2017 RSL Salaries

Since salaries are determined before performance is observed, I guess you'd expect many players to be under- or over-paid. Good young players are more likely to look under-paid, since their first contract was negotiated before they had demonstrated their quality, and older players that were essential when they signed their contracts will seem over-paid. Both effects are more likely in the 3rd year of a contract, too.

I also wonder if teams sometimes re-sign veteran players to bigger contracts to "compensate" them for being under-paid before.

 

I'm sure that's partly the case, but it seems like it could lead to some problems over time. If you're seeing that KB is making 800k, and not playing at that level, you're going to demand more in contract talks. If someone playing better than KB isn't getting that kind of salary, it could lead to them leaving, or being a problem in the locker room. To me, contracts over time should start lower, rise, then lower again as they get worse. We shouldn't just see a steady upward trend, because it'll leave us with little room to grow.

 

I probably could have been more clear. I was thinking more along the lines of this:
RSL: Well Javi, we are being crucified in the press and STHs aren't renewing. What will it cost us for you to shut up and drop that breach of contract lawsuit?
Javi: $300k for X years.
RSL: Done!

That's one version. The typo explanation is another, but the lack of a published correction or explanation after this much time is a big, red flag.

 

I know this is all hyperbole, but does anyone believe a lawsuit from Javi would hold up in court? There wasn't anything that was a breach of contract, and we're basing all of our info off of Javi's statement, which statement appeared to have holes throughout. I'm not saying the FO handled things in the best way, but I think a lawsuit would be tossed out before depositions were finished.

 

It's kind of hard to bring a breach of contract lawsuit if he was going to be a free agent at the end of the season. Now as for the financial incentives if he played so many games, etc., that seems kind of subjective (player says he's ready to play, coach/FO says um, no, he wasn't). It doesn't sound like a slam-dunk win for either side at this time unless there is some irrefutable documentation (doctors notes, etc.) supporting one of the two view points. I think if the lawsuit ever went to trial, RSL would prevail after lots of pain and suffering and money.

 

Morales isn't on the Dallas link in the main list at all (the one from MLSPA). Seems like a mistake. He is listed on the Big D Soccer blog's list at the same amount as he is listed on ours in the main list.

 

What, apparently morales' name was so deeply engraved under the RSL roster standard excel spreadsheets failed to remove him?

The man had quite a legacy here. Sounds about right =(

 

The only way I could see it holding up in court is if there was some kind of written or verbal statement on record saying that's why he was benched. If it went to court, I'm sure all RSL would have to say is that he was benched due to fitness, tactics, or to rest him for the more important playoff game coming up.

We all know the real reason he was benched, but without any actual statement from the club, a suit would go nowhere. If they would've properly managed all of this throughout the season to ensure that the final game didn't matter, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

Here's an interesting piece from USSoccerPlayers.com - Why does the MLS Players Union release the salary data? Apparently this is a completely voluntary process. I am glad we have it.

 

I think there are a handful of players, like Beckerman, who have seen all these other USMNT guys come over making 7-figure contracts, yet none of them, besides Donovan and maybe Deuce, have become intrinsically linked with the image of the club.

They are marketing tools, just like Beckham and other DPs, getting paid for marketing and possibly team leadership on top of gameday performance. Obviously, Morales was worth a lot more than his on-field performance.

However, I think as the league ages and the fanbase matures, the association or love of a team will vastly outweigh the attachment we have to certain players. Our team has such a short history, and clearly almost every departure of the core of the 2010-2015 team has been rife with apoplectic facebook fans.

These kinds of contracts for service already rendered will probably become less and less common.

 

I don't think they'll become less common, but over time they'll become less of an issue. It's one think to pay 800k salary on a 3 million cap, but an 800k salary in a 10 million cap wouldn't be a big deal.

 

One thing long-time salary watcher Andy Mead reminds us of in the MLS: News & Analysis forum is that we have a salary budget, not a cap.

 

It's really a soft cap, right? I.e. It's a salary cap with a few mechanisms (DP, TAM, GA) that allow you to break or ignore the cap on a limited number of players. Is that what he means? But it still functions to maintain quite a bit of parity in the league.

 

A soft cap generally means that it can be surpassed at a penalty or fee. Like the NBA. This is a hard cap, it cannot be surpassed. But then there is a bunch of other money. So the "salary budget" idea makes sense in that regard. We cannot pass that budget at all. But we can trade for more. Aside from the DP tag that only counts a portion against your budget. Every team has 3 slots they can throw any amount of money that want at though.

 

Each player, even KaKa, maxes out their cap hit. If we were paying Beckerman 400k or 4mil, it wouldn't matter at all as far as the budget is concerned when it comes to the salary cap. DP = DP. When the team starts using allocation or TAM/GAM and "young" DP status, that's where it gets weird.

They will get less common. All these new designations will replace guys like Beckerman, Graham Zusi, Wondolowski, Brad Davis, etc....

 

But as the salary cap rises, I would assume the DP hit would rise as well. I highly doubt it stays as low as it is forever. At some point, I figure the DP rule will go away entirely, but I would imagine that wouldn't happen until the cap was 20 million or higher. Who knows, maybe it'll be a weird MLS thing that sticks around.

 

The DP cap hit has risen comensurate with the cap. This is all very easy to find.

We also aren't really talking about the DP rule here, so I don't know why you've shifted focus entirely from the actual topic of veterans being overpaid with big contracts AFTER their valuable service has been rendered.

 

I honestly forgot if I commented on that earlier, but I do agree that currently, a lot of teams over pay for players that are on the downside of their contracts. It probably stems from teams trying to play the cap earlier in a players career when they try and squeeze as much value for dollar that they can. It seems like as a player sticks with a team, their overall value has been realized, then they get an inflated contract towards the end of their careers. While I feel like that's the wrong way to handle contracts, I can somewhat see why it happens in the current cap. At some point these players realize they should've been paid more during their prime, and since they weren't, they push for it towards the end of their lifespan.

For a lot of sports, it seems like the average player tends to follow a natural curve. They get paid less as they're younger and less proven, then the salary rises during their prime years, then lowers as their talent fades. There's always the exception to the rule. Whether it's a truly talented player that lasts longer than others, or one that is more marketable, so the team feels the contract is worth it since it brings in more dollars in funds and/or ticket sales.

MLS has always felt backwards, in that most players get paid a cheap fee, and it continually rises until the player is no longer useful. Then they either retire, or finally take that massive pay cut in order to last another year or two. I think my comments somewhat reflected that, and I feel like as the salary cap rises, we'll start to see the more natural contract paths that you see in other sports/leagues. And, if you do have someone that might be more marketable, like KB, Morales, etc, keeping them on a contract ~800k won't be seen as a big detriment, since the overall cap hit will be less.

We're just currently in a stage where you really have to play a solid game of moneyball, because there's not a whole lot of wiggle room in the cap. You've got to maximize who your DP's are, combined with quality spending of things like TAM and allocation money. Also utilizing the foreign spots to your advantage. I think that over time as the cap rises, some of these things won't be as big of a deal as they are currently. Sadly, we're probably still at least 10+ years off of it, so the team has to really maximize everything at their disposal.