United States, Canada, Mexico could form combined league after 2026 World Cup - Liga MX chief

Argentina Media (some) thinks every Latin League is below them, they also make fun/light of Liga MX.

Judging a league by what haters may think is not a great way to judge a league.

You also have the opposite, in some Univision shows some commentators use MLS to hate on Liga MX. Some is legit, like when teams in Mexico don't pay players, or talk about how nice MLS/NFL stadiums are, ect.

 

Come on you are missing the point. Every comparison that is done between MLS and any SA league is hypothetical. Only way to prove MLS real level is by competing and actually winning.

As for the actual soccer specific stadiums, Mexico has better ones. As for NFL stadiums, no one in the world comes even close. And yes, in Mexico and Latin America soccer leagues have not payed players but I am not talking about stadiums or players getting payed, I am talking about the level of competition MLS has.

 

Many also like the no pro/rel, specially after how pro/rel works in Mexico where the highest bidder gets to stay on first division.

When it comes to marketing, finances, many Mexican commentators are jealous of MLS.

In terms of quality of play, there is a split, some see the improvement of MLS as a challenge to LMX, some still see a big gap between the 2.

In terms of comparing, back when LMX used to compete in South America, by Coefficient calculation, they were the 5th or 6th (I can't remember) "best" league in Libertadores, MLS based on Concacaf coefficient would probably rank between 8th or 12th (11 right now is Venezuela, well they are 10th since Mexico does not play there anymore).

One caveat of this, international competition ranks top teams in leagues, not the league overall.

In some leagues (say Liga MX for example) the difference between top teams and bottom teams in a given year is not that huge, in other leagues there are a handful (some only 1) of teams that totally dominate the league.

The latter may score better in international competitions (the same team doing great year after year) while the first more balanced league may not do as well, but it may have a much larger number of teams representing the league at international level.

So it would be debatable what of the 2 leagues are better.

 

Jesus Christ! Let me see if I can explain this with one clear example.

Atlanta United was looking at buying Ivan Marcone from Lanus in Argentina. I don't have specifics on his transfer fee or what ATL was willing to pay him. But based on the salary cap (or budget) Marcone was only going to be paid several hundred thousand dollars. More than likely TAM level, not DP, as ATL already had 3DPs. Marcone goes to Mexico with Cruz Azul and ATL settles for Remedi. Marcone>Remidi. Is Remidi good? Sure! But Marcone is better which requires more money. And by the looks of it, ATL is not struggling in the money department. So due to the "rules" most MLS teams have to settle for 3rd best or worst. That is why most MLS teams aren't well built all around and most suffer in defense because there is not enough "budget" to spread it around the whole team.

If you don't see this happening then no wonder people are okay with whatever MLS does. It is this kind of rules that limit MLS from having better built teams thus being held back. There are exceptions though.

 

Under that logic Barcelona is being held back by FFP rules.

 

Half a dozen teams are being held back. The rest haven't even filled their DP slots. This is from Wikipedia, so there's no guarantee it's accurate.:

3 DPs

Atlanta United
Columbus Crew
FC Dallas
LA Galaxy
Los Angeles FC
New York City FC
Orlando City
Sporting Kansas City
Toronto

2 DPs

Chicago Fire
Colorado Rapids
D.C. United
Houston Dynamo
Minnesota United
Montreal Impact
New York Red Bulls
Philadelphia Union
Portland Timbers
Real Salt Lake
San Jose Earthquakes
Seattle Sounders
Vancouver Whitecaps

1 DP

New England Revolution

Would I prefer half a dozen teams to buy themselves the MLS Cup every season, or would I prefer teams with lower payrolls producing a ton of home grown players to remain competitive?

I'd like to see parity maintained as much as possible but a much bigger salary budget.

 

Plus they are supporter owned, as are Real Madrid, which limits investment possibilities. German clubs also face ownership rules, which limit outside investment.

Bundesliga clubs have another disadvantage. Chelsea have lost €112m in the last two years. In that scenario Bayern Munich would face fines, a transfer embargo and/or have points deducted.

 

That was written over seven years ago. If the top clubs keep threatening without doing, they become the boy who cried wolf.

I agree. Being okay with how much clubs spend now doesn't mean you don't want clubs to spend more later. It's like a younger person being satisfied with his or her income doesn't mean he or she would be satisfied making that amount ten years later.

 

Instead of that, how about a pre-season tournament? You know, like the CCL.

 

Here we go comparing Euro teams with MLS. We don't compete with Europe in any actual tournaments, at least not now. MLS competes with Liga MX and maybe by 2020 will be competing with South Americans. I wish we had at least a quarter of what Barcelona is allowed to spend, for the MLS salary cap.

 

Finally someone gets it!

I initially said I understand why the salary cap is in place and I also said that it is that same salary cap that limits MLS teams when it comes to International competition. If they aren't willing to take off the salary cap, at least double it so teams can become more competitive and you have the best of both worlds; parity but with more money to build better teams. If MLS weren't competing in CCL or whatever it competes at international level, then yes, a salary cap is good only for league play.

 

What does MLS gain from winning Champions League? What pot of gold will they finally claim that is currently denied them?

 

Someone on this thread already posted this and according to Wiki MLS is the second highest grossing league in revenue from the Americas. Only beaten by Brazil. And I am sure that will change very soon too and it will become the highest grossing league in revenue in the Americas. The money and infrastructure are there. And as some other poster in this thread posted, MLS usually gets on average 15k fans per game. So if MLS has the revenue and steady increase why are they afraid of significantly raising the cap? I am sure those who have followed MLS for years are aware that with the introduction of TAM, MLS teams got better and started performing better at CCL. Better players started appearing in the league too. So it is no mystery that more money will only lead to better teams.

 

Here we go not addressing the point...

 

Its also (likely) the highest league in the Americas in operational expenses (excluding player/coaching salaries).

 

No, the point was that different European leagues are "handicapped" by financial constraints. If German clubs were allowed to go on spending binge, like Chelsea or PSG, they'd be more competitive in the UCL. But they're subject to strict financial constraints preventing them from Hong y into debt.

To give a non-European example, the A-League salary cap is $1 million less than the J-League cap.

 

J-League average?

I don't think Japan has a salary cap, unless this is something new.

 

No you're right. Blame Google!

 

So the point is that MLS should stay with a handicap while competing outside its league? MLS direct competition is Liga MX and soon will be CONMEBOL and they are not "handicapped". No wonder MLS gets embarrassed year after year in CCL. One thing MLS "fans" can't deny is that MLS got more competitive as salary cap increased (introduction of TAM aka more money). Fans can say parity all they want, which is good, but that "parity" doesn't work outside of the league.

And I'll just end it here. My main point or concern, as a fan, is for MLS to be competitive at an international level. Like any fan of any team, you want your team to win. I believe that the salary cap prevents MLS from doing so but as we can see from recent results, it got better as that salary cap increased.

 

The salary cap is a collective bargaining issue, and increasing it has been a relatively low priority for the players.

 

Sounds like an awesome premise for a show.