San Antonio President Blasts Cosmos Spending

Of course he is happy, they have a club with actual money and ambition that also want to help the rest of the league get better. That is a commish's dream come true. What do you mean by aligned? Are you suggesting that Peterson works for the Cosmos?

Cosmos are not "overspending" by any accounts. Their payroll of players is a fraction of what MLS spends and only a few hundred thousand more than the next highest spender in NASL. The way you rubes here go on you'd think the Cosmos are spending 5 million a year on wages and offering 200K a year contracts to every free agent in NASL. That is just absurd.

It defies logic to insist that SA and Minn are unhappy with having to spend more than 1 million on wages and because of that are going to spend 50 million for the right to get into MLS where they are going to share league expenses on salaries up to 4 million a year.

Its Peterson's job to try and make NASL as competitive and viable as possible, but as a decentralized model its also up to the teams and the owners individually to put their best foot forward. Owners that take more risks deserve to reap the rewards if it pays off. Traffic, i am sure prefers to see NASL grow not stagnate.

 

I didn't realize signing an out of contract player was considered poaching.

And yes, in the first few years of NASL i saw a lot of players going from one team to another in the offseason. Campos for example.

I don't really have an opinion on Peterson. But, trying t claim he is some Cosmos puppet is silly.

 

Well he did not say he was a Cosmos puppet, maybe a traffic puppet.

 

How, exactly have any of their actions backed up your claim here ?

Sure they are ... in relation to the NASL clubs.

What the MLS spends is irrelevant. The Cosmos are a NASL club, and that relative pot is what matters. "A few hundred thousand" is pretty significant at this tier. Hell, "a few hundred thousand" can make a noticeable difference in an MLS squad.

At this level ? That's the difference between Denissen, a guy like Freeman, and Stokkelien being a Cosmo ... or not.

... still waiting on that number for Denissen you were talking about.

You really don't get how business works, do you ?

 

They have gone out and secured a quality kit distributor, signed a very very nice shirt sponsorship (now extended to 2018), they have spent considerable time and money in trying to secure a soccer specific stadium on the Queens and Nassau county borders, they have had several people in their organization and ownership go to other teams and NASL to help share best practices, strategies, etc, and they have always publicly supported NASL. You'd have to search the heavens to find examples of how they are not ambitious or looking to grow NASL.

So if they spend the most they are overspending? Most would say that given they play in NYC where cost of living is higher that no matter what they would have to offer higher wages vis a vis San Antonio just to make the net return come out even. I mean i can buy a huge ass house in a nice suberan area of Houston for 280K...in Long Island that gets you a run down row house.

Their spending is not even close to being out of line dollar for dollar with other NASL markets. Also, overspending implies they are spending money they don't have and running at a loss to win..like Chelsea and Citeh do. However, that doesn't appear to be the case thanks to a mice 1 M a year deal with Emirates.

The the onus is on San Antonio and other franchises to improve their business and up their game. They sort of have to if NASL is ever going to be more than a marginalized second division in a niche US sport. No one is preventing San Antonio from getting better, earning more money, being a better run franchise. The mere fact the Cosmos are better isnt a make or break deal for them, they simply adapt and operate in their own zone.

Last i checked there is not a rule that says a NASL side can't spend more on players.

Its from a Cosmos FO source, it is technically undisclosed., and i agreed not to publicize it. So i cant tell you what it is here. But i can tell you its probably no where near as high as you think it is, i for one found it to be kinda low considering the hub bub it generated...which is why i am pretty confident Hassli's numbers are the same or even more.

My Wisconsin business school degree and J.D. say otherwise, but i am willing to hear your explanation. If they have the kind of capital it takes to invest in MLS right now, then why are you crying on their behalf about losing players over a couple hundred thousand dollars in total wages? They can either invest that in NASL or not, now if you want to discuss why investors would choose MLS over NASL, then sure that is an easy discussion to have and one i bet we agree on mostly.

 

MLS offers a much better hope of future profit, regardless of who is commissioner of NASL. The public jockeying to get to the top flight is probably the consequence of MLS' seeming intent to take a break from expansion upon reaching 24 teams. Either MN or SA becomes #24 but not both and perhaps neither.

The question of who is NASL commissioner doesn't factor much into that calculus. They can fire Peterson right now but it won't change the fact that some club is going to remain in NASL quite a bit longer than they might have wished. I think that's the most likely explanation for their sense of urgency.

 

So then NYRB has a very nice shirt sponsorship ? Parlaying ownership into free advertising is quite different than securing a sponsor. Or are you going to claim the secret ownership isn't tied to this ?

Really ? I'm unaware of the best practices bit you've claimed, but I can't say they haven't.

They've always publicaly supported the NASL ? I wouldn't call being founded on the intent of being an MLS franchise, working with the mayor to find ways to make it work (that stadium you're huffing about), and then limping back to the lower Divisions when you didn't like what was required ... a ringing endorsement of the NASL. I mean, of course mom is the greatest person in the world after dad gives you a spanking.

Inherently they aren't looking to grow the NASL. They're looking to grow the Cosmos, full stop.

Clearly the cost of living is different, but people vastly overstate what that truly is.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...+TX&country2=United+States&city2=New+York,+NY

It's about a 30K difference with the give and take if you rent, and even less if you own ....

.... and let's also, just for the sake of your argument, pretend that this level of sports doesn't have living considerations/arrangements for their players that aren't footed by the player themselves.

You've got numbers ?

Didn't think so. I have pretty good info about previous numbers (the '12 Scorpions) and Campos in particular that were illustrated earlier in the thread. And no, that isn't what overspending is in this case. The Yankees overspend, the Red Sox overspend, etc etc. Nice try though.

There's actually nothing wrong with the business of the Scorpions ... it's quite good. The entire reaction wreaked of the issue that the Cosmos "ambition" presents to the very aspect of the NASL ever being more than a marginalized second division. A huge gap between the Cosmos and the league doesn't help anyone.

What a lovely coincidence for you eh ? Sure makes it easy for you to say whatever the shit you want then ...

... of course, I've put the numbers I do know out on the table (earlier in the thread). Just saying. Given what I know on this end, I'd be SHOCKED if he wasn't on 115-125K, maybe slightly higher.

The ending of that statement is what I was starting to touch on. There's quite a bit at play here. You're getting lost in the minutia of it all. It isn't about spending 50m to go MLS instead of 1m on wages.

It's about the business they both are currently in, and how the dealings of each affect the common placement.

 

Huh? Yes, i am saying Emirates Air has no ownership interest whatsoever in the New York Cosmos. What does this even have to do with the point you were trying to make?

One of the benefits of getting my drink on with the Commish, an NASL attorney, Erik Stover and Seamus O'Brien during the Soccer Bowl trophy after party. Yes, they are committed to the NASL for the foreseeable future (which is about as far a future as anyone can really make with NALS right now) and O'Brien has been meeting with other owners and engaging them in sharing best practices, and trying to work on deals for the benefit of the NASL as a whole.

Find one public statement they have ever made criticizing NASL. They wanted to form a team and play football now, that wasn't going to happen with MLS and other issues got in the way of forming a team now in MLS. So they found NASL's model to be the best fit for what they are looking to do right now. You're shtick is getting old now...either discuss this rationally or move on.

Those two goals are not mutually exclusive. A great Cosmos team in a league on life support isn't going to do much good for the Cosmos long term...they know that.

Who ever said anything was wrong with their business?

I guess, but i've been around the block for a long time, know a fair deal about what is going om and when people tell me things i don't just go spouting off about it on the internet to appease some random person that isn't satisfied with my explanation. You aren't terrible far off, but still on the high side.

 

I've kind of lost the plot on the main argument going on above, but [as always, conditional on it not being a straight up suicidal business move] I'm certainly happy to see "one team poaching [an]other team's players."

You want to see a lot of that, to be honest, if you're trying to demonstrate that you aren't engaging in anti-competitive practices. The ongoing Silicon Valley fiasco is instructive. Hopefully these guys will be bid on like the professionals they are.

 

Well, there's a huge perceptual difference between saying "I want to move to MLS" and "We want to build this club and be as big as we can"

Putting lines out there that directly damn your current environment isn't a very good "in the now" move. It certainly won't do you any favors with the people you directly deal with. Leaving the door open because "you never know what the future holds" is quite a different take.

 

Not sure what the issue is? Until OKC comes aboard, Minny is probably the team we want to beat outside of year one which for me was the Strikers. Did find it funny how he mentioned that the guys that went up there were begging to come back to SA, think that might be a little stretch.