The Stars Decline
Posted on January 11, 2011 7:17 am
Why does everyone hate the Galaxy?
Okay, wrong question. Right now they’re the Kings, and they want to be the Lakers. This not being basketball territory, I won’t bore you with the many ways the Lakers represent Nearly Everything Wrong With Sports (the Clippers representing the remainder), but the Lakers are as detestable as they are successful. The Galaxy aren’t quite up to those standards, but God knows they’re trying.
(The Kings are a hockey team, by the way. Over forty years, that’s since when. I know, right? They have a surprisingly devoted fanbase in a town not famous for suffering long-suffering teams. Chivas USA are the Clippers, but they want to be the Kings.)
No, the question is, why do people not want to work for the Galaxy? It’s as if Landon Donovan is the only one who doesn’t mind being around us.
Edson Buddle has gone to a team that has been around exactly one year longer than Real Salt Lake. Cobi Jones has gone to that 70′s team. David Beckham thought he was Steve McQueen on the motorcycle, but ended up as Gilligan on the raft. Jesus, guys – something we said?
I tend to think that AEG knows what it’s doing, and gets what it wants. But even by MLS standards, the Galaxy braintrust is obsessed with the bottom line. When the Galaxy are outbid, it’s because they’ve chosen to be. So what does this week say about their priorities?
Well, the devil never lacks for advocates, but. Buddle will be 30 next year, and his goalscoring totals since 2005 read 9, 6, 5, 15, 5, 17. It’s possible that Bruce Arena, not Tim Leiweke, decided that Buddle was due for another five-goal season, and offered a contract on that basis. He didn’t score a goal in August, and sure didn’t do much in the semifinal against Dallas. Plus, according to Ives doing his day job:
Except…how much is that? Thanks to Edson’s former union, we have a pretty good idea.
Edson Buddle made $188,448 last year from the Galaxy. The Galaxy have shed the salaries of Eddie Lewis ($96,000 base), Dema Kovalenko ($136,500 base), Tristan Bowen ($70,000 base, but $101,363.63 guaranteed last year) and Clint Mathis (dunno what he made last year, but he pulled down $115,000 for Salt Lake in 2009). I also assume they didn’t give Berhalter, Kirovski or Hejduk raises. One doubts that they will be spending that much on Angel, either. Not only did enormous corporate entertainment giant AEG have the money for him, the Galaxy legitimately had a ton of space under the, and I hesitate to use the phrase, “salary cap.” And they probably wouldn’t have even needed to make him an official Designated Player in order to double his salary.
So what the hell, man?
EDIT – oh. According to the Don, the Galaxy did offer Buddle double last year’s salary. And Ingolstadt doubled that offer, as Geneva theorized in comments. So we’re up to nearly three quarters of a million American, and…God, I hate to be an AEG apologist here, but I understand why they weren’t going to use a DP slot on someone who…I’m going to hell for this…doesn’t sell that many tickets.
Now, he could if he were marketed properly – he scores beautiful goals, and he’s a handsome guy these days. (Maybe he needs the extra cash for his orthodontist, who did a FINE job.)
It’s a big loss for the Galaxy, but turns out it isn’t the public relations disaster we thought it was. And by “we,” I mean me and my tapeworm.
The Cobi defection doesn’t hurt the Galaxy on the field, of course, but it’s a public relations un-coup, to say the least. At least Edson left for a team that, according to reliable sources, exists. Jones has been the face of the team since before Day One. Losing him to anyone would have been tough.
But let’s look at this from AEG’s point of view – wow, “devil’s advocate” has rarely been more appropriate.
Bill, who by the way I’m getting sick of being right all the time, would occasionally take shots at Cobi and his alleged lack of interest in coaching. And I, seeing him once a week, would shrug off Mr. Archer’s attacks on my beloved idol. Here was Cobi, not demanding the spotlight, not big-timing his way into a high-profile coaching gig, not elbowing his way past people who had been there first. He was out there, setting up the cones, humbly doing his job as a second assistant, loyally serving the Galaxy.
And then this happened:
So, as the next step forward in Jones’ soccer management career, he will now oversee “any and all players involved in the club’s soccer-specific programs” – which as of this morning totals exactly zero players.
And while I’m the last guy to make fun of the idea that this is a world-renowned club – no, seriously, I think all seven billion people on Earth have already mocked them – “new New York Cosmos” sounds like a rejected Futurama joke. I realize it’s not easy to field a soccer team anywhere, let alone the United States, let alone New York City. But the point is, these Cosmos are shilling the idea that American soccer should go back to the days of Mick Jagger making out with Henry Kissinger at Studio 54. I have no time for that nonsense, and I pity those who do.
So yeah, Bill, you were right. Cobi has no interest in actually coaching. If Eric Wynalda can go to a club that makes Ingolstadt look like Real Madrid, then Cobi can find eleven guys on a flat grass field somewhere. This announcement affects Cobi’s credibility a lot more than the Cosmos.
And frankly, I can’t blame AEG for letting Cobi go, if this is what he’s willing to settle for. Being an MLS assistant coach is tough, and this gig sounds easy. Everyone wins. Nothing is lost save honor.
Meanwhile, while we’re waiting for Beckham to move to Spurs, here’s Beckham from last month ruling out a move to Spurs:
Boy, it’s almost as if David Beckham tends to say things that aren’t true.
Coincidentally, the Kings are owned by …
at first glance Cobi’s move merits being called a joke, and until Cosmos gets up and running into at least a barnstorming outfit that’s the way it should be.
On the other hand, fake Cosmos may be finally getting ready to become serious. If so, Cobi is a good acquisition and may be a significant step in setting up the groundwork to do more than just talk and distribute bumper stickers. If there are no players to train and manage (except at the youth academy level, and im sure the kids have their own people that work with them) i can only assume he would be involved in some way in player acquisition.
Only time will tell if Cobi actually made a wise choice or if he buried his postplaying career by accepting this post. Of course as Dan pointed out, if Cobi wanted to coach one day in MLS he gave up a sure thing by leaving the Galaxy. Assuming the fake Cosmos get up and running, they will start out as barnstormers, and probably then into either USL or NASL, and from there to MLS. We’re talking a 5 to 10 year plan to get to where Cobi already was in the first place…. The only thing I can assume is that Cobi has higher ambitions–to become a club administrator rather than a coach and hes hoping to become someone important in the fake Cosmos organization by helping them get off the ground. Of course, it could be argued that he already was someone important in the Galaxy, but maybe Cobi felt that his opportunities for career advancement were limited there, or maybe he didn’t get along with the higher ups in the club–who knows?
Yeah, but so are the Lakers.
Wait … what? Some tie between Buss and AEG I don’t know?
I think people are underestimating the future of the Cosmos. Granted, there have been some hucksters associated with the brand recently. But I think there is a very, very good chance the new Cosmos will be MLS team #20.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t cost much to get an MLS team. $50 million or so or the expansion fee, plus $100 million or so for a new stadium. As has been shown in recent years, there are plenty of uber-rich guys who are happy to shell that out to put teams in places like Portland and Vancouver. A professional sports team in New York is much more attractive than one out in the Pacific Northwestern boonies.
Wait and see, but I think Cobi has probably made a very good career move.
When they are handing out numbers, I always ask for four for Ray Hudson or 13 for Cobi.
It seems now that in both cases I might have to block non-illustrious post-playing deeds out of my mind.
1. how can we be sure that associate director of soccer has nothing to do with the academy sides that cosmos already have up and running?
2. Why are the Cosmos called the fake cosmos or the new new york cosmos, but nobody ever calls the Earthquakes the fake fake earthquakes or the new new earthquakes?
3. Everyone knows the the MLS wants these cosmos, and it must be in the realm of possibility otherwise Garber wouldn’t be bringing it up over and over again.
Maybe Beckham thought he was Steve McQueen on the motorcycle and forgot how that movie ended.
Because both academies were up and running long before the NNYC came along.
Although it’s possible that LAFC and Gottschee saying “Thank God! We didn’t know whether to shit or go blind all these years, but now Terry Byrne and Cobi Jones will teach us how to run a soccer club!”
AEG owns a piece of the Lakers, as well as the Staples Center. I think if Buss ever sells, AEG is first in line to buy the rest of the team.
According AEG’s website:
I hate to say it because I don’t think that a city that hasn’t shown it can adequately support one pro team should be getting two, but I am resigned to the idea that the Cosmos are going to be Team 20. Apparently, Cobi is as well, or this move would make no sense.
This is tough for me Dan, because I am both a Galaxy supporter and old school Cosmos fan (yes, I am old).
The truth is that the Cosmos are all but guaranteed an MLS team in the next couple/few years–and you’ll just have to take my word on that, or listen to the (not so) subtle hints from The Don himself or some of his employees (see Jonah Freedman).
Are these “hints” reliable? Well, if you think these are the “fake” Cosmos, you’ll probably thinks its a load of Beckham-like blabbering and buffoonery; but if you have had a chance to peek at the Cosmos Academy system, talk with staff, and get a view of the future, (as well as be a hopeless hanger-on to the Cosmos past who salivates at a Cosmos future) then you’ll be less likely to call Cobi’s new adventure with the Cosmos a step into the unlikely or the oblivion.
But then again, this is all a wait and see.
In the end, I think the Galaxy will be fine–after all, they do have the pure genius of Bruce Arena to fall back on regardless of what happens to Beckham’s achilles in the next two months.
Buss has repeatedly said majority control is staying with the family. That’s why Magic ultimately gave up the dream and sold his share. What the kids will do is anybody’s guess.
Dan: come out and play. Why does the most consistently successful team in American professional sports, a team that is individually controlled and abides a salary cap, represent nearly everything wrong with sports? Imagine a World: the Milwaukee Bucks have guaranteed John Freaking Salmons forty millions dollars, apparently to play basketball. The fact a bourbon fueled, whore-mongering geriatric, whose only significant investment is the team, can dominate a bunch of billionaires and corporations in an era when nobody notices that a guy like Ben Gordon is locked into $58 million should be enough to put his face on our money.
Staples Center and the Lakers are too entirely different things
Edit: I guess they own “part” (how much I wonder?) of the Lakers, but it’s not like outright own them like they do the Kings and the Galaxy
I want today’s MLS to have nothing to do with the Cosmos or the old NASL. Gimmicky, celebrity driven teams have no place in the modern league. The Beckham implosion is proof and most serious fans of MLS are quite sick of him. We need organic growth in markets that will respond well to the sport to keep the league healthy.
I believe a new director (Savarese) was hired for the Gottschee switch. For LAFC I believe Chronopoulos was already there.
(Btw, I hope and [maybe optimistically] expect that should the Cosmos get a team, they’ll be forced to divest LAFC. It’s one thing to open up academies outside your own backyard, and another to do it in someone else’s.)
The Galaxy is kinda like Dan Loney.
SI’s Grant Wahl interviews Cosmos Terry Byrne and answers some of those nagging questions:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201…mos/index.html
Both Garber and his minions have all implied that the league will not be limited to 20 teams…
Dan, I don’t get your math on Buddle. They said that FC Ingol may have doubled the offer from the Galaxy, not his last year’s salary. So the Galaxy could have offered him $500K, and FC New Club offered him $1 million. Theoretically.
Turns out, according to Don Garber, you’re not far wrong.
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