You have incorrect figures: LA’s 2012 guaranteed payroll was $12.63 million not $17 million. I suspect you were using the 2012 projected estimates, which turned out to be inaccurate according to the MLSPU though some claim MLSPU is also inaccurate. Additional source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/zachsla...steady-improvement-but-still-not-world-class/ Beckham was earning $4,000,000 Keane was earning $3,400,000 Donovan was earning $2,400,000 For a total of $9,800,000 of that $1,050,000 counts against the cap http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/May 15, 2012 Salary Information - By Club.pdf The official salary cap in 2012 was $2,810,000 http://www.mlssoccer.com/2012-mls-roster-rules So $12.63 - $9.8 means non-DP contracts were worth $2.83 million. Removing the $1,050,000 ($350K per) used by DPs from the salary cap left LA with $1,760,000 or short roughly $1.1 million. But here’s where the vagaries of MLS’ budgets come in to play. Generation Adidas don’t count against cap Players filling roster slots 21-30 do not count against the cap Up to two of these “off budget” slots can be used as allocation money Homegrown players are treated like Generation Adidas players CONCACAF Champions League participants get additional allocation money Trades for other teams’ allocation money (which doesn’t expire) Compensation for loans/sale of players 3rd Designated Player fee (i.e. LA, New York, Seattle and Toronto had to pay $250K for the rights to sign a 3rd DP, that money was distributed amongst those teams with 2 or fewer DPs) source: http://www.mlssoccer.com/2012-mls-roster-rules Just off the top of my head you can eliminate half of Chad Barrett’s salary (Loan: $250K total or $125K) all of Jack McBean (Homegrown: $91K), Villareal (Homegrown: $35K) and Omar Gonzales (Generation Adidas: $257K) for a total of $508,000 leaving just under $600K over budget. There were 5 players earning exactly the league minimum dictated for “off budget” for a total salary of $189,250 which brings down the over cap amount to $402K. I have no idea, nor do I know if it’s even possible to identify the other “off budget” players. Finally there’s allocation money and compensation, which are total black boxes, but here’s additional cap relief that LA had in 2012 Allocation money for making the knock-out stage of CCL 2011/2012 Allocation money for making the group stage of CCL 2012/2013 Allocation money for Ricketts Potential money for Barrett’s loan Cristman retired mid-season ($75K) Unused allocation money from previous seasons Additional “off budget players” According to this article SKC is being awarded $100,000K for the 2013 CCL, while an interview from MLSsoccer.com suggests Garber would increase the allocation amount the further a team goes. Who knows if either of those are accurate and who knows what an increased amount for reaching the quarter-finals would be – 10% more? 50%? 100%? All in all though it doesn’t seem hugely unreasonable for LA to have $402K worth of cap relief amongst all that allocation and off-budget. I have a feeling you might disagree.
Thanks for the clarification dashiel! Were it not for my unrelenting disdain for all things AEG, I would have to concede that you guys have done well with your DP signings and it's time for other teams to step up.
Nope. I remember Robbie and the Galaxy agreeing to terms pending the approval of his P1 Visa on 15 August(1). I remember Juan Pablo-Angel being traded to Chivas USA on 17 August(2), the same day Robbie received his P1 Visa(3) and was legally allowed to work in the United States. http://www.lagalaxy.com/news/2011/08/la-galaxy-agree-terms-ireland-international-robbie-keane http://www.cdchivasusa.com/news/2011/08/chivas-usa-acquire-colombian-forward-juan-pablo-angel http://www.lagalaxy.com/news/2011/08/la-galaxy-forward-robbie-keane-receives-visa
IMO DP signings only actually help to the extent that the DP's are actually really good. Otherwise it can actually hurt your team. LA had at least 2 good DP's last year, and one who is OK but at this stage in his career, is better at selling underwear, cologne, and jerseys. Portland OTOH had a mediocre at best DP, and it didn't do their club any good.
Overall though, I'd say Beckham was great for LA and the league. Definately the greatest impact DP the league has had so far, more so in terms of elevating the profile of the league and generating revenue than performance on the field but these are all important in a DP.
I dont believe the transfer has to have all the paperwork finalized, just the terms between clubs/player agreed. Local government legal work can push their actual start date or scuttle it altogether.
I would guess Wondo will be a DP next season, but on the lower end—maybe $500-600k. Should only be a $50k higher cap hit because he's already on $300k.
Correct The transfer window deadline exists for clubs and players, a transfer agreement does not connote the legal right to work nor actual employment. So on 15 August Robbie & LA and LA and Tottenham had come to an agreement and effectively signed a letter of intent. On 17 August LA completes the trade of JPA to Chivas and Robbie acquires his P1 Visa allowing him to begin employment with the Galaxy. Coincidentally San Jose was completing their own transfer deadline signing of Edmundo Zura(1), and he too was not officially able to join the team until acquiring his p-1 visa(2). A much better argument would have been to moan about Chivas so conveniently taking an expensive, misfiring DP off LA’s hands when they were so clearly over a barrel. There’s your conspiracy, it’s completely unverifiable and totally reasonable – hell even I believe MLS put pressure on Chivas to take Angel. http://www.sjearthquakes.com/news/2011/08/quakes-headlines-aug-15-2011 http://www.centerlinesoccer.com/san...ornia-clasico-against-the-los-angeles-galaxy/
On the one hand, I'd love to see us spend more cash for a high profile player or two. On the other hand, I don't want to see the league get into a race for DP's. That's part of what bankrupted NASL in the bad old days. We need a salary cap. We need not to have a league where rich teams get to stay on top of the table forever and ever and the rest of the league looks like minor league teams. That's a crap model, and it won't fly very well in the land of NFL and parity. And Sepp Blatter is never right about anything. He's a scum-sucking, corrupt piece of crap. Anytime you think that Seppy might be right, it's a clear sign that you need to re-examine your logic. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
On the one hand, I agree that Chris deserves DP money, no question about it. But this is a salary cap constrained league, well, for most teams, including ours. So if we give Chris DP money, that restricts our ability to sign other good players. Remember that we need to pay Baca more money too, and Beta, and we just gave Morrow a well deserved raise. What players deserve, and what we can afford under the cap are two very different things. It sucks, but that's reality. Yeah, this. I expect the team to hold off signing a DP (possibly Chris this year), until the '14 season. We'll want to have the shinny new stadium and a shinny new DP to play in it. It just makes more sense from a marketing perspective, and we can't expect Lew and John to just throw money on the fire. They have to build to a plan and with vision. I'd love to see them decide to outspend the filth (assuming MLS would let them), but it's not realistic. GO QUAKES!!! - Mark
No, not really. Wondo's current salary is $300k I believe, and the cap hit for a DP is currently at $350k I think. So it wouldn't really make a dent in the salary cap, and in fact if they gave him a raise without making him a DP it would likely be worse for the cap relative to making him a DP (assuming that raise was > a paltry $50k).
Dude, a "paltry $50K" is a whole player salary. So yeah, it does affect who we can and can't sign. I'd love to see the salary cap raised to say $4M. I think that's a pretty reasonable number, but we're not there yet. What I really don't want, is a league where two or three teams out spend every other club by a factor of three or four, and thus are always in the hunt for the cup, while the rest of the teams blow. As for how much of a hit Wondo's salary is, that depends on the rules for this year. Is the DP cap hit $330K or $350K? (I'm several posts behind in reading this thread.) So yes, if making Wondo a DP doesn't crush our cap, then I think we should do it, but I'm not sure the math works out. Remember that we have a lot of other deserving players who should get raises, and for most of them, $50K or even $30K is not chump change. Most of these guys are making less than $70K to begin with. Also, it's not my money, so I want to be careful how I argue that it should be spent. GOOOO QUAAAAAKES!!!! - Mark
Come on, man, $50k, and that's if they give him a $0 raise after tying the league record for goals scored? They're going to give him a raise. Anything greater than a paltry / insulting $50k (or possibly even $30k if they lower the cap hit for DP this year) and from a cap perspective you're better off making him a DP. You're position is hanging from the tiniest, most gossamer little thread imaginable.
Dude, I'm not sure what you're using for logic. Pot legal in my state, but not yours. 1. We have a salary cap. 2. Many, if not most, of our players make less than $70K. 3. Wondo deserves DP status for sure, but the question is squeezing another $50K out of our very tiny salary cap. Money spent beyond the $50K it takes to make him a DP is not really relevant to this discussion. They could give him a $200K raise, but only the first $50K of that counts against the cap, and that's the number we are concerned with. It's not that Wondo doesn't deserve DP status, he does. It's whether paying him another $50K means that we have to cut or trade away other players. We have to think about more than just Wondo here. We have lots of other deserving players as well. If MLS were to allow us to abuse the salary cap like AEG, then I wouldn't care, but I don't think that's in the cards. I expect us to be held to the cap limit. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
This is not really nearly that hard. After a record-setting / tying year, Wondo is going to get a raise this year. You can book it. They did it the past two years, out of good faith, and each of the last two years, his raise was around $125k. They are going to do it this year, especially after he blew away the previous two years' performances and tied a 16-year old league record. A raise of less than $50k would be an insult and would not be in line with the raises he's received the last two years. At that point (>$50k raise) you might as well make him a DP if you are concerned about the cap.
You aren't even addressing the issue of the cap. I'm not arguing that Wondo doesn't deserve it, I'm arguing that we might not be able to afford it, which is completely different. Why do you keep on with the same argument and pay no attention to what I'm writing? In a league, with a salary cap, where many players are paid less than $50K, $50K means a lot. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
If $50k means so much that you don't want to give Wondo a raise, why would you give him about $125k raises the last two years? You are not throwing it away. You are showing good faith and keeping your best player, the league MVP, somewhat happy. If we're so concerned about $50k then maybe we should instead ask, for example, why we are paying Jason Hernandez $175k. Wondo at $350k is an incredible bargain, when he is outperforming $3 and 5 million guys. It is laughable if not a complete outrage that we would be concerned about giving him a $50k raise on the basis of salary cap or any other reason.
they still had 4 DP's under their control during that time period. they were not roster compliant during that time period. SJ didn't need to make any moves to accommodate zura... we didn't need to move players or salary cap space or acquire an int'l slot or anything like that. we were roster compliant when we signed him before the deadline. you make a good point about MLS putting pressure on Chivas USA to take Angel.
1/10th of what LA is spending on DPs, that's what I expect, and for the best player in the league, hands down. It's a no brainer. We need to shed this small ball mentality. How our FO handles Wondo will be very telling to anyone who pays attention to MLS.
Nope. Robbie Keane got his Visa on 17 August. It is illegal for a company in the United States to hire a foreign national without a Visa. This isn’t semantics, it’s not splitting hairs, there is no grey area – Robbie Keane was not an employee, or “under the control” as you put it, of the Galaxy until 17 August. P.S. DPs not DP’s there’s no possession going on here.
When indicating plural for an acronym, the apostrophe is correct. Sorry. While I'll concede that Keane couldn't play for the galaxatives until August 17th, he was already on the payroll and signed by the transfer deadline. If not, then he couldn't have played for your team at all. At the very least, it's a gray area. (And we USians spell gray with an A, unlike the English tossers across the sea who use an E.) At worst, it's a violation of league rules. Technically, you had to dump JPA before you signed Keane, and you didn't. That part is completely clear cut, and completely an abuse of the rules. I am pleased that you recognize that the GoatShaggers signing JPA for you so conveniently was shady at least. Also, I appreciate your rationality and good writing. I don't mind seeing you post here, given your tone. So I don't want you to think that I just automatically hate the galactopustules and all their fans. At least, I'm not completely irrational about it. GO QUAKES!! - Mark