Dempsey? How much money has he made so far for his 400 minutes of game time and 0 goals, 0 assists stat sheet? JLA has better numbers than he does..... >_>
It would be wonderful/transformative to have him in Chicago, however I think the transfer fee that Man United would be looking for would put off any MLS suitor at this point in the leagues lifescycle. Looking at Chicago in particular, putting aside the "would he be willing to sign with MLS" question, we have the following questions: How much would Andell be willing to lose up front to possibly increase the value of the team down the road? Would MLS be willing to chip in for a transfer fee like they did for Seattle? And how much of his salary/transfer fee could be covered directly by increased revenue during his stay? Bad math follows. If anyone has better numbers, please correct me (and I apologize in advance for the speculative nature of this). It's impossible to know, but Chicharito could cost about 7-8 million USD a year in salary plus a transfer fee near 30 million USD.(www.transfermarkt.co.uk has his transfer value listed at 19.5 million pounds, and various sources put his salary near 3.9 million pounds a year). For the sake of conversation, let's say the out of pocket cost to the team is 54 million to sign him for 3 complete seasons (or 18 million a year) if the Don does not dip into league funds to cover part of the transfer fee. Tickets - There were, on average, 5000 seats unsold this year for each game at Toyota Park this year. It's unlikely that we would sell out every game even after signing Javier, simply because of weather/location/etc considerations, but I'd bet we'd come closer than we've had recently. I don't know how much revenue the team makes on each ticket, and don't know how to determine what price level of tickets remain unsold, but let's say it's $40 to the Fire per seat, again for the sake of conversation. So - 5000 x 40 x 17 regular MLS season games would be an additional $3.4 million a year, or $10.2 million over the 3 year contract. Broadcast Rights - It would be a lot easier to sell local broadcast rights with a marquee name, but I don't think they'd come close to a Galaxy type deal because the groundwork and audience is not there. I figure $2.5 million a year for 3 years would be a high estimate, for $7.5 million over the course of the 3 year contract. Shirt Sponsorship - I think the Quaker Deal is worth $2.6 million a year, and runs thru the end of 2014. A wild guess but maybe with Chicharito on board, they would extend the deal for two additional years at five per year, for an additional 4.8 million. Merch/Lesser Sponsorships/Other revenue - No way to judge. Lets say an additional 5 million over the course of the contract for giggles? So I see a $54 million line item being partially covered by $27.5 million in expected increased revenue. The Don would have to chip in 3x the cost of Clint's transfer fee to make this revenue neutral for Andell, and I don't think that would happen. The intrinsic value of having Javier Hernandez on this team in this market would be huge, but 26.5 million is a big investment with only intrinsic returns. There is also a large an element of risk involved - we would have put all the eggs in one basket for 3 years. The $$$ numbers at other clubs are likely similar to a certain extent - as long as the transfer fee is as big as it looks, I don't think this is a deal that would pay for itself in increased revenue in any market.
The audience is there. But as we learned with Blanco (or should know by now), the marketing/exploitation wasn't, really. The FO seemed to be content with saying "we have Blanco" and sitting back waiting for people to come in, allowing the press to give the Club the marketing and exploitation for free. On top of that, if we do not field a team that would be competitive without him, all that he would do is put us in the playoffs at best, as is what happened with Blanco and, so far, Magee/Rios. The DP should be the guy who brings good teams titles, not just be the guy that makes a team good. I fear that we would have a repeat of the Blanco years if we brought in Hernandez.
NO WAY....Andy only goes after unknown players that play in third division leagues. and He's cheap.................. #HauptmanOut
Chicharito isn't in the same universe as Ronaldinho or Kaka but his marketing value would be 10 times higher than Blanco's ever was. TP would easily sell out with him but like we all know...he ain't gonna run the show. CAM has to be priority #1 next season. You wanna run a 442 with Magee and Chicharito? Fine by me but get a ********ing wizard in first or shortly after.
Is it to late the get Mila? ----Magee-------------Chicharito---- ---------------Mila--------------------- --Duka-----------------------Nyarko-- -----------------Rios-------------------- #HauptmanOut
Sorry, but the Mexico/Panama game is starting and Chicharito is on his knees praying like I have never seen a player pray before a game. Someone with that little faith in his own ability that he has to plead for "divine intervention" is not someone I want on the team. Really, he would be awesome for the Fire, but it would not happen. He did say last week that he might have to leave Manchester United to get regular first team play, but he would be better in Spain (Atletico or Valencia would be good choices), Holland, or back in Mexico. He is too valuable to Mexico for him to go to MLS. He is only 25 and is already in third place all time in goal scoring for Mexico.
it would take an offer as big as what the league gave to Drogba ($10m+ a year) in my opinion, and that's just stupid money. And that doesn't even factor in the transfer fee. Yes Chicharito would tear up the league, but I'm not sure how that would make financial sense.
>How much would Andell be willing to lose up front to possibly increase the value of the team down the road? $1 x 10^-5 dollars
Huh! So you mean..Andy goes out, sneaks in with his wife's dress on and goes trick n treating on us ? Sorry NO deal