2018 Bonus Game A vs. Club Leon, March 24th, Avaya Stadium

Or like someone saving you from drowning and then stabbing you in the back. I seriously doubt they did that much to “save the league”. Maybe the league was going to fold or maybe not . Either way, AEG inherited all the teams virtually free of charge. Even if the franchises cost $5 million a piece in 2004-06 (which no one really knows for sure) that is pocket change for them. This was evidenced in Beckham’s contract only six months to a year later and they came out on top in the long run.

They ended up making a lot more than they spent on their investment. I’m not faulting them for making a wise business decision but they could have done it all a lot more honestly. I’m betting even today they are making money off of having been owners of 1/2 the league during the mid 00’s. Does anyone really know or seen their profits? After a while the tired old line that the “league is losing money” gets sickening.

 

I've never bought into that. AEG propped up MLS because it offered a convenient way to get assets built that could funnel money to AEG through sporting events, concerts, etc. Anybody who thinks that Phil Anschutz did it through the goodness of his heart, I have this bridge in Marin I'd like to sell you...

 

Pretty sure it was a three way trade sending Clark to us, Ruiz from LA to Dallas and LD to LA.

Dallas was top of the list and "traded" that away to LA to get Donovan, getting Ruiz as a consolation prize. We still had Donovan's rights and we "traded" that away to NY for Clark and another 1/2 allocation for the future. It was all league contrived bullshit.

 

It was like this:

The Quakes received an allocation at the time of Donovan's departure. (This is a bit of a contrived idea in the first place, that a team should get compensation for a loaned player returning to his original team.)

All of the allocations at the time had some kind of priority ranking in the event there was a returning US national team player. The Quakes were pretty low on this ranking, and Dallas was at the top. However, there was a loophole that if a team had an allocation as compensation for a departed player and never used it, and that same player came back to MLS, that team would have the rights to the player regardless of the allocation ranking.

The allocations represented a certain amount of money and could be split in half. During the time Donovan was in Germany, the Quakes split their allocation in half and traded it to the MetroStars for Ricardo Clark. This ended any chance to use the loophole described above.

Donovan and Bayer Leverkusen and MLS and AEG, etc., negotiated a full-fledged transfer with the understanding he would end up in LA. LA then traded Carlos Ruiz to Dallas for that top-ranked allocation, which enabled them to complete the deal.

 

I was pretty close

 

And Lalas's role in this was to make damn sure the Quakes used their allocation so that they didn't stand in line for LD's return. IIRC that happened pretty early on.

 

And AEG also owned the MetroStars and Lalas became GM of the MetroStars in June of that year.

 

To add on to what others have said (especially ThreeApples), there was also the matter of Doug Hamilton, GM of the Galaxy at the time, flat out telling Landon as he was on his way back to Leverkusen that he'd have a place in LA if things don't work out in Germany.

And things didn't work out in Germany; he finally got a start, in a Champs League match against Liverpool, and he had an absolute shocker of a match:

That was pretty much the end of his career with Leverkusen right there. Watching that go down in the Kezar Pub, I started to get a sick feeling in my stomach (as both a Quakes and USMNT fan). By this time, the deal for Rico Clark had already gone down, and I knew we didn't have the same "rights" anymore.

I didn't personally have any problem with that deal when it went down. I fully expected Landon's career in Europe to commence without a hitch, so hey, we may as well get on with our lives here. Hell, I was glad to have Clark, as he was young and good. But there's another school of thought that we (Lalas as Quakes GM) should have been patient and waited to see what happened with Leverkusen first before doing anything with the Donovan compensation we received. And, of course, there are other, more nefarious, schools of thought.......

 

We don't need to know the motives of the persons making the transactions. It was all insider trading. If these were stock transactions, the SEC would have seen that Lalas, for one, spent the rest of his life behind bars.

 

I remember that game. He started in place of Arjen Robben who was hurt. Calling it cringe worthy was putting it mildly.

 

Depends on your life expectancy at sentencing.

https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/punishments-for-insider-trading-are-growing-stiffer/

 

Look at his eyes in this. Gotta be coked up.

 

Or just wired on the boatload of caffeine in Red Bull.

BTW how is that whole "super team" thing going for RBNY?

 

My point exactly, Lalas wasn't here to make our team better as GM, he was here to facilitate a smooth transfer of baby judas to the filth and our team to Texas. He didn't give two shits about our Quakes and it showed.

 

Concur — we called him “Agent LAlas” at the time. He would wander through the Spartan Stadium parking (the giant grass area) stopping at tailgate parties and expecting adulation from USMNT fans. We would ask him about possible stadium deals and ownership changes, and he would be evasive and incredulous. He performed his AEG-sanctioned duties to the best of his ability.

Ginger Asshat.

 

So about Donovan.. at this point I don't see the value in holding a grudge. He had some big moments for us and it was important and that should be appreciated. At the same time, I don't think he should ever be truly loved or honored by the club. He chose to leave, and while I don't hold that against him at a personal level, it closed a door that's never getting opened again.

 

We were all minding our business, and Donovan un-retires and gets scheduled for a friendly at Avaya. Nobody on this board can be blamed for flinching when the scab was torn off.

Donovan should call a press conference, admit what went down, and ask forgiveness. Short of that, he really deserves no closure, and he is not likely to get it.

 

Sorry, I agree he was a hell of a player for the US Nats, and I as an EARTHQUAKES fan, greeting a visiting team will boo his introduction and every touch of the ball (if he has any). He earned his nickname on these boards, BABY JUDAS.

 

I doubt LAndy put forth any sort of effort in that CL game as he knew full well he would be back in LA come the end of March.

 

Hey the first game the Quakes played on re-entering the league was at PAL Stadium v the Dynamo... so it'll always hold a special place in my heart.

 

Must be Liga MX teams come north weekend. Club America is playing Club Tijuana in San Diego on the 24th too.