Who is leaving early? (2013-14 version)

welp, looks like i spoke too soon...

Officially signed my first professional contract! Thank you to everyone who has been apart of my… http://t.co/5qV2WgQvOE

— Dylan Mares (@DMares06) April 10, 2014

 

$113K Andre Blake, Jr. GK, Connecticut (via Jamaica) - Generation Adidas
$94K Marlon Hairston, So. M, Louisville - Generation Adidas
$90K Jordan Allen, Fr. F/M, Virginia - Homegrown (Salt Lake)
$73K A.J. Cochran, Jr. D, Wisconsin - Generation Adidas
$68K Damion Lowe, Jr. D, Hartford (via Jamaica) - Generation Adidas
$68K Eric Miller, Jr. D, Creighton - Generation Adidas
$67K Jalen Robinson, So. D, Wake Forest - Homegrown (D.C.)
$48.5K Sean Okoli, Jr. F, Wake Forest - Homegrown (Seattle)
$48.5K Giuseppe Gentile, Jr. F, Charlotte - signed with MLS
$48.5K Aaron Kovar, So. M, Stanford - Homegrown (Seattle)
$36.5K Bryan Gallego, Jr. D, Akron - Homegrown (Portland)
$36.5K Christiano Francois, R-Fr., Maryland (via Haiti) - signed with MLS.[/quote]

Others
$100K Patrick Mullins NE
$95K Harrison Shipp
$86.3K Stephen Neumann
$85K Steve Birnbaum
$60K Grant Van de Casteele (19th pick)

I think the rest are about $50K or less. Quite surprised Kovar left Stanford for under $50K. I can see guys who already have degrees from top notch schools like Koval, Ritter and Van de Casteele possibly taking a pay cut to play. They have their degree and can still get a really good job if they flame out in a couple years. In contrast Kovar will likely have to pay a pretty hefty tuition for a couple year before he can finish his degree and start making some money.

I'd be very surprised if MLS gets Morris to leave for much less than Zardes type money. He looked a little raw with the U20's but he looked like he combined, speed, quickness, power, size with pretty decent technical skills and vision. With the exception of Stolz, I thought he was the best player in the Pac - 12 last year. He's like a bigger, younger version of Darwin Jones that knows how to combine with other players. Seattle is by far the most profitable club in the league. It will be interesting to see how much they are willing to spend to sign some pretty good prospects.

 

Wouldn't be surprising if the Sounders pay his tuition when he goes back. Also, Kovar's Stanford bio says "interested in medicine," in which case I believe it's better to do pre-med courses right before med school.

Obviously, college vs pros is different for everyone, but future MDs aren't the only ones who can be better off returning to school post-soccer. Nelson Akwari left UCLA after two years but is back now to finish up an engineering degree. In a field where your career trajectory can improve if you spend a lot of time on your internships, it surely helps that he isn't focused on a future career in soccer any longer.

What position do you see Morris playing at a higher level? Personally, I wonder if his finishing isn't good enough to play forward. I haven't seen him shoot that much with either foot, and there have been times when he looked to pass the ball off when I wanted him to take a rip.

 

I read a blog a couple of days ago

Others
$100K Patrick Mullins NE
$95K Harrison Shipp
$86.3K Stephen Neumann
$85K Steve Birnbaum
$60K Grant Van de Casteele (19th pick)

I think the rest are about $50K or less. Quite surprised Kovar left Stanford for under $50K. I can see guys who already have degrees from top notch schools like Koval, Ritter and Van de Casteele possibly taking a pay cut to play. They have their degree and can still get a really good job if they flame out in a couple years. In contrast Kovar will likely have to pay a pretty hefty tuition for a couple year before he can finish his degree and start making some money.

I'd be very surprised if MLS gets Morris to leave for much less than Zardes type money. He looked a little raw with the U20's but he looked like he combined, speed, quickness, power, size with pretty decent technical skills and vision. With the exception of Stolz, I thought he was the best player in the Pac - 12 last year. He's like a bigger, younger version of Darwin Jones that knows how to combine with other players. Seattle is by far the most profitable club in the league. It will be interesting to see how much they are willing to spend to sign some pretty good prospects.[/quote]
I read a reputable blog a couple of days that reminded the readers the HG contracts are lower because just about all of them include language that the team will pay for the player to continue getting their education, even after the contract end. So the enticement is start getting paid early, build toward your future big contract and still have the ability to get your college degree.

 

read a reputable blog a couple of days that reminded the readers the HG contracts are lower because just about all of them include language that the team will pay for the player to continue getting their education, even after the contract end. So the enticement is start getting paid early, build toward your future big contract and still have the ability to get your college degree.

 

that's how a lot of baseball contracts are too. they get the kids to come out of college early (or skip it entirely) to play because they have the assurance that their degree will be paid for if they don't make a career in baseball.

 

Help me understand this. Lets say a guy leaves college after his sophomore season for a homegrown contract. He plays 10 years in the league as a journeyman/reserve making on average $50k a year. Does he get the remainder of his college tuition paid for at age 30 or no because "he made a career in soccer"?

 

i haven't read the contracts. i'm just going off of anecdotal experiences and the personal experience of one relative.

my cousin was drafted in the early rounds of the baseball draft after his sophomore or junior season of college. he played rookie ball, then some A ball. then a brief call-up to AA i think before his shoulder was toast. he had a clause in his contract that the club would pay his tuition to finish his degree if he had to stop playing. so now, 5 or 6 years later, he has gone back and finished his degree, has a good job making good money, and is living in a good neighborhood due in large part to his signing bonus and the club paying for him to finish up school.

i assume that these homegrown and GA deals contain similar provisions, but i don't know the exact mechanisms or requirements.

 

Thanks Sandon. Is the link also working for the old Europe? I can't access the page and get an error prompt.

 

If this is accurate and he gets the $60K or what ever Stanford's tuition will be several years out then that is a different story. I'm sure that some players get some money promised for tuition, but I doubt every Home Grown signing gets that deal, nor does it necessarily cover the the cost of attending a top private school.

If Home Grown players get that much plus tuition, you'd think that grad's would get more. Yet if you look at MLS Salaries for this years graduating class, only Mullins got the level of compensation. Hard to believe a player that wasn't even all conference last year is going to get paid more than double what his all conference teammate got from San Jose. At the end of the day I have no idea what type of future tuition promises he was given if any, but lets say I'm a bit skeptical your blog interpretation.

 

It wasn't a "blog interpretation", it's what was written. It also happens to be in line from other experiences written here. 2 of 3 HG contracts I know of signed by Union include this clause (I have no knowledge at all about the 3rd). MLS contracts all over the board and salted with extras, as they should be, in any given contract. I have no idea of what EVERY HG contract includes. It would seem though, one of the staple negotiating requests includes tuition.

 

I don't doubt the contracts have "some" money for college. But there is a big difference between say $10K - 15K toward college and covering the cost of a private school in an expensive place to live. It just doesn't pass the sniff test that MLS would pay more for a marginal home grown players college tuition than for a top 10 draft picks salary. Clearly players have more leverage as undergrads, but not that much more.

Now Darwin Jones who apparently turned down what was likely a similar offer would be in a different situation. Since UW is reasonably close to Sounders practices - he could reasonably be taking courses and working towards a degree. Plus since it is a state school, the tuition is lower. If he left, I could completely understand it. But to leave one of the very top schools for a roster minimum to be last on the teams depth chart simply to be on a reserve side where there are not a lot of games doesn't make sense financially or even developmentally. Neither UW nor Stanford played pretty soccer but each team offers close to 30 games (plus PDL games in the summer) against pretty good competition. UW beat the Sounders reserves 4-3.

 

Andrew Wenger took classes in NC while playing in Montreal... I don't know what his contract terms were... but.. there ya go..

 

Can't say I buy your argument here. Seattle is in position to spend generously on anything that doesn't cost against the salary cap, so it isn't implausible that they would've covered as much as or more than the value of Kovar's partial scholarship.

I'm a lot more concerned about the other point you raised, which is - in effect - MLS teams using some of their
"homegrown" signees as a marketing tool without taking their development seriously. Players need competitive games.

 

Very true. From talking to someone that credibly claimed be very familiar with deal he negotiated time away from the team to finish his classes at Duke. But Wenger was a GA signing and a premier pick by the league. My recollection about this part could be wrong, but I also recall the coaching staff still being unhappy about his time away from the team. But I don't think the two situations are comparable.

 

Virtually anything is possible given the entrepreneurial nature in which MLS implements is "rules." But the odds the league would more the effectively double the compensation to a non-marquee, non-national team player is pretty remote don't you think? Agents, players all talk. If MLS is doing everything they can hold down player compensation, does this seem to you something as a league they would allow?

I'm not sure how much this is a case of marketing tool. They have Yedlin as a home grown. They have Okoli. I don't think its like the early days where teams seemingly were signing kids to prove they will. Kovar clearly has potential and its better for Seattle to invest 48K for him to sit on the bench and get some practice time than an older player with less potential. It makes sense for them. However, it doesn't make sense to me from the players stand point.

 

Not so long ago, I would've agreed that MLS was doing everything it could to keep player compensation down. Today, I don't think that's the case. It wouldn't surprise me if they aren't at all tight-fisted about managing educational reimbursement.

Also, even if Seattle gives him full Stanford tuition for his remaining 2 1/2 years, that only amounts to $30K per year on a four-year contract, which is well short of double his compensation. More to the point, that's a tiny amt compared to Seattle's payroll. And my best guess - which may differ from yours - is that he wasn't getting a big aid package in college. At Stanford, from what I've heard, even top players don't get much unless their family income is modest.

Perhaps Seattle sees it differently from me, but unless they start to give Kovar regular games somewhere, I don't perceive any on-field benefit to anyone. Better to leave the roster slot vacant and let him work on his game while he's in school.

 

We'll see. I think it is very much the case. The primary goal of single entity is to limit player costs. Since the rest of the world is pretty much in a global market, the primary focus are US and Canadian based kids like Kovar (or international kids that have set up some roots here).

A big cost is room and board, which along with tuition is probably closer to $60K. I'm not sure anyone but the coaching staff knows how they parcel out their aid, but I'm highly confident they are at least fully funded for their 9.9 scholarships. At many places, big name National tent pole kids get first good packages and then money is given to strong contributing upper classman. He was from an MLS program and was the freshman of the year so those two factors would play in his favor. But a lot of really successful kids who get into a school like that have really successful parents that may be perfectly OK with writing checks for $60K each year.

You could also make an argument that by going to live on his own for a while, he could legitimately claim to be emancipated from his parents and thus using his own financial situation as a basis for financial aid. At a school with an enormous endowment like Stanford, that aid would probably exceed anything Seattle would be providing. In that case, anything MLS would be offering would just reduce his needs based aid.

I think we are similarly aligned here. Developmentally, I don't see a big difference in outcome from either path. Year round training with professional level coaching is a plus, but the lack of meaningful game experience is a negative. So from Seattle's point of view, I'm sure they are thinking they are better than average so maybe its not wash. But from a players point of view you lose a lot just to be scrub with limited playing time. The main benefit of a school like that is not the education, but instead being immersed with people that are going to have a lot of influence and wealth. Being highlighted in games and the school web site helps make you more recognizable and memorable to your peers group while signing a home grown contract and sitting on a bench renders you practically invisible to them. So while I framed the discussion in terms of more tangible economic measures, this to me is the greatest cost. Baseball players and football players from that school have turned down 10 digit contracts to keep playing and he left for something that might not be guaranteed for 6. That is why it is surprising to me.

 

http://www.sequimgazette.com/sports/265600381.html

Ash Apollon is another one for the list, and kind of a fun one.