[beineke]

As most of you know, an early version of 2004 MLS salaries can be found here:
http://www.socceramerica.com/article...t_ID=562134198

Right now, not many MLS players get paid for their marketability instead of their performance. Hong Myung-Bo (making nearly $300K) is the clearest example of one, although a few US national teamers also have surprisingly cushy deals.

High-cost, moderate-production players are most often sent to the biggest markets. After all, those are the places where being recognized is expected to yield an impact. We saw it with guys like Matthaeus, Campos, and Luis Hernandez, as well as Etcheverry, once he got old.

Why is this interesting? Well, MLS often gets accused of stacking the deck in favor of the big teams (and maybe it does in some other ways, such as allowing Ruiz to get part of his salary from his Guatemalan club). But when a team is forced to use one-sixth of its salary budget on a run-of-the-mill player, that has a real impact on its competitiveness.

At the opposite end of the payroll, the MLS Development Player program also tends to make it easier for smaller market teams. They can afford to bring in a few extra prospects, since it's actually possible to survive on $1 K/month in Columbus or Kansas City.

Rather than evening things out, MLS's salary structure seems to put big markets at a disadvantage.

[mpruitt]

There's definately some trends to be extrapolated by looking at those numbers. Obviously it's not a complete list, dealing with only those who are under contract. Obviously of course it's just one year. However, these numbers deserve a deeper look than just 'LOOK HOW MUCH GAVEN IS PAID MORE THAN MAGEE' and 'WOW CARLOS RUIZ ONLY GETS PAID WHAT?'

I think that some of the trends to look at would be...

- player being penalized for not taking MLS as their first option
- player being rewarded for choosing MLS off the bat when their name might have been bandied about by teams over seas
- run of the mill players having to take pay cuts to get under the cap
- the old guard players, Stewart, JMM, getting a whole lot of coin
- Oh, and do we know Motzkin's client list?

[microbrew]

I wouldn't put too much into it; single entity ownership throws a huge monkey wrench into this. For some reason, the term 'anti-trust' keeps rolling through my head...

For example, MLS has quickly renogotiated salaries of players on league mininums who break out. IIRC- Taylor Twellman? The league needs to keep salaries low, yet not alienate future stars. And it will break the rules to do that.

My speculation: new higher-priced players (higher priced not for their current level of play, as pointed out in many cases) get to dictate where they go. Denver or Columbus is not likely a place former international superstars would go to.