YNT-eligible MLS players: 2020 In-season thread

arreaga is such a disaster for the sounders that maybe atencio gets a hail mary shot if theres a season

 

It's also bad business. MLS has gotten where it is because it realizes that it needs to develope diverse income streams. Youth development can be a huge income stream while reducing acquisition costs and needs to be part of the SOP.

Seriously though, American investors have horrible instincts in this aspect. They keep taking cues from other American leagues and expect that there is too talent free for the taking in college. The first ten years of MLS where a black hole of development because of this. So, yeah, the league needs to hold investors hands.

 

It doesn't make much sense. They've used 3 keepers on the bench, less than the allowed amount of subs on the bench, yet they haven't even put him on the bench yet. I've read, and I don't know how true this is, that he traveled with the first team. You'd almost hope it's some small injury that keeps him out 3-4 weeks instead of not being rated to such an extent that they'd rather not have him on the bench or some disciplinary matter.

 

I think it's more complex than this.

In the early years of MLS -- the first 10 years -- they were literally just trying to stay alive. The league went down to like 3 owners, and almost folded. There wasn't necessarily an extra million or two every year to throw at an academy.

After some financial stability, they focused on a few things:

• DPs to legitimize / draft attention to the league (Beckham)
• Building stadiums to create profitable operational cash flow
• Starting academies ... I think mostly because US Soccer likely pushed them to

It's hard to over-emphasize how important that second point is, and it's rarely talked about. Most teams invested, in the last 10-15 years, somewhere between $50M and $200M in a stadium. Due to accounting, loans, asset value, etc., owning a stadium is vastly preferable to renting financially, but it also generally creates a better product in terms of hometown atmosphere and thus more revenue, and also creates potential secondary revenue as a concert or other venue not on game days. That can be big money.

But the cost is that you invest a massive amount of money and early on, it doesn't leave a ton of cash for other things.

Now, in this next stage, there's two big tasks for MLS to continue to grow financially (and money buys players):

• Gain more revenue through transfers out, both domestic and international
• Find a way to increase the league's media footprint through overall popularity

The latter is a much bigger deal for the league. But it's very, very difficult. And I don't think anyone knows a solution.

The former is investment in talented young players, both at the academy level and in the form of young DPs. The former give the best profit but since you are investing younger, probably have a lower hit rate.

Just like the stadiums, some teams will pull it off and some won't.

But there's a reason why academies are blooming now, and not in 1996, and it has to do with resources. The league needed to solve other things before it could put real cash there.

 

They didn't even have a full bench.
Let's hope he has a small injury.

 

I agree with Lalas.

Sixers fans aren't complaining about Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons taking American jobs.

Mavericks fans aren't complaining about Luka Doncic or Porzingis taking American jobs.

MLS has to sell a product to paying customers. Their only obligation is to put out the best product possible. If they believe that the best product comes from outside the US, then that's their belief. It's up to American players and youth clubs to prove otherwise. People aren't giving up their Android phones for what they believe is an inferior product just because its local.

 

americans are complaining about mls not being as good as england and if you want to become as good you need to harness the population of the usa to get there because you are too far behind on a financial basis to get there by buying players. or you can keep getting called a retirement league for real stars.

 

Honestly I just think AOC was a scratch from the team. His stock has fallen a lot over the past year tbh

 

You think they'd rather play with less players on the bench and/or put an extra GK on the bench than put him on the bench? If he was so bad, why would he have even traveled with the first team?

 

Honestly I have no idea. I’m not particularly high on AOC but unless there’s an injury we don’t know about then maybe he just isn’t rated at Seattle currently. But the team needs bodies at practice like RSL does with their u20’s that they aren’t dressing in games.

 

Which billionaire owners/groups are financially too far behind?

Rossi, Vela, Pavon, Barco, Pity Martinez? Retirement league?

 

you think those guys move the dial when casual fans have never heard of them? also these same billionaires with unlimited resources are too cheap to pony up $3 million a year for something that with the proper tlc returns a multiple of that. the retirement league label is a perception that mls has really struggled to shake imo and it persists.

 

Eurosnobs will always find an excuse to not watch MLS. The league could sign Mbappe, de Bruyne, Salah, etc. right now and they’ll still find an excuse not to support.

And I think MLS isn’t trying as hard with that fan anyways, they’re more focused on the most popular league in this country, LigaMX. And I’ve found Latino fans to being much more open to watching other leagues leagues than neckbeard Eurosnob.

 

Well, yes. That's precisely what I am talking about. If the league essentially operates teams like a franchise and walks them through every step of the way in negotiating for a stadium and setting up the ancillary streams then it is perfectly reasonable that academies are treated the same. After all, they didn't have stadiums figured out initially either. It was about five years before they realized this and started setting up new teams correctly. Even then it took a few years of tweaks before we reached the standard that we have today. Similarly academies should follow the same route.

 

i watch just about every match with ynt implications, but look at the ratings - there arent a of people like me. there is nothing wrong with acknowledging where mls resides in the global hierarchy and being realistic how the league is viewed when premier league matches routinely attract higher audiences.

 

The RSL players not dressing are all injured.

 

I really doubt that the reason Ocampo-Chavez is MIA is because the Sounders have given up on him.

Something’s definitely up, but it’s not that.

 

There's alot of young players in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Norway, Croatia, etc. that casual fans haven't heard of, but that doesn't mean they're not talented.

Do you believe that Liverpool would give up Mane, Firmino, and Salah for three academy forwards for the sake of English pride? That's basically what some people are expecting teams like LAFC to do in MLS.

 

i am saying nothing of the sort, i am saying that casual fans recognize that the lafc trio aint liverpools and that if you want to compete with liverpool for talent you need to be able to develop our own. youth development is a business imperative if you want to close the distance. mls has done well with barco, but lets not kid ourselves about how close they were to vincius jr

 

Youth development is essential for every club unless you are a super club which there are maybe 10 of. Unless you have the ability to go and buy every good player out there in every position of need (MLS clubs can’t do this) then developing your own players is critical. This is why damn near every club out there runs an academy and develops their own talent to use in their first team or sell. MLS can get away with being different in Europe in a few ways but this is not one of them. MLS clubs are not so good that they can’t be giving youth players a chance or not even giving youth players a look at all

 

Not sure the stadium process is a good example. They have made rules just to change them to fit getting teams in. They left teams for dead (Columbus), changes “downtown” requirements (Austin), must be a SSS and then that went away, then the whole NYCFC stadium issue. They basically have said whatever works in your market do that.

 

I think this sentence exemplifies the problem, US mls fans not recognizing why someone prefers a certain product by giving them a denigrating name.
If someone prefers a superior product he isnot a snob.

 

1287975206942801920 is not a valid tweet id

 

IMO, people who choose to watch the EPL over MLS because the EPL is a higher level of play are not Eurosnobs.

The heart of Eurosnobbery is the disdain toward those who do choose to watch MLS. Because their refusal to watch MLS is ultimately grounded in issues other than the quality of play, @ielag is correct in the assessment that nothing MLS does will sway them, because they'll always find another bone to pick.

I'm not sure if such a dynamic exists among Dutch fans. I suspect Dutch fans are 100x less insecure than American soccer fans, though.

 

eurosnob is the guy who choose to watch high level league, but ignore any positive thing MLS has, and beat MLS without checking even basic fact.