Seattle failed to qualify for the current CCL,. Thanks to the absurdly distended format of the competition, the next CCL final Dempsey could possibly play in with Seattle is 2015. I feel like there's a decent chance that Dempsey gets shipped off to NYCFC in 2015, assuming he's not come up lame by then (he will be thirty-deuce after all.) The league giveth, and I'm sure they can taketh away.
Except there is nothing secret about MLS's DP rules. The DP signing is "player Acquisition mechanism B." The Allocation process is "player Acquisition mechanism A." Dempsey joined the league through mechanism B this time. (There is no requirement that A be utilized when B can be utilized instead.) Previously Dempsey joined MLS as a younger man through a different player signing/selecting mechanism, the SuperDraft. The roster rules are there for all (owners/media/fans/etc) to read. Simple reading and interpretation of those written rules is best. The only new thing here (relative to say the very similar Reyna example) is that MLS paid in full (apparently/allegedly, although that is in dispute) a "big" transfer fee. None of this is being done in secret or hidden from the owners. They are all collectively making these decisions on how to jointly run their collective league. And majority rules. And yes there will likely always be some minority of owner(s) who will be "unhappy" with some group decision(s) or specific operational result(s) -- such as the DP signing of some specific player by some specific team (with the league collective perhaps also picking up some significant transfer fee paid). But the league collective moves on, and on to the next game, issue or challenge. All is well. Really.
And yet Grant Wahl say that the other owners did not know about the rule that Garber and Durbin made up. Hmm, please feel free to try again.
i think you missed my point. it's not about who pays. the salary decision on clint dempsey (which basically came about because the league and then seattle buckled to his demands) puts a nearly $7mil sal on the field next to many guys making <$100k. there's a lack of balance when they overpay for dempsey, as imo they did, when it might be argued that lots of players are underpaid. to be continued...
They (the owners/investors in MLS) knew about the rule. They didn't all understand it exactly ("Some MLS owners were confused by the mechanism.") That's on them. (But certainly a majority of MLS owners both knew the rule and were not confused by it, and have no issue with Dempsey signing as a DP with Seattle.) Nobody made the rule up in secret. It was collectively set and previously established (more than 6 years ago by the BoG). (And yes, there has been some turnover in the owner ranks in recent years, so not all owners would have been in MLS at the time that that BoG instituted and started the DP initiative and put it as acquisition mechanism "B" within the league's roster rules and regulations.) Now (in 2013), if some minority set of owner(s) is confused that B is different than A, that's poor reading and understanding by them of the league rules and player acquisition methods. (To be honest, most owners aren't involved with acquiring players, so for the most part, their staff/GMs/etc need to know the ins-and-outs of all of these regulations and mechanisms more so than I would expect every owner to be fully versed in -- or not slightly confused by -- all the details. Again, this signing is a learning and improving moment for all involved with the league, imo.) The league rules are fine. Everybody is gaining a clearly/better understanding of them now. (Others knew of the exact application of the rules from previous precedent, like the Reyna example.)
These arguments have been in place for 6+ years though, ever since guys like Angel and Beckham and Blanco started to join as DPs. (This is not new territory.) I'm not going to argue against the "lack of balance" concerns or the potential for some players to be "overpaid" while others are "underpaid." that's the reality. That's how MLS set up their DP initiative/program. I don't like the imbalance. but MLS wants (believes they need these stars/big-earners on their rosters, well up to three of them per team at least), and the DP is a work-around/addition to the tight centrally controlled league management of contracts and the per team salary budgets per limited rosters. If this "imbalance" (that is created by the "exceptionally higher earners" more so than by they "low earners") within MLS is "good" for the league, and I believe the DP program is good for the league, then I'm willing to accept that. (especially if the other option is no DP program, and everybody has to fit on budget -- and all players are comparably "low earners" and there is no imbalance, and there are/would be fewer quality players in the league.) My big contention/concern is that the labeling and designating for special treatment/scrutiny that comes with the "DP tag" is not at all that helpful or at all necessary. The league should just have a set of "off-budget" players per each team. And the league does have those "off-budget" roster slots designated in the low spots 21-30 of each roster, and they should just have that be the case within the "high end" of the roster in slots 1-3. Nobody needs to know (until MLSPU release the salary figures) that Dempsey and Henry and Keane make $X per season while likely more than 50% of their teammates make ~$X/100 per season. Nobody should care or know that "Seattle/MLS signed Dempsey as a DP" -- everybody should just know and care about the reality that "Seattle/MLS signed Dempsey." (And the roster/rules nerds, certainly present company included, could dig in farther and realize that Dempsey is going to occupy one of the top 3 roster/salary spots for Seattle, while Joseph has been bumped down to 4th. No big whoop. And likely better optics and presentation -- without all of the distraction -- for the league and its teams.)
there is a >100:1 ratio btwn dempsey's salary and what many players are being paid. if that's good for the league, you have nothing to worry about. mlb minimum is $480k, i believe. 100x that would be $48mil. mls better be ready to raise the salary cap.
How in the world are MLB comparisons relevant or useful here? Why is this an MLS team budget ("cap" is the wrong word) issue? The DP is specifically in place to allow I/Os to spend local (non-league) funds to pay three players, outside of the confines of the league-defined/controlled per team salary budgets. The MLS per team salary budget will grow as the business of MLS grows. These things are cyclical and take time.
Hmm? Next CCL is 2014, which the Sounders can qualify for by winning the SS or playing in the MLS Cup thos season...
Yes, the 2013 SS (from Oct 2013) and MLS Cup winners (from Dec 2013) gain entry into the 2014-2015 CCL (that looks scheduled to start in August 2014). MLS's off-set spring-to-fall season calendar (relative to Concacaf's fall-to-spring CL competition, means most US teams wait "an extra 6 months" before starting confederation club competition).
i thought you'd connect the dots. 100:1 ratio top-to-bottom in mlb would mean somebody makes >$40mil. and actually the mls top-to-bottom ratio is closer to 150:1. mls pay ratios are out of whack. dp money doesn't fall from the sky. it's a use of available resources. call it whatever you want. but if you give a lot to the rich you also have to give a bit more to the poor.
Yes. Kinda different and out of typical/standard/classier behavior from Goff. Perhaps he was distracted/upset by some other/bigger news yesterday -- like his employer getting new ownership. http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...e0c-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html?hpid=z1
MLS is a single-entity, with tightly controlled per team budgets for player salaries. DPs are limited (3 per team) exceptions to those tight controls. MLB's salary structure and player deals are not at all relevant to how MLS runs its operations, and signs its players. The CBA in MLS has gone through one iteration/update with the DP program in place. (and the salary budget overall wasn't significantly impacted/adjusted.) I see no reason to think MLS is going to have to adjust their single-entity model or significantly raise their per team "salary budgets" simply because Dempsey now looks to be the highest paid DP yet.
Except he's done it before and has now posted a blog post about how MLS should "grow up". It's the best kind of irony.
Since the league paid the transfer fee, the surviving paying supporters in New England and Dallas helped fund Dempsey to Seattle.
This post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ning-demonstrates-mlss-growth-and-immaturity/ I think that's a fair analysis, citing that MLS has grown up (a lot) and still has a ways to go (in many/some areas). The only contention I have with Goff's piece above, is that a clear reading for the 2013 MLS Player Rules and Regulations (by Goff or whomever) would clearly show that A is different from B (and DPs like Reyna and Dempsey do not need to be, and are not acquired by MLS teams via the allocation process) -- Goff's writing has errors, imo: There's no "are supposed to" requirements. "A" is an option among the available mechanisms. But "B" is also an option and mechanism. And "B" was the option that Seattle utilized to get Dempsey, and it was the option that RBNY utilized to sign Reyna. As far as I can tell, it was listed in MLS's roster rules, and Goff and others are just not reading/interpreting it correctly. (And yes, MLS could be more transparent and even offer a bit more "hand-holding" to help everyone better read and understand their regulations and roster rules.)
And those fans (and fans all around MLS) get to see Dempsey playing again in their stadium during the MLS season. (Certainly better than the "tv/online only viewing option" of hoping Dempsey gets some games with Tottenham or wherever else out side of MLS Dempsey might have been sold.) And the MLS BoGs collectively agreeing to fun a "war chest" for select "big" transfer fees, also likely benefits the business by bringing more "stars" here and making the MLS/SUM content more desirable for and valuable to potential media partners as the TV deals are to be renewed within the next 16 months. imo, the signing (and league paying, reportedly, of the transfer fee) of Dempsey seems like a reasonable single-entity business approach that benefits the fans of the league and the teams in the league.