Sorry, thought you meant this season's signings. They actually signed Ciani midway through last season. They also signed two fairly defensive midfielders in Jermaine Jones and Joao Pedro. Pedro was a $1.5m transfee fee. Unfortunately, everyone I've mentioned so far in this post sucked. Jonathan and Alessandrini were also expensive. JDS did alright. Alessandrini was our best player. Weird season all round though, because we shed most of our squad depth in a bid to promote the Galaxy II kids. Aside from Bradford Jamieson IV, they mostly flamed out horribly, even the longstanding prospects like McBean and the Villareal brotheres. And now it looks like BJ IV could possibly be done, due to his concussion history. The experiment failed miserably BUT if it had succeeded, it would have triggered a transition of youth players into the starting lineup.
There were 31 players on $500k or more in 2017. They're certainly the most watched other than Liga MX and el clasico.
*sigh* I really shouldn't jump into another one of these threads, but here goes. In the US, we have the fantasy that through hard work and perseverance, anyone can be successful. The truth is that it requires a lot of luck, and the deck is stacked for those with money. We all realize this, but still fantasize about this nice even playing field for all. That fantasy is where our desire for salary caps and parity measures comes into sports. We use these things to ensure that sports can fulfill the fantasy that many people have of real life. Promotion and relegation is at odds with those fantasies. It is survival of the fittest. A situation that in sports means that the deck is stacked in favor of those with the most money. Professional sports is nothing but another method of entertainment. Most of entertainment is a form of escapism. We don't want to see the same problem that faces ourselves also facing our escapist outlet. All that said, ever since I learned about promotion and relegation, I have been fascinated with it. I also think that it doesn't really fit with the way American sports have evolved. It may eventually come to American soccer, but it surely won't come to MLS. If nothing else, endless lawsuits by the league, team owners, sponsors, broadcast partners, and municipalities with contracts will make sure of that.
‘Too Small to Succeed’: The perils of owning a lower-division pro soccer team April 18, 2018 Nipun Chopra Good read, but Erik Stover's responses on twitter yesterday were actually better than the article itself... Erik Stover's responses: If there is a team that is generating enough money through ticket sales to offset costs, THEY ARE THE OUTLIER. A very rare outlier, that is probably propped up by the hope of MLS expansion. Regarding your TV section, the simple fact is that TV costs money, it doesn’t generate money. There are probably MLS teams that this is still the case for with their local deals, by the way. Also, the NASL didn’t charge a fee for any of its national deals. The ONE World Sports, beIN Sports and ESPN 3 deals did not cost the league anything, except production costs. There were a few regular season games on CBS Sports Net that were time buys but that money was small. The fact that TV money is hoarded at the top of the US Soccer pyramid is a major factor in lower division instability. There needs to be greater cooperation between the divisions so some TV money is available. The one big thing that I think you missed is the lack of development compensation and transfer revenue. The fact that MLS doesn’t pay for player development, aside from their own academy guys, or transfer fees for lower division players is another major factor that deters further investment and American youth player development. Why have an academy that doesn’t generate revenue and doesn’t deliver any transfer fees? Edit: And finally, this........ "If you take TV money, transfer money and solidarity payment revenue away from the Championship, League One and League Two clubs in England, that pyramid would collapse and collapse quickly."
I may respond to the rest later, but I'm in a hurry. Solidarity payments are relatively new, as is TV revenue on the current scale. So that's 2/3 elements that those divisions coped without for most of thrir history. Non-league clubs don't get much of that TV revenue at all. We're once again back to citing England like our circumstances are typical. No nation had a TV deal like ours and their leagues don't collapse. However, if Erik is right, that's not an argument for pro/rel, it's an argument for subsidy and a bumper TV deal. I'd say then that the SUM/USSF deal is vital and must be extended to subsidise the levels; something we're seeing the infancy of in the USL/MLS partnership and the growing connection to youth soccer teams. However, countless other leagues have survived for generations without that kind of TV deal and solidarity payments. One more thing that is coming out of that discussion (in which I'm involved) is the challenge by owners that fans don't always do enough to support lower league soccer. Tellingly, that's resulting in a response of "well why should we?". That mentality may be a giant factor in why a pro/rel pyramid hasn't emerged organically before now, in ANY US sport.
Nipun, who is an otherwise brilliant guy, writes a stupid article in which he paints millionaires as victims because they want to get to D1 on the cheap, Eric “Cosmos fan boy” Stover responds by implying that lower level teams should get TV money that MLS generates (Stover’s wrong on a couple more things, big surprise) and like clockwork Ruffy shares this BS because it feeds his narrative. The only thing missing is an out of context video. Let me predict how the rest of this is going to go. Someone will poke holes in Nipun and Stover’s logic, and challenge Jeff to defend his position. Ruffy will respond by whining about people belittling him while never addressing the issue at hand. M will like Ruffy’s whining and chime in about cartel admission fees and might add an “exciting” story about hot the Potterhamshire Albion Athletic Shrimps are fighting for promotion to the Strongbow English Championship Level 2. We’ll get more complaining about moderators, references to the Deloitte survey, and how people have heart-felt beliefs that pro/rel is awesome. Someone else will post a poorly thought out think piece and the cycle of the pro/rel in the USA thread will continue
If there is no transfer from USL -> MLS that is something that has to be addressed. On the other hand, if IMG are charging up to $40k per semester, do they really need a transfer fee? Did Dortmund pay a transfer fee for Pulisic? Incidentally the ITV TV deal for EFL TV rights, which I think was the first EFL TV contract collapsed in 2002 and the pyramid survived. As for Premier League distributing TV rights among lower league clubs, the EPL has used it as leverage to get concessions from the Football League. Any EFL player who is out of contract can be signed by a EPL club for free. Most EFL closed their academies after the EPL threatened to pull TV money in return for being able to raid lower division academies for a relatively low fee. I doubt any other major soccer league distributes TV money among lower division clubs, in fact in Italy (and maybe Spain) individual clubs negotiate TV deals.
I do think the point that the fact that winning the league provides no renumeration is valid. Literally, what is the point in investing in improving your club if there's actually a financial penalty (i.e. more games to pay your players for) in winning?
Ain’t it odd that this rich guy in Indy bought into this league knowing all the rules and all of the sudden is a “victim” and is suddenly just realizing that it costs money to run a professional sports team. IIRC there’s no purse for teams in any professional American sport while players do often receive personal bonuses for postseason wins, etc.
A reminder that USL attendances (minus reserve teams) are on a par with D2 leagues in Europe and Mexico even without pro/rel.
I asked him but didn't get a response ... maybe you can shed some light? Where in the world is the TV money NOT hoarded at the top of the pyramid? At least, where the money is of any significance ... Also, you're saying that they NEED the handout, correct? How do the other leagues warrant any monies generated by the top league? Except the youth clubs/academies that aren't MLS academies are already paid to "develop" those players. Why should they be paid twice? no TF's for lower division players? So how'd MLS teams get Van Oakel, Corrales, Ibeagha, Kaye, Vincent ...? So the English pyramid is so fragile that relatively paltry amounts of monies are the difference in surviving and collapsing? https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...me-efl-starving-accrington-chairman-andy-holt It is understood Accrington and each League Two club will receive £430,000 in solidarity payments from the Premier League this season. The payments are linked to the value of the Premier League’s broadcasting rights, with League One clubs getting £650,000 each and Championship clubs £4.3m.
What is the average population size of the locales that USL teams play in as compared to the leagues you are comparing them against and how many have a major league team within range?
You forgot to add that a "crazy" poster will then post an "oh-so-clever" snark about other posters on the thread. Meanwhile, I see that Gainsborough Trinity may well be relegated for the first time in their 145 year history (they were voted out of the Football League in 1912). They escaped with a win on the last day of the season last year, but they probably will have to win both their remaining games - which happen to be against teams also in dire risk of going down - to preserve their record.
*searches for Gainsborough Trinity Albion Beef Wellington FC among American soccer teams* Oh they are subject to the English Football Cartel...sorry...Association. *Double checks subject of this thread. Triple checks history* Well. It seems like history hasn’t changed and Lord Cornwallis still surrendered at Yorktown (Thanks George and Louis) and plate tectonics still work (thanks convection currents in the Earth’s mantle) so it doesn’t matter what Kingdom Brunel and Suffix Toad in the Hole Athletic Club did in jolly old England
I suggest you take that up with the moderator of the thread instead of continuing to pollute it with your ramblings.
Meanwhile, back on subject, I see "phoenix club" Hereford just won their third successive promotion and will be playing in the National League North or South next season. They are a good example of how a team can be rebuilt post-bankruptcy and incrementally work their way back up the pyramid, thanks to pro/rel, through their own endeavours on the field of play.
Subject “Pro/rel in the USA” location of Hereford FC *squints* western England. Looks like your geography needs work.
How much were NASL going to charge Cal United and San Diego for an expansion fee? All NASL would say is that the expansion fee was between $1 and $10 Million. Plus Minnesota would have had to pay 10% of $150 million when they joined MLS. USL is going to cap it's expansion fee at $5 million.