How to use $2.8 million in TAM

I would guess they made trades for some spots. Most likely not for permanent spots like we stupidly traded away.

 

Quick math; 22 teams x 8 intl spots = 176 spots
Counting down the list of expansion draft there are 194 internationals on that list. So 18 more than there should be based upon the math.

Maybe the youth internationals count differently, number at 9 per my count, we have one with Jose Hernandez.

Point being, there is some MLS funny math going on with roughly 9 international roster spots and some teams are obviously using them, Atlanta and Toronto having 12 and 11 respectively.

 

Maybe new teams get extra for a couple/few years? I honestly don't know. I know Colorado traded one of theirs (our spot ) for a few years, so I figured that was the reason.

 

To paraphrase George Orwell, "All MLS teams are equal but some MLS teams are more equal than others."

 

I do believe that the 3 Canadian teams have different international spot allocation numbers than the US teams. I am not sure how different it is as it was years ago that I read about it. But, they have some distinct roster rule differences. I believe that American's don't count as international players for them though Canadians do count against US teams for one.

 

I disagree
Imagine if RSL was able to take max profit from players like Lennon, Glad, and (especially) Salcedo. You can make up for years of investment on one or two really good players.

 

A good reason why we should take the Taylor Booth news very seriously. If we keep losing the major prospects to European teams for free, the academy is going to be a money pit.

 

I would think that as MLS continues to grow, the desire to play in Europe will fade. Not many years ago we were losing players to Denmark and Norway. Those days seem to mostly be gone and the only remaining countries that we will lose them to are the EPL and the top teams in a few of the other top counties.

RSL just needs to continue to show the youth players that they can get playing time here if they earn it, and they will likely get it here sooner than at a Liverpool or Arsenal. After RSL sells a couple of these young guys to big European teams, that will show they the feasibility of sticking it out here short term near their family in their teenage years then making the big move as a more experienced player.

All of that said. We lost Lennon (temporarily it appears... can we have him talk to the academy about why he wants to come back... if that happens to be the case?) but we managed to maintain Glad and Acosta who have both earned regular starting positions, and both who I honestly feel have more to offer than what Lennon showed last season. Not to mention Bofo and Hernandez who were on the 18 regularly enough and Allen who if he weren't made of glass, would have likely played a lot of minutes the past couple of seasons. If we continue to lose one here and there but retain most, we'll be just fine.

 

I saw an interesting argument/discussion about this on another thread. Can't remember where it was now, unfortunately.

One of the main take aways was that there is a growing model in MLS (especially with our very own club) of identifying talent that is already in Europe but isn't getting chances at the top levels/with national teams. Rusnak is the perfect example of this. MLS would be wise to find these players and groom them to reach their potential and then sell them back to a larger Euro club and make a profit.

So how does this tie into your point? If MLS clubs go this route, they're going to limit the spots available on traditional roster setups for "young player with potential". No GM is going to build a 30 man roster with players all in that category (no matter how much fun that would be). So if an MLS club goes and gets a player like Rusnak, it means we have one less spot on the roster for young/raw talent. Which means those players go where? Likely Europe

 

Meh, that's just part of putting together a viable team. It doesn't matter that he's from Europe per se. It's just a balance of players in their prime, developing, and in veteran status. That'll never go away.

 

but it's not a technique that was used very much in MLS prior to recent years. Especially not here at RSL. We didn't get young players from Europe. We didn't look at players who we would likely end up selling later on. Before we went and got guys like Javi, Russell, Borchers, etc. They were on the other end of the roster building you mentioned. The young end, previously, was designated for draft picks and the like. This inverts that setup/ideology.

 

That happens everywhere though. There's always going to be the group that is good enough to make the team, not good enough but may go elsewhere and come back later if they grow, and picking up good players from other teams that aren't getting playing time. All we can really do is try and maximize our overall profit from the sales.

Maybe you're more optimistic on how soon stuff like this will happen. I don't see it happening for at least 10 years. I'd love to see it sooner though. I'm not sure how old DLH is, so that's why I figured that by the time it may turn a profit, he'd possibly already be out of the business. While I'm sure his end goal is to profit, it seems to me that this is more of a passion project for him.

 

Dude, I just gave three examples that have ALREADY happened. This was with the less than ideal setup of the academy being a rented facility in Arizona, too.
Hell, Salcedo alone is currently valued at 3.5 million Euros.
We have the aforementioned Taylor Booth in the academy now but is linked to a move to Schalke.
Glad's value is shooting up and will continue to with a call up to the full national team coming.

 

How do European and SA academies prevent their players from moving to their first contract for free? Are there European contract/labor laws that allow signing academy kids to contracts that don't exist in the states? Or is this a matter of the team figuring out how to sign them before they graduate? If the latter, maybe it's time for Dell Loy to spend some real money to poach someone from a successful academy system overseas to oversee how our players make that transition.

 

To condense a really big and complex issue, FIFA has a system of solidarity payments for youth clubs that MLS doesn't adhere to.

This is a fairly accessible read on the subject.

RSL occasionally poaches from other academies. Need to remember that Salcedo is actually a player who only joined our academy after he turned 18. We could do it more - we can actually sign players from non-MLS DA teams to the Monarchs.

 

this speaks more to your run of the mill youth club (think Sparta) losing a player. Not RSL. The specific case of Yedlin is one that Crossfire feels they deserve compensation, Seattle and MLS say no.

The phase of this that I have a hard time with, though, is at the time when a player is with an MLS academy. What if Spurs had identified Yedlin sooner (prior to him signing a contract with Seattle's first team) would they owe compensation to anyone? The way I understand it (see Brooks Lennon) is no.

So the question becomes: What are clubs in Europe/SA/Mexico/etc doing with their academy kids (in terms of contracts) that we in the US/MLS are not?

To tie this back to the article: why did Rosenheim get money on Schweinsteiger moving but we didn't get money for Lennon moving?

 

Is it the way labor laws are setup perhaps? I do feel like we should get some kind of compensation for losing someone in the academy.

I know European teams buy players from other academies to join theirs all the time, so it seems like the issue is on our end.

 

It is strictly due to an MLS decision. This may be a better read.

MLS has never paid nor received solidarity payments. So RSL didn't receive compensation when Lennon went to Liverpool, nor did we pay money to Chivas' when we signed Salcedo in 2012 (AFAIK). It would be a big shift in MLS if we started adopting the FIFA system, which most countries use.

USSF insists that the primary reason they don't use this system is child labor laws in the US. The players union is also vehemently opposed.

 

Yeah, mixing money changing hands and underage soccer players together makes people rather uneasy.