I meant what I said and I said what I meant. MLS will be a top league in the World by 2022 one-hund

Didn't MLS just register the net address?

 

The Portsmouth players that went months without their wages would kindly like you to get a grip on reality.

 

I think it's fair to say that the current MLS is one of the most stable leagues in the world. Here's a better metric than bankruptcy. When has an MLS player not been paid his salary on time?

 

Hell, even during Contraction people still got paid on time. Or, I should say no one ever came out and said they didn't get paid.

 

That is the plus if having "one owner" paying all the players, the only issue MLS could face is if one owner/operators has financial issues and is not able to make his cash call to MLS HQ, I assume MLS would pay all the salaries regardless and then threaten the owner/operator with losing his franchise agreement and having the league take over the day to day operations of the team (like the NHL and NBA have done for some teams, buying out the investors).

 

Isn't that essentially what happened with Horowitz and the Miami Fusion?

 

Ain't much of a salary, however.

 

Well total for the 19 teams wage bill is pretty decent; more than say Honduras and Indonesia where some clubs are having issues.

I believe that at least the top 18/20 players per team get paid by the league (not sure how the DP payments work legally, probably the operator pays the League and the League pays the player), so MLS HQ salary payment is around 70 million per year if I remember correctly.

I think so, not sure about the details behind Tampa and Miami.

 

As compared to the very top leagues, yes. However, MLS pays quite well compared to some very established and talented leagues in South America. The highest paid Chilean player gets 34k a month, the highest paid Colombian 56k a month. Riquelme, the highest paid in Argentina, got 1.25 million last year. There are differences in those lists, for instance the second best paid Colombian actually earned 30% percent less, while in Argentina there are quite a few players close in salary to Riquelme. I couldn't get much of a list of lowest salaries. I only found that in Colombia there are professional first division players being paid as low as 600 a month. The highest monthly club wage bill in Chile is 440k. So looking at that list you've got to think that MLS would be an attractive destination to those players.

 

Hell, there are leagues in Europe that have lower wage bills than MLS. Last time ESPN surveyed team wages, there were La Liga teams with lower average salaries than the Galaxy, and even if you leave the cap-busting Galaxy and Red Bulls out of the equation, threre's not much of a gap between MLS and the SPL. I don't know what player wages are like in Belgium, or Cyprus, or Estonia, or the Allsvenskan, but I'm guessing they're closer to Scotland than they are to England.

 

5,280,000.00

That is just above the average MLS payroll, no wonder many Colombian players go abroad to Mexico and MLS.

 

http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2012/5/30/3050995/mls-player-salary-analysis-2012

I'm sure there's plenty of people that would be happy with these numbers.

 

I remember a while ago, before many of you joined, there was a gentleman (he doesn't post often these days if at all) who was deemed anti-Bobby Convey because he was flummoxed about interest in him from clubs like Tottenham and then not impressed with Bobby's eventual transfer to Reading.

Another poster wrote in reply, "You're just jealous 'cos Bobby at ~ $400K/Y will be making more than you".

The "anti-Bobby" poster then replied back, "Eh, he won't be". (and he was telling the truth too)

In any case, the "mean" - 50% players make more/50% make less - wage in MLS is/was under $100K, which is about a League Two/Regional Liga (4th Tier) in England or Germany.

Ho-hum.

Top wages in Belgium are ~ $2M/Y at clubs like Anderlecht but there are obviously no DP's, so an average pay is closer to $300K-$400K or so.

It's about $200K in Sweden, ~ $500K in the Netherlands, $2.5M in the EPL.

That is correct.

However, let's consider the economic wealth data.

GDP per capita/nominal CIA -

US - $48,400.

Chile - $14,400

Brazil - $12,400

Mexico - $10,400

Argentina - $10,400

Costa Rica - $8,700

Colombia - $7,200

Peru - $6,000

El Salvador - $3,700

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

 

It's 90K when the outliers are excluded (both top and bottom). It's 162K when they are included.

The median for the US is 50K
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/us/us-incomes-dropped-last-year-census-bureau-says.html?_r=0

Even taking the adjusted number, your damn near double your money in the MLS.

Ho-hum.

 

Double whose money?

If it wasn't for the poorer European nations/leagues protecting their home grown - and in part to the Latinization of the US - MLS would struggle badly in the $50K-$250K African/South American labor market too. Recently, however, Sweden and Norway joined Belgium in virtually abandoning the non-EU rules and are giving MLS a serious run for both the Africans and the top US prospects.

 

I realize that you were presumably trying to "prove" leg_breaker wrong, but in terms of comparing the stability of the English model versus the US model, it doesn't prove a darned thing without comparing the number of lower division US teams that have disappeared or reorganized under Chapter 11 etc. After all, none of your listed teams have played above the third level in modern history.

How is this comparison even remotely relevant given the four teams that have gone bankrupt in England?

Three of that list got into financial difficulties largely because of stadium construction debts. It must be nice having local taxpayers to fleece for your stadium.

 

Or you could actually try living in those countries (like I have) and see how far your money goes in getting a good standard of living. For your info, Bogota is 25% cheaper than Seattle. Not much of a difference. You also won't be surrounded by masses of desperately poor people some of whom may well consider murder to get a bit of cash.

So in essence, living in a stable country where you don't need to hire guards, where you're wife can get a much better paying job, where your kids can get quality schooling for free, where you never need to worry about getting paid four months late can make those extra 25% seem a bargain.

 

Been there, done that.

 

Well it apparently didn't take that GDP per capita can only tell you how poor or rich the average person is in the country. So maids may be a heck of a lot cheaper in Honduras but a Toyota Camry, laptops, etc are a good bit more expensive. My brother law in Bolivia is a successful doctor and he earns nearly exactly what I do ( a good bit more than the median MLS player) but his house, clothes and car are not better than mine. He can easily pay for a maid and he doesn't have to budget to eat out but that's about it.

 

Ask the people of Bridgeview Illinois, better them than the FIRE I guess.

I should send them a thank you note.

 

I wonder if a good way to get better value for their money the SPL could get rid of all International player limitations.

10 Million could go a long way in a totally open market (then again again they are in the EU so all EU players already count as local players).

 

They can't, being part of the UK and all.

However, it's fairly unlikely that much arbitrage can be had there anyway. Small Euro/non-UK leagues - from the ex-communist East Europeans to the smaller EU nations - with different labor laws fill the non-EU quota. The remaining differences are mostly due to the fact that a Norwegian prefers to make $200K in Norway rather than in Scotland, the German will prefer to stay in Bundesliga II, etc.

The only way for SPL to increase its revenues is to make deeper runs in the UEFA Cups, for which they'll need to improve their coaching and the style of play.

 

Well I was not talking about the revenues but the costs.

Isn't the Restrictions on foreign players a rule by the English FA?

Or is that a government rule?

I mean if the SPL could get rid of player restrictions and hire a bunch of cheap Africans, South Americans wouldn't that reduce their costs?

Now you maybe right and it is the UK government and their visa requirements that limits this.