MLS Teams Can Sign One Academy Player Per Year?

[ACCCsoccer]

Is this true? Where then is the incentive to even have a youth academy?

[Stan Collins]

They can sign a second, but then other teams (with an academy) will be able to "poach" the third best prospect in the program. If you have two guys that stand way out, this is not a concern.

[NYC_COSMOS]

They can sign a second, but then other teams (with an academy) will be able to "poach" the third best prospect in the program. If you have two guys that stand way out, this is not a concern.
It's still a disincentive. It's a completely stupid ass rule. Aa a team you invest millions in your academy and then you are not even allowed to use those players.

It's completely ass backwards.

[Stan Collins]

They didn't want the Red Bulls to be running away with the league 10 years from now on no merit greater than having the largest metro area in the country to draw from. If, or hopefully when, there's a second NY team to compete with them, perhaps it's something to revisit.

Besides, pick your favorite Euro club and investigate whether they bring in more than 1 player a year from their academy. 9 times out of 10 they won't.

[NYC_COSMOS]

They didn't want the Red Bulls to be running away with the league 10 years from now on no merit greater than having the largest metro area in the country to draw from. If, or hopefully when, there's a second NY team to compete with them, perhaps it's something to revisit.

Besides, pick your favorite Euro club and investigate whether they bring in more than 1 player a year from their academy. 9 times out of 10 they won't.
It not about the metro area but rather about the people teaching, the institution and coaching.

Europe doesnt produce good youth players. Talk to me about Brazil and Argentina, who are at the top of the game when it comes to Youth teams.

This is funny and I always find it telling whenever someone on Big Soccer talks about or mentions Europe in reference to something else. I was reading an interview with GBS from an Argentine Newspaper this morning. In the article, he mentions that at some point this year, a fellow team mate asked him if he knew Riquelme. At first GBS, thought that he was joking around, but immediately realized that he was being serious.

This kid had no clue who Riquelme was and that he was GBS' teammate! lol Anyway, what I'm getting at, it that the soccer world doesnt revolve around Europe and their model of soccer.

[monster]

Considering that almost every article I have seen clearly states that kids in the programs are not ready for MLS play, I have no idea why this is a problem for so many people.

If it stayed long-term, it might be an issue, but if you really want to argue that teams should be signing three, four, five people who aren't able to play at an MLS level just so they can say they signed their own academy players, go for it.

MLS has always been willing to re-examine issues so let's wait for a day when the academies are actually turning out players ready to contribute to the senior team before grabbing our pitchforks.

[NYC_COSMOS]

RBNY just this summer had an issue where it could have signed two players but chose instead to sign no one.

It's not a matter of whether the players are ready for MLS play or not. It's all about the rule that allows or disallows such signings. If I'm a team owner, I would want to have complete autotonomy over my investments, especially something as profitable(if managed properly) as a youth academy.

[ATLGunner]

RBNY just this summer had an issue where it could have signed two players but chose instead to sign no one.

It's not a matter of whether the players are ready for MLS play or not. It's all about the rule that allows or disallows such signings. If I'm a team owner, I would want to have complete autotonomy over my investments, especially something as profitable(if managed properly) as a youth academy.

Things just got worse by shutting down the reserve division. Now, players who may need a year in the reserves will instead not be signed and end up elsewhere.

I don't get why MLS doesn't want more from this initiative. It has so much to offer, and their biggest complaint is parity.

BTW, the parity argument is bunk. Right now, Columbus has possibly the best youth (Speas, Craven, Span, Green). The Fire have a great system, as do DC.

LAG does not.

If youth academies were clearly influencing the ability of teams, than teams would commit more to their programs. If your area is not quite as good, set up a better program than others. It wouldn't hurt to put pressure on NE to commit themselves to their club.

Plus, the salary cap will keep things reasonable.

[TOareaFan]

I actually don't have a problem with a rule limiting the number of acadamy players in a year that can be signed. Like others, I doubt that there would be two many years where a limit of 2 would be too much of a problem.

I wonder, though, in a year where someone's academy does produce a bumper crop....does the poaching team compensate the developing team in anyway for that 3rd player? They should.

[NYC_COSMOS]

I actually don't have a problem with a rule limiting the number of acadamy players in a year that can be signed. Like others, I doubt that there would be two many years where a limit of 2 would be too much of a problem.

I wonder, though, in a year where someone's academy does produce a bumper crop....does the poaching team compensate the developing team in anyway for that 3rd player? They should.

You have a garden and you have been tending to it for a couple of years. You take a couple of tomatoes and then your neighbor comes in and takes the remaining.

Do you find it fair?

[truthandlife]

I know we would love to see our MLS clubs produce our own talent but this is a pipe dream. The EPL teams have put millions into their academy program and Sir Alex and David Moyes have said they have been failures.

I really believe the NBA, MLB and NFL have it right. They don't have academy teams. They know they are waste of investment. The MLS doesn't need to waste money resources when they have limited resources.

[NYC_COSMOS]

I know we would love to see our MLS clubs produce our own talent but this is a pipe dream. The EPL teams have put millions into their academy program and Sir Alex and David Moyes have said they have been failures.

I really believe the NBA, MLB and NFL have it right. They don't have academy teams. They know they are waste of investment. The MLS doesn't need to waste money resources when they have limited resources.
The minute you begin quoting people from the EPL, you start to lose all credibility.

[Somas of Columbus]

This is a prime example of an NMR rule "Never Mind Reason". Seriously is there a monkey in MLS headquarters calling the shots?

[Somas of Columbus]

The minute you begin quoting people from the EPL, you start to lose all credibility.

well to compare a league like the EPL to the MLS is comparing apples and oranges. There is no need to develop talent there because they have the money to buy talent else where. Where here we don't, and quite simply act as a feeder league where money can be made on such things. So for teams poaching your developed talent with out any cash transaction is taking money away from the clubs business.

But the MLS is less a league and more a business so this is a way to diverse the profits.

[TOareaFan]

You have a garden and you have been tending to it for a couple of years. You take a couple of tomatoes and then your neighbor comes in and takes the remaining.

Do you find it fair?

I think, if you read all of my post, you would have finished with....."your neighbor comes in and takes the remaining ones and leaves you a bucket of money in exchange for the tomatoes he took"

then it is fair.

[NYC_COSMOS]

I think, if you read all of my post, you would have finished with....."your neighbor comes in and takes the remaining ones and leaves you a bucket of money in exchange for the tomatoes he took"

then it is fair.
It still isnt fair because as lead investor and owner of said academies, you dont have control over your production.

So then basically academies will only strive to produce 1-2 players per season, actually less, I believe that the rule is over a 2 or 3 year period.

Now is that a good situation? How does that foster production of quality youth academy players? It doesn't.

[TOareaFan]

It still isnt fair because as lead investor and owner of said academies, you dont have control over your production.

So then basically academies will only strive to produce 1-2 players per season, actually less, I believe that the rule is over a 2 or 3 year period.

Now is that a good situation? How does that foster production of quality youth academy players? It doesn't.

Except that MLS is more of a collective than a group of individual teams. The whole league is based upon the idea of share the cost, share the wealth.

So if Team "a" has an academy that has 3 real good prospects this year and the rules say they can sign two of them....getting re-imbursed for the development costs of the 3rd while giving the league the benefit of the 3rd player (as opposed to him going somewhere else to play) seems to fit well with the league structure/philosophies in other areas.

[scoachd1]

They didn't want the Red Bulls to be running away with the league 10 years from now on no merit greater than having the largest metro area in the country to draw from. If, or hopefully when, there's a second NY team to compete with them, perhaps it's something to revisit.

It will change right after some non-MLS clubs sign some good kids.

Besides, pick your favorite Euro club and investigate whether they bring in more than 1 player a year from their academy. 9 times out of 10 they won't.

Maybe not in the EPL, but I'm sure many clubs outside of the very top the might bring in several players a year. But I've never bothered to check it out so I could be wrong.

[scoachd1]

BTW, the parity argument is bunk. Right now, Columbus has possibly the best youth (Speas, Craven, Span, Green). The Fire have a great system, as do DC.

LAG does not.



I think you underestimate the potential of LAG. First they've already signed someone while other teams are figuring out what to do. Second they've quickly started to gather a lot of talent on a very short notice. Take a look at the DOB of the players as well as the National pool kids from Cal-South. You will see their teams are very young and they were able to grab a large number of the very top kids in the region in just a couple of months. With an established program, they are likely to do even better next year. I think Chivas will also get more interest as well.

[scoachd1]

I really believe the NBA, MLB and NFL have it right. They don't have academy teams. They know they are waste of investment. The MLS doesn't need to waste money resources when they have limited resources.

NBA and NFL don't. They have an agreement with the NCAA. But MLB teams certainly do.