Since we just got a team this year, I've never lived through the January transfer window and don't know what to expect. Arsenal and other European clubs were reportedly interested in Miggy when we snagged him from Lanus for an $8.5 million transfer fee. But will "they" (Div 1 European Clubs) come calling again, with bigger offers this time? How about Martinez? Any risk of him being sold? I know both are a priority for ATL UTD and they can only be bought if ATL agrees to sell, but MLS can't come close to matching the money of the Big Five European leagues, especially when "big" clubs like Arsenal are involved. Plus, I can't find any info at all on the length of their contracts. Thoughts?
I think we all know they'll be gone soon enough. Just enjoy them while they are here, and pray our scouts can find some more of them. Hopefully Blank is willing to pay big bucks to keep them around as long as possible though. Keep in mind we've still got guys on the books that were signed before Tata taking up roster space. I'm confident for the future!
All I know is they're worth way more than 9mil each. Personally, I'd value Martinez and Almiron in the 40m range and Villalba at 15m. Anything less and we got ripped off.
Well, if they can sell Almiron and Martinez for anything close to $40 million, I guess they'd be crazy not to do so. Take that money and go buy more DNPs that are just as good or better. In fact, it may work to ATL's advantage in the long run if we become a pipeline for promising young Latin American players who prove themselves in MLS on their way to Europe. Makes it easier to sign the next promising young star. Buy low, sell high, and keep the talent flowing. That said, I LOVE Villalba as a MLS player. Fairly good finisher and he hustles his butt-off. But I'm not convinced he's first-team quality for a big European league. Our goals per game were cut in half when Martinez was out injured. By the way, two guys that are playing WAY above their salaries are Asad and Garza. Hope we can shed some salary with other players who are rarely in the starting 11 to give those guys big raises and keep them in ATL.
I think we're maybe setup a bit better for that than some MLS clubs because of Martino and the front office. I'm 100% convinced he can find more talent and convince players to come to Atlanta because we're a big club (in MLS) and we're winning and playing attractive ball. And let's face it- we can attract some players to ATL because of the stadium and atmosphere who might not want to go to other MLS clubs. 42K is a big-ish club no matter what league you're playing in. This is my first year following MLS. How does the salary cap work? Is it high enough that we might be able to outspend other clubs with income from superior attendance? Or is it so low that our size doesn't help us?
No one knows 100% how the rules work... especially when you add in TAM or GAM. But the way I understand it is that most teams probably are close to hitting the cap. Personally, I think the easiest solution would be HGPs and DPs are cap exempt players, and returning players get 10% discount towards their cap every year. Also give every MLS team 4 DPs.
Absolutely. The fact that Tata coached both Argentina and Barcelona has HUGE cache' with South American players. He has enormous credibility, he coaches a style of play that they can relate to, he speaks their native language, and they'll trust that he is the guy that can get them to the "big leagues." It's the same sales pitch of a college football coach that has a good track record of sending players to the NFL. As for the salary cap, it's only around $3.8 million right now, but clubs end up spending a lot more than that because there are up to 3 players per team where only a tiny portion of their salary counts against the cap and they have pools of allocation money that can be used to go beyond the league max salary on a few others. The rules of what you can do with each player based on how they were acquired, their age, international vs. domestic, etc. are rather detailed & complicated, but that's the layman's explanation. As a result, all MLS clubs are on an even playing field for about 15 of the 20 players on their senior roster. But the deep-pocket clubs can out-spend the others on their 3 designated player slots or in how they use their allocation money. Here's a good breakdown of the actual difference in payroll among MLS clubs, prior to the summer transfer window (give the graphic a second to load): http://the18.com/soccer-news/2017-mls-player-salaries-wages-team-salary-cap-contracts Atlanta is in the upper third in payroll but that's based on decisions that were made before they knew how big a hit the team would be. I suspect they'll be among the league leaders going forward because the TV money is minimal and pretty equally-shared whereas the difference in revenue comes from ticket sales and merchandising.
Yep. I'd actually forgotten about him coaching Argentina, but that's huge. Okay, thanks. This gives me a start... Thanks. Next, I'll be asking about this crazy-looking schedule (even without the stadium delays, it's just a weird setup). I'm trying to figure out why MLS didn't simply have every team play each conference team twice (20 matches) and each non-conference team once (11 matches) for a total of 31 games. That'd be balanced, but they added three games for seemingly no reason.
MLS has been playing 34 games for several years now. Most other leagues have 20 teams and 38 games to accommodate 2 games (home and away) vs. each of the other 19 teams. But those leagues don't have playoffs. MLS has playoffs, so there are slightly fewer regular season games to keep the season about the same length overall. 34 games doesn't work out perfectly for a balanced schedule, especially when the overall number of teams keeps changing via expansion. So, you end up playing 3 matches against two conference teams (Orlando and DC in ATL's case) plus one extra vs. the other conference (Minny in ATL's case). But the league is expanding to 28 teams over the next few years. So, that 3rd game vs. a given opponent won't last much longer. Ultimately, the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL all have unbalanced schedules too, but it's not that big a deal a league that has conferences and playoffs rather than just awarding the championship to the team at the top of the final standings.
Thanks. I knew about the other leagues' 38 game seasons, of course... I was thinking to myself that a reg season + playoffs deserves a balanced schedule as much as single-table, just for different reasons. I'd have favored a balanced 31-game sched this season, with future seasons changing the number of games (some years more, some years fewer) as clubs are added until MLS has as many clubs as it wants. It looks like MLS prioritized consistency in the number of league games per season (and consistency in the record books, for season-season comparisons by fanalysts. I do get that) over schedule consistency in each individual season. This will work perfectly with 24 teams in two conferences (I'm sure I'm not the first to say this on BigSoccer). Play each of your 11 division opponents twice for 22, and every non-division club once for 12. MLS needs only one more club (LA's already on the clock) to make it happen. But I bet they try to shoehorn a 25th or 26th team into the league and screw it all up.
We already know the league will eventually expand to 28. LAFC is #23 and will begin play in 2018. David Beckham's Miami team is supposed to be #24, but their official addition to the league is not official yet and the timeline is still unknown due to multiple delays in getting a stadium location and financing in place. Sounds like they are finally getting close though, so lets assume that eventually goes through. By the end of this year, expansion teams #25 and 26 will be selected and will begin play by 2020. In the next year or so, expansion teams #27 and #28 will be selected with the intention of them beginning play by 2023 (the year the next TV contract will go into effect). Not sure yet if they'll maintain 2 conferences or break into 4 divisions at that point for scheduling reasons, but all of that is secondary to getting the right clubs in the right markets, with strong ownership groups and viable stadium plans.
The NFL has 32 teams, whereas MLB, NBA, and NHL each have 30. So, 28 is not an unreasonable number for MLS. You have to remember that the USA has about 5-7 times the population of countries like England, Germany, Spain, France, or Italy, most of whom have 20-team leagues. The key to MLS becoming a truly relevant league both domestically and abroad is increasing the value of the TV deal. It's currently worth only $90 million per year whereas most major US sports leagues, as well as just about all of the Big 5 European soccer leagues, make billions per year on their deals. Until MLS starts to close that gap, they can't raise the salary cap and allocation money to where it needs to be, increase the number of designated players per teams, etc. and truly compete for elite talent. Increasing the TV revenue is also critical to financing new soccer-specific stadiums, training facilities, and developmental academies. So, the next phase of growth for the league is all about filling-in the geographic footprint and capturing most, if not all, of the major media markets in the US and Canada. And they want to accomplish that before negotiating the next long-term TV deal. The current deal runs through 2022.
So, with the rumors ramping up, and a nearly universal concession that Almiron WILL eventually leave, what is your magic transfer number? What figure would make you say, yep, that's good business. I can totally understand the team accepting that. Does that number change next year at this time? Can Miggy show anything more than he's already displayed in the MLS that would increase his fee? Are you comfortable with the risk of injury if we keep him another year or two?