Given the success of the first thread, I went ahead and closed it and opened up a new one dedicated to the upcoming season.
David Villa first NY City signing, Lampard likely to come AND Cesc to Chelsea... MLS still has a lot of restrictions about players coming from abroad and they are still very big about growing home talent and making american stars, I'm not saying that I want the teams to be filled with role players from other countries, but to have a rule like the Brazilian league of 5 foreign players listed for each game. If each MLS team took in 2 stars + 3 foreign role players it would seriously grow quickly
It quality of the league would improve some but a lot of these players are well beyond their primes when going to the MLS. Villa though, I think can still play another year or two of top flight.
I'm with you on this one, to me the MLS is one of the most successful leagues in the world as it is, it's extremely profitable, which is the deciding factor of eventual growth. The Brazilian league is more traditional for example, but clubs are running in red in order to keep that league from collapsing, plus all of the government incentives and never ending loans to keep clubs from shutting their doors, let's not even talk about unpaid wages. I think in 10 years tops the MLS will be a top 5 league in the world in value if not top 3
I like the Villa signing but they still need to get people who watch other lgs to watch MLS. They will need a whole new generation not 10 years. No one is giving up watching Vasco or Emelec, ect on sunday to watch a MLS match. You always have to take things a little bit far. They still have a good portion of their lg making between 30k and 50k a year so lets pump the brakes a little. How much MLS do you watch Guigs? The TV ratings are still pathetic.
I could care less about the value going up. The only way I'll start watching the MLS regularly is if the quality goes up.
If I lived in a city with a franchise, I'd buy season tix right now. Buuut, like you guys said, if it's a TV choice, I'm tuning into to something different. But also, my opinion is that this will change in 5-10 years.
I would need to see better quality in order to get season tix for DCU. It's also pretty frustrating seeing the league's flagship franchise not able to sign any of these "stars" that come over to play.
Judas to Chelsea it seems. Appears that he completed a physical today. @nicephoras must be delighted. As far as I see it, Chelsea got rid of a Brazilian and brought in a Judas. That's just bad business (in all seriousness, good piece of business on both).
Selling Luiz for 50M and buying Costa for less than 40 is business you can't possibly turn down, especially since Costa is a year and a half younger. Costa wouldn't have been my first choice (Lewandowski all the way), but he's similar to Drogba and he'll finally give us a player who has pace, power and a decent touch. Watching Demba Ba try to link with our midfielders was a bit like watching a developmentally challenged child try to solve a Rubik's cube. It'll also be nice to have a striker who's useful in the air again on crosses from open play, even if we don't prefer to go that route. Unless PSG are selling Cavani, there are no better strikers available this summer, and Costa really did have an amazing season this past year.
He's the ideal Mourinho striker -- in addition to the attributes you mentioned, he works hard for the team. If you are thinking of any gift ideas though, I'll pass on his jersey.
DC United hasn't been a flagship franchise for the MLS in a while, I mean it's a traditional franchise, but even the Galaxy has had more of a flair to them as of late, along with NY Red Bull. I watch the MLS with when I visit my brother because he follows it, that's pretty much the only time, I do have tickets to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and I support them more than the MLS, that's true.. but that's because they are my hometown team. And season tickets are only 210 dollars =D But just to get some things clear.. the avg. salary of the MLS is 100k, and the most you can pay a player without having the luxury exception is 360k. The avg salary on the EPL is 322k while the Dutch league is 445k, that does not mean players will flock to the dutch league to get more money, because most of that money is protected by labor laws. Even if the Dutch league pays more an english player cannot simply walk in there to get a raise, since the Dutch league can only sign a certain number of non Dutch players. MLS functions the same way, even when the salary starts to grow and I believe it will easily reach NHL levels in the next 10 years, foreign players won't be able to come into the country to play unless invited. So I don't think Salary will be the divider of water between where MLS will be in the next 10 years. I think the investment and the marketing will get this league to become a top league in the World. If there is one thing americans can do better than anybody else is sell shit. But in regards to the MLS and the 10 year jump, look at the MLS 10 years ago. It's quite a jump their value has increased by 300%.. if they increase it by just another 200% for the next 10 years... They'll be serious contenders for the top league in the World.
http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/April 1, 2014 Salary Information - By Club.pdf Lots of low salaries on that link that explain the lack of quality. The average salary argument really isn't fair in regards to the MLS. In europe you don't have significant wage differences in a squad unless it is a player fresh from the youth team. MLS just really isn't talked about, I hear more Boca or Liga Mx talk let alone the numerous european lgs and other south american lgs people have ancestry from. I'm not saying it isn't growing but people have also said the same thing about Lacrosse.
Interesting. Gilberto makes about $1.2 million. That would come out R$ 228 mil per month. I would have def thought he could have gotten that in Brasil if he wanted. JC raking in the cash at $200,000, lol. I assume QPR is still paying the majority of his wages?
200k is decent money. Plenty of players in Brazil don't make that much. In a recent interview, JC claimed he was basically playing for free. That's why I can't see him playing in Brazil. You'd have to be nuts to pay a GK 500k+ in Brazil.
Even looking at these wages, the MLS is doing fine considering those players are actually getting paid, and most of the minimum salary is given to players which are young out of college players trying to make it into the MLS. How much does a young player makes in Brazil? 2-5 minimum wage salaries a month? when they actually do get paid?
When you say young player a lot of these "young" players in the MLS are 22 to 24 which isn't really young. Being young in Brazil you actually have leverage these guys in the u.s really only have Scandinavian lgs as leverage out of college. Neilton wanted R$50,000 when he was originally making 10 or 15 a month. Long story short he got more than that with Cruzeiro. Santos has had to pay a lot of these young guys early becaue of this like emerson, Gabigol, ect. There are young players on Ponte and Joinville making between R$ 8,000 to 12,000 a month so it isn't like the money isn't flowing. MLS loses good young players to Scandinavia all the time due to wages.
Supposedly. He wouldn't be my first choice, but paying 15 less for Fabregas than we got for Luiz is.........crazy. And it's not as if we need the money - with our revenue having grown, we're in no danger of FFP issues, especially since Cole, Lampard and Terry's deals came off the books last month (Terry's new deal is significantly reduced). Then Torres to go next season.........