASL Scenario" is a defunct league. Did MLS suddenly go out of business? Because last I checked they are the healthiest league at the 17 year point of any league in the history of North American sports. So what am I missing?
If the high spending teams continue to win then the owners will end the DP rule. How many teams will vote to re-up the DP if they can't compete with the LA/RB's. I think everything changes when LA is sold IMHO. I don't think they will continue to spend anywhere near current rates. Everyone needs to just have patience with the DP rule and allow it to evolve. The DP rule has elevated the league to unbelievable heights, so I'll deal with the scales tipped to those who risk millions on soccer in the US.
How about another scenario. First we had 1 DP, then 2 and now 3. And don't we still have some teams who have not used all their "slots"? Who is to say in another couple years after SJ, maybe NYC2 and maybe even DC and NE move into SSS and some of the teams that have struggled with attendance increase, that the league then says you can have 4 DP's. Then in another 3-4 years, 5 DP's etc. If the rules are the same for everyone, there will still probably me some teams who don't go out and use all the DP's. Do you then blame or penalize the teams that did go out and get all the DP's? My other concern is we seem to have (and correct me if I am wrong), more foreign DP's than US/Canada born DP's ? If we don't make sure we have domestic DP's, we will forever have a stream of US/Canada players going to Europe for the $$ and in reverse, foreign players coming here to be DP's ! Just all seems kind of backwards.
Anyone else look at those salaries and think, "Holy crap, three of the four teams we're sending to next year's Champions League are in the bottom quarter salary-wise"? I think that says a lot for our league offering strong sides without requiring massive payrolls and potentially dangerous debt.
=== I have no problem with this at all. The only concern is while these squads are good enough to win the MLS, are they good or deep enough to win CCL ? I hope the DP's stay capped at 3 and the team budget "caps" move up a bit each year. I would rather have the money spent on making deeper rosters to complete in league play, USOC, MLS CUp, friendlies, in addition to CCL. We are not at this point yet. If the DP's are used right to get more people to the stadium and fill the seats, great. But the rest of the team needs attention also. - So MLS is sending 3 lower budget tier teams. They have a team to look up to in doing more with less- Montreal Impact a few years back from USL made it to the Semi's of CCL. Not sure what their budget was- would be interesting to know for comparison.
MLS has clearly avoided the "NASL scenario," whatever that is. The league hasn't had a team fold in 11 years. It's only moved one since then, and the moved team was reincarnated a few years late. New York and Los Angeles have significantly higher salaries, but the league remains exceptionally balanced competitively. If a few teams see a financial benefit in paying out higher salaries for a few marquee players, I don't think that's such a big deal. MLS has been an extraordinarily stable league, and the rule changes that have allowed the current scenario have developed slowly over time, with the consent of the majority of the owners. What do you think are the odds that MLS folds in the next 5 or 10 years? I think they're very slim, and I think that's a sign that the league has been extraordinarily successful at avoiding the NASL scenario.
NASL died after 18 seasons. (1967-84) MLS is about to start its 18th season and is not likely to die after the 2013 season. So yes, MLS rules have prevented the "NASL scenario."
So you agree that the Galaxy's DP spending probably wasn't a factor in either situation, right? Not to mention that NYRB's spending has given them... JACK SQUAT! I think you've got a pretty unhealthy premise there...