Man Utd's wage bill is around the $160 million mark. A $30 million salary cap wouldn't even pay for Derby County's team.
Consider that the scenario I paint is an MLS with a $30m salary cap. You can also assume at least 20 teams to try to keep things comparable. That is $600 million in salary. That is roughly equivalent to total EPL wages. The EPL concentrates it all in four teams while MLS would spread it out among all teams. MLS, with $30 million salary cap will compete strongly for a good hunk of those international TV deals. My main point is that the US market is big enough for MLS to become a top league in the world and not have to displace any existing US sports league. I reiterate that I see this as potential -- which is not a prediction. Only time will tell. If MLS abandons the parity policy, or misteps in any other of many possible ways, it will greately diminish the potential I see.
Why do we apply a pejorative term towards Europeans for, heaven forbid, liking their own league better than ours? That's not snobbery, that's what you wish people here felt about MLS. Where it ever concerns us is when we're confronted by the fans among us who will not watch MLS, who are not paying their money for tickets or merchandise to support MLS, even though they're professed to be soccer fans and living in the United States. That's when we ought to apply the term "Eurosnobs", because that's the only case where we should ever feel offended. Does that make sense?
I could not verify your claim. What I found was that the average EPL salary was somewhere around GBP$650k two years ago. So I converted GBP$700k into US$1.3m per year. Therefore, US$30m will support a 23 player squad at EPL salaries in MLS. That means same salaries as EPL and bigger MLS squads than we currently have. Perhaps you have a different source for EPL salary information. Salary seach currency converter
Well according to the BBC article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6705251.stm Wich are based un numbers from deloitte the premier league wages was expected to reach £1B in the 2006/07 season that is allmost $100mill in wages pr.club.
You're right. MLS will never surpass those massive clubs in Europe. What's going to happen is that MLS is going to suck the gut out of European soccer. We will get all the best players who are not playing for those elite clubs (and will get some of the elite as well). We wont get many of the best European born players, but we will start getting some of the great African, Asian and South American players and keep our own at home. All MLS has to do is get as popular as the NHL and we'll have 30 teams, each with a 50 million dollar salary cap. We'll have the greatest league in the world where all teams are competitive and capable of winning internationally. We wont have any of the top 20 clubs in the world, we'll just have numbers 20 through 50. The European leagues, which are already lopsided, will become so predictable that they are almost not worth playing. The gulf between the big teams and everyone else will be so massive that it will be impossible for anyone but the elite to win the league and get spots in the ECL. In fact, I think you're eventually going to see a permanent separation of the big clubs from their domestic leagues into a permanent Champions League style Euro SuperLeague, but that's another thread. This is many years away but it is going to happen. In the short term, we'll just continue our process of steady improvement. We will get better every year and become more relevant every year. I'm enjoying the ride and I think most of other posters here are doing the same.
We'll never get Eurosnobs to like MLS as long as our young stars like Guzan and Eddie Johnson leave for better leagues. Salary cap must be raised significantly by 2010.
Just wondering to the Europeans following MLS, what exactly made you want to follow MLS? I think its great, but I just would like to know your reasoning behind putting effort into following a lesser foreign league just because I would not be willing to do the same.
It's not so much of a problem when our players leave for clearly better leagues. What bothers me is when our players leave for inferior leagues just because they have more money. I can't wait for our cap to increase so we don't have to watch our players going to Scandanavia, Austria, Greece, etc.... Even Holland and Scotland bother me. Those leagues are barely better then MLS on the whole (and I'd argue that MLS is a stronger league top to bottom then Scotland).
Actually, I rather like the English basketball team...they have two players from the bulls, Luol Deng and Ben Gordon in it. So why not? I'm a huge, huge baseball fan and I've been to caribbean baseball games and trust me...I completely admire the the passion and dedication of their fans. Honestly, I don't have some chip on my shoulder where I have to go out of my way to trash other leagues or teams. Or be delusional and think some upstart league that hasn't even achieved profit, can hang with the big boys. It wouldn't bother me if a fan of Arsenal trashed my team, who cares. I'm fan of other teams with tradition and history that go further back than any European team (The Chicago National League Ball Club, est. 1871, a tradition in losing but a tradition all the same and no one and I mean no one chokes like we do. Except for the Dutch). Actually, the best part about being a fan of the MLS is that we can start our own traditions. We're the founders. We're the ones whose picture will gather dust in some tavern and whose stories will be passed down generation by generation, if we're lucky. The league right now, is just an ember, but one that we...the fans keep alive. But with any luck, it will blossom into a raging fire and when that happens we can say "I was there, when all this was nothing." Personally, my goals for the MLS are not to compete with Liverpool or Barcelona...but with the likes of Gremio, River Plate, Boca, and America. Then if we get lucky, we can collect some scalps in the World Championships when no one is looking and the world can waste their breath explaining how Inter/Arsenal/Real/etc didn't take it seriously, while we blow rasberries in their face and sing "We Are the Champions" until our throats bleed. [SIZE=-1]As a wise man one said (If you don't know which one, shame on you): First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.[/SIZE]
Not really, as it is already said by others 30$ million isn't very much (and even with an 10-20 % annual growth in the salary cap it would take some years), and while the MLS will grow so will the other leagues. MLS at that time will still be behind the 7 or 8 biggest leagues in Europa (EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 France, Eresdivisie, SPL and the Russian Superleague) and maybe not even be on par with the biggest clubs in Scandinavia, Greece, Ukraine, Turkey and Portugal. Look at a team like CFR Cluj from Romania, they have spend almost 10$ million on transfers this season alone, my estimate is that they spend somewhere between 15 and 20 million dollars on salaries.
My main reason is that it is American and i find the USA the most fascinating country on the planet and second that it was interesting to see something new and very different grow and develop. The most fascinating thing about MLS is the parity and the fact that every team have a chance of succes (execpt for RSL...). I started out as a Crew-fan because they were the first to get a SSS at the time i jumped along and also b/c it was the former team of Stern John, who was one of my favorites in Nottingham Forest.
that average includes youth and reserve players, and also does not include bonuses, which can be quite substantial. That average works out at around £6500 a week. Reading are one of the lower payers in the division, and first team squad salaries are still £15000 a week and upwards. The top premiership players are on up to £130,000 a week, which would eat up half of that $30 million cap alone. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.../1008108_football_finance_special_united.html MANCHESTER United's total wage bill for the 2005/2006 Premiership season was £85million - £29m less than Chelsea. The figures are revealed in accountant Deloitte's annual football finance review. The report also predicts that £200,000 per week wages will be paid within the next three seasons. Key points of the report: :remiership clubs’ total wage costs for 2005/06 increased by 9% - (£69m) to £854m - the year before the clubs’ total wage costs reduced by 3% for the first time in the history of the Premier League. ::Five English clubs have total wages costs each season greater than £50m - Chelsea (£114m), Manchester United (£85m), Arsenal (£83m). Liverpool (£69m) and Newcastle (£52m). Tottenham were sixth (£41m). ::Average annual gross annual earnings for a Premier League player next season estimated at £1.1m (2005/06: £0.9m). ::Championship clubs’ total wage costs for 2005/06 increased by 5% to £228m with the overall wages/turnover ratio remaining 72%.
Derby's wage bill has gone up by about $26 million since last season Derby are probably one of the worst payors in the league as well. Your figures are way too low.
I'm a Cubs fan, too. I've been indoctrinated as such, since 1984. If asked what my favorite sports franchise is, the Chicago Cubs would have to be it, but if asked what my favorite sport is, it may just be soccer now. Plus I owe much of my loyalty to Mike Royko, who put it into words so beautifully what it is to be a Cub fan, that I cannot ever let it go now. I hope to develop the same kind of devotion to my MLS team. For that I think I'll have to move to a location close enough that I can buy season tickets and then gather enough experiences from game days to make it happen. There are parallels I draw between baseball and soccer. Even though they are vastly different games on the field/pitch, there is tradition for both that goes back to the 19th century. And attending a game at The Valley or Anfield would give me the same type of feeling as visiting Wrigley. It's the neighborhoods, the fans, the ghosts of the past... The game of baseball or soccer itself is so steeped in tradition, and many modern forces try to ruin it, but the tradition I feel is deep enough that it can be overcome.
I've always assumed "Eurosnob" to refer to Americans who look down on American soccer at all levels (especially club). I don't expect someone who is actually from Europe to expend a lot of energy caring one way or the other about MLS; most likely he or she already has a favorite club from their side of the pond.
Repped. As a fellow Husker, I would add that while I first discovered soccer while still living in Nebraska, it wasn't until I moved and was able to be a day-to-day "fan-in-the-stands" that I really developed a close, emotional connection to my team. By the way, do you go to Creighton games? I really want to catch one the next time I'm back home for a visit. If you do, what's the atmosphere like?
To answer the original poster, "Hate" is a very strong word. I don't think the Europeans in general, or even the Eurosnobs in particular, "hate" MLS. "Ignore," certainly. "Disregard," sure. "Disrespect?" Sometimes. But not hate. What I suspect they do hate is American clowns over-rating their favorite MLS teams or players when comparing them to European teams that could most likely laugh them off the field. MLS teams cannot compete with many/most European first divisions today -- and that's not really debateable. MLS is a decent start-up: 12 years in, it's well-capitalized, and built for a long haul. But it's going to take a long, long time and considerable money to get where the European game is today. Best suggestion, in my view, is to worry less about the comparisons and enjoy the games.