I was walking up to my seat and two guys were ahead of me. First dude turns to his buddy and says, "hurry up, they have a badass stadium!" And I'm like why is this the first time you've been here? It's a pro team, in your city. I get the people staying away in protest, but damn, why not be a fan. The Dyanamo will never play.....insert random Euro team here.... you can enjoy both.
I don't believe so, another 3 or 4 mil would do wonders. That is not far away, especially when you can make that up in merch and ticket sales. Who knows, maybe Brenner will see the light.
Looking at the 9/13 MLSPA salaries, the Dynamo are at $7,130,759. Another 3 or 4 million means the ownership group must commit to a payroll increase between 42 and 56% of the current payroll. Having seen how this group operates, I say it's very unlikely that they will give the green light to raise the payroll to that level. I agree with you in that another 3 to 4 million could do wonders, but I doubt it will happen. I don't have the time to compute this, but I think the median team payroll is around $12M. Considering releases and retirements, they could easily shed 1.5-3 mil, so they could really go out shopping and get serviceable replacements for some of the folks that aren't pulling their own weight. Can you believe Tommy Martinez makes north of half a mil a year? He isn't worth even half of that.
$3-4 mil may not sound like much in sports terms, but that's 50% of what they are spending now which makes it a significant increase.
I understand the percentages but one would not be too over assuming to think they could recoup that with merchandise and increased ticket sales. Maybe not in a year, I don't know the numbers, but in time surely.
Let's say average ticket price is $35 (which I think is generous, but not sure) and let's say you sell on average 3000 more tickets per game. That's $1.8 mil of revenue for the year. But, that's oversimplifying things a bit. If you are managing the stadium correctly, handling 3000 more people per game should come with higher costs (more ticket collectors, more security, more ushers, etc, etc.). If you don't, then you are going to piss those people off quickly all over again with long lines and what not. You pick up some concessions revenue with that. Incremental merchandise revenue, tbh, is going to be small unless you sign a player like Chicharito where shirt sales go through the roof. If you could spend another $3-4 mil in salary (don't forget the transfer fees that would come with that), AND you were guaranteed that you could sell out almost every game as a result, then yeah you could probably make it balance out. HOWEVER, reality is this organization has blown through its goodwill with most of the fans. You could spend another $3-4 mil and I honestly don't think it would make much of an impact on ticket sales. This is all hypothetical, though. This management team ain't spending another $3-4 mil per year. I think there is a far greater likelihood that the team salary budget goes back down to where it was first half of the year. It was the Ramirez trade that popped us out of last place in spending and sent us over $7 mil. If I was a betting man, I'd bet we are back down around $6 mil when next season starts.
Two thoughts: 1. While that sounds right, your letting under-spending define a big increase. Its only a 50% increase because current spending is so low. Kinda like being on the highway and increasing your speed from 40mph to 60mph is a 50% increase!! Wow! Dangerous! Uh .. no. 2. Does anyone have good information on how much salary money is available from MLS and other sources? From the league you get your standard budget, and you get GAM -- right? Is TAM owner provided or league provided? We know DP money above salary max is owner provided -- right? Anyone have a handle on all this because I certainly don't. Where is that cap expert who used to be on this board?
Good questions Don. I would like to follow up on these questions on the money our club has the capacity to invest in new players. Certainly on defense as we look towards 2020.
I enjoyed the win. I enjoyed honoring Beas. The game was entertaining in that neither team played defense. Personally, I don't really like that sort of game. Even open games can feature decent defense. The Dynamo still steal from their defense to create offense. Most possessions the Dynamo defended with never more than 8, sometimes 7 and a few times 6. Compare that to rancid LAG defense that still had 9 guys working defensively (only Zlatan stayed high). LAG lost interest when Zlatan lost interest when Vela started popping in goals like candy and was un-catchable for golden boot. I'm not confident that is what happened -- but the timing fits and its an entertaining theory. More likely LAG just wilted in the heat and humidity like we have seen them do so often before at our house and of course, they play poor defense. Elis was a beast. Perhaps the clarity in his mind of his future really got him going. He is now playing for that next contract somewhere else. Or maybe the big lumbering LAG outside backs just could not handle him. Good match-up. Boniek had a fairly strong game. Who ever made the fantastic through ball to Elis at the end of the first half -- that was special. I was not overall super-duper impressed with the Dynamo though. Don't get me wrong, I loved the game-long fight and effort. - Once again Lundqvist is lazy/poor on defense and concedes a goal. How do you not stand on Zlatans right foot there? He is not likely to score going to his left towards the endline. You have cover behind you. He is not a guy who will dribble your entire defense. Put some pressure on the ball and don't let him shoot with his right. - Possession, corners and shots were roughly equal. LAG won more tackles and duels. Dynamo never had control of the game until LAG legs faded in the second half. - LAG looked to me to be a far superior team for the first 60 minutes. I was going through the players on the field and I think I take 8 or 9 players in white over their orange counter-part if I'm picking a team from them. And I'm not picking Zlatan. - The difference in this game was that 1 Dynamo shot off the upright came straight back to Ramirez for the easy finish while 3 LAG shots off the woodwork came back to Dynamo defenders. That is it. Something to enjoy but not celebrate.
Agree, but I'm coming at it from the standpoint of the Dynamo ownership who, so far, have demonstrated that while everyone else may drive 60mph, they are perfectly content to putter along at 40mph.
For this bit, I'm in the midst of sorting through all of this for other reasons. A lot of the rules around this are actually built into the CBA, so with current CBA expiring some of this could change. GAM: - Annual base: $200k - Fail to qualify for playoffs: $200k - Don't buy 3rd DP spot: share in the distribution of GAM payments by teams that pay for 3rd DP spot - Qualify for CCL: $140k - Lose a player to free agency after making bona fide offer: $50k - Lose a player in expansion draft: $50k - Transfer revenue: Depending on how much you paid and how much you sell a player for, can get up to $700k GAM in a transfer situation TAM - Mandatory: $1.2 mil - Discretionary (owner funded): $2.8 mil
Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) are funds strategically provided by the league to teams to add or retain players that will make an immediate impact on the field. First announced in July 2015, each team initially received $100,000 in TAM per year for the next five years. Subsequent increases raised the amount of TAM given to each team to $800,000 per year in 2016, $1.2 million per year for the 2017 season and $1.2 million per year plus an additional $2.8 in optional, discretionary TAM for 2018 and 2019.
If I recall Brener's core business was real estate investment in apartments and the like. That business generally operates on improving real estate to the lowest amount possible to attract or retain a current market rent, thus why you see most apartments with cheap carpets, marginal fixtures, appliances, etc. that will be ridden hard for 4-5 years then replaced. Same thing on the Dynamo roster - Brener realizes he can move say 12,000 paid tickets per game (they have to be giving away 3,000 per or just flat lying about the attendance) by having a payroll of $7 million so why spend $11 million? Or $9 million? Or $14 million? They can call Jose Bizama a "Chilean National Team Player" and fool 1/3rd of the fanbase into thinking he's good. We have zero ambition if you define it thru actions, not words.
Of course — we all get that — but that was not the discussion. The discussion was about what it would take to compete. It was suggested getting to medium salary level was what was needed. You claimed it was too significant an increase being a 50% increase. My point that if you want to compete a 50% increase is not too significant from a low starting point. Atlanta went from $0 to well over $10m for an infinite percentage increase. The point is that evaluating the necessary spending to compete that Brener will likely not do should not be done using percentages because the starting point is woefully low.
So if I read this right and follow along, do we all agree that the club is only spending the base salary budget, GAM, the league provided TAM, and some DP money on our DPs? (Though they could be bought down with GAM/TAM). That the owners are not putting in any discretionary TAM. Where do you wonks think we are?
That's what I believe. Ownership spends up to the base budget set by MLS and supplements it with the league provided TAM/GAM/WHAMALAMADINGDONG money. They may be spending their own money on transfer fees, but if I recall correctly Cubo's purchase was funded by the league in large part. On another note - I scored 2 club seats for Oliver Lucks new XFL Houston Roughnecks for $900.
They burn the candle at both ends when it comes to money in/money out, recall that over the last 7 seasons, when a player can be sold for profit, perhaps begging to be sold, our FO finds ways to let players's contracts expire and thus move on with no money changing hands in the manner that it could have happened. Just yesterday was an article on our Panterita declaring his intent "to see out his contract with Houston." Well done.
Another satisfied Dynamo customer. BTW, the last game of the season is usually filled with stuff like this (stale peanuts, expired Diet Pepsi bottles, etc.) because they try to limit how much they have to order knowing that there are few events left at the stadium in 2019 and want to use up what they have in inventory. http://mobile.twitter.com/bong0fett/status/1181614852340670464
Just make sure you pay in installments so you can keep some of your money when the league folds during the first season.
I read that tweet and the responses. Our club fuc{s up food! In Houston!!! A city where men n women and their food are quite fond of one another.
Look, it was a fun game on Sunday with a nice atmosphere but if these guys think Sunday was electric . . . . . . I guess they never went to a playoff game at Robertson Sunday was a taste of what @BBVAStadium can be every game next season. The atmosphere was electric and it gave our boys the SURGE⚡️ they needed to comeback. 2020 will be special for the @HoustonDynamo. Be part of it!Join @TheSurgeSG #ForeverOrange pic.twitter.com/ZFKUIMzxkj— The Surge SG (@TheSurgeSG) October 8, 2019 The below are youtube links to highlights of the old days - I think 2007 Dallas game was best atmosphere (although it doesn't come thru highlights that well) but when Mullen volleyed in the clinching goal vs. Colorado in 2006 the place exploded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdsujMryMaU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjYfD_ZqCKw
The 07 Dallas/KC games were amazing. Both games sold out, with KC somehow getting a bigger crowd. Absolutely bonkers fun.