Many folks like Eric Wynalda think a win bonus is the missing ingredient in helping improve the competitiveness of MLS games. The recent CBA references an improved win bonus. Haven't seen what that figure is. Do guys get $50 a win or $500 or more? Anyone have the scoop - I tend to think it will matter more in the long run than the 5% bump in the salary budget.
It's highly dependent of the club and league the club is in, and even then can vary greatly. As a ballpark indication though, Portsmouth's players got $4500 for a win - probably around 10% of a week's salary http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/20032...torrie-defends-role-crisis.html?order=ratings
Many folks like Eric Wynalda ignore the fact that there has been a win bonus in effect in MLS since the previous CBA was signed. It didn't amount to a lot - it was $2,750 per win, which could be $250 per player if you only paid 11 guys or could be $100-some bucks if every guy on the roster got money - but there has been a win bonus in MLS since the 2005 season. The new CBA should have a larger figure that will be available when the union makes the CBA terms available on its web site at www.mlsplayers.org, where you can learn all kinds of important facts about the previous CBA and player salaries from previous years so that discussions here on Big Soccer can be roote din fact.
Who invited this guy? Seriously though it should be interesting to see what the league increased the win bonus to and if it has much of a motivational effect.
Thanks Monster for supplying the baseline figure ($2,750 or max of $660k a year 8 wins a week x 30 weeks of games etc.). If the USMNT is any indication - it should be an equal split e.g. whether you were Brian Ching or Claudio Reyna - in the last World Cup each got the same share of WC qualifying dollars. So - with MLS' 24 man roster - plus Gen Adidas = each dude is pulling down $100 a win - and HOPEFULLY that number moves significantly North - because even if it gets boosted by 30% that only now $130 - still not enough to move the needle in my book. Judging by how stingy MLS has been with the cap it's hard to believe they are going to double or triple the bonus pool from a max of $660k to $1.2 or $2.0 million a season - but that's what it will take to get the per win bonus up in the $200-$300 a game range. Still a far cry from the $4.5k Portsmouth players get (as referenced by RichardL)
If I had $1 million to throw around for competition bonuses, I would spend it like this: Regular Season: Finish__ Amount/team__ Approx/Player 1__ $200,000__ $8,000 2__ $100,000__ $4,000 3___$50,000__ $2,000 4___$ 50,000__ $2,000 5___$25,000__ $1,000 6___$2,5,000__$1,000 7___$10,000___ $400 8___$10,000__ $400 Total Regular Season: $470,000 Playoffs 1st Round Winner__ $25,000___ $1,000 1st Round Winner__ $25,000___ $1,000 1st Round Winner__ $25,000___ $1,000 1st Round Winner__ $25,000___ $1,000 Conf. Champs__$100,000__$4,000 Conf. Champs__$100,000__$4,000 MLS Cup Winner__$230,000__$9,200 Total Disbursements: $1,000,000 Double winner__$555,000__$22,200
Well, there are 240 games in this year's season. A reasonable total might be up to 200 wins. So a max of $550K is a more workable number. Probably lower.
I think the win-bonus should be on a scale, with the majority of money going to starters. Then, subs used. Then, subs dressed but did not play. Then, injured and did not dress. I really don't think paying a player $500 extra for a win is enough incentive. The starters are already making a decent amount. And, I don't think that paying the entire team the same for a win even if they didn't play is good motivation for players not dressing or playing to try harder for a spot. I also think the bonuses should be given weekly rather than in a lump sum at the end of the season - not sure what the policy is now. I think a bonus of $1,000/win is an amount where the players start to take a lot of notice for winning. Maybe if you give a team about $15,000/win for the players you'll see stronger performances. That would leave about $500 for subs used. $300 for subs that didn't play. And, maybe a bit less than $200 for those on the injured list or reserve. That would be an extra $4 million/year in salaries for players. Too much?
That would be the stick. But even old Soviet bloc nations used a lot of carrots on their players - cars, apartments, food stamps, etc. PS. As a side note, as I am watching a bit of Toluca-Pachuca match, I think that the 2010-2014 bonuses will also given for the "international friendlies" and CONCACAF events ... something to motivate the players and perhaps coaches as well.
When it gets to be that much, it's not extra, it's money diverted from what would be spent on base salaries. And I doubt the union wants that much of its income tied to bonuses rather than base pay, which is now for most players guaranteed.
Well no. Possible, I guess, but not probable. I've collected statistics for the number of each type of result (wins/ties/SOW) in each season of MLS' existence (for a related project), and ever since 2003, when MLS stopped having regular season overtime, the percentage of matches with a win result has been between 69-77%. Sure, that's only 7 data points, and we could possibly see 83% of matches won in a certain year, but I expect this year will fall in the same range, and we'll see between 165 to 185 wins from the 240 matches. Not to detract from your post, but to give it a more realistic statistical base.
MLS isn't Goldman Sachs. A win bonus should be your regular salary. I recall reading in business school that nominal increases in salary are low on the list of motivators, but this is bigsoccer so I'm sure someone will have a different opinion based on facts disguised in the form of a personal attack.
And the meaningful carrot is your next contract. 'Win bonuses' are nearly always for trivial amounts, compared to the salary of the players we're talking about. They're more about making players feel appreciated than they are about trying to get players to play better. (You aren't trying to make people motivated that started out un-motivated, the weed-out process to becoming a professional athlete tended to already, well, weed out such people.) The argument against bonuses (and there is a serious argument) is that they are the lazy way of doing that, like giving a loved one a check for Christmas instead of a gift that required some thought, and that this laziness can have a psychological effect on the person to whom you're paying them that's sort of like turning a book you might have read for pleasure into a reading assignment. It makes them less likely to go beyond what it takes to get the check for reasons of personal fulfillment than it was in the first place. Most of the organizational psychology I've seen tends to make the argument that if you can design a good non-monetary award, that will tend to have a better impact than cutting a small check (that Uncle Sam is going to take a very big bite of, btw). I don't think any win bonus for any amount the league could realsistically afford would have the same kind of impact as Phil Anschutz throwing you a party at his ranch, for instance. Personal recognition from people high up in the organization tends to get more done than cash. There's a caveat to that, which is that most of that literature assumes that employees were solidly paid to begin with. In past years, kids on the dev roster probably want the money more.
Nah, that's a pie in the sky, aka a meaningless promise. As to bonuses - the NFL, a sole league with the non-guaranteed contracts aside of MLS, has all sort of bonuses included in the player's contracts. Some are relatively trivial (a $100K-$250K workout/roster/Pro-Bowl/Play-off) bonuses but others can be substantial and would be classified more as "heavy incentives" - as in "make so many appearances/tackles/INT/% of team plays and have your contract guaranteed or upped to an X-amount or to an average of Top X% of players at the same position". A side note - in Russia, when the top players began to make crazy money compared to an average Russian employee (as much as 1,000 times greater for the top players), many owners began to feel that many players, including many foreigners, only came to the RPL for cash and thus adjusted their contract offers to make them heavily dependent on the incentives.
seems redundant to get a win bonus. isn't your salary already dependent on winning? maybe people should appreciate their precarious position as a professional footballer.
Depends on how hard I worked during the game and how much Herbalife I snorted before the game. (Snorting Herbalife increases your vertical jump at least seven inches.)