MLS Cup brings Portland's Providence Park party to life like never before https://www.espn.com/soccer/major-league-soccer/story/4543503/mls-cup-brings-portlands-providence-park-party-to-life-like-never-before MLS commissioner sounds off on MLS Cup -- says Portland is what soccer in America can be https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/j...-model-of-what-soccer-in-american-can-be.html Timbers team up with tattoo shop for MLS Cup giveaway https://www.kgw.com/video/sports/so...away/283-3cf73473-5fe2-4adc-98f9-f01876d9452d Pep Guardiola Congratulates New York City on MLS Achievement That is "Good For This Brand" https://www.si.com/soccer/mancheste...n-mls-achievement-that-is-good-for-this-brand Out of balance: As 2021 ends, MLS continues to show that improving quality of play isn’t top priority https://theathletic.com/3009792/202...-improving-quality-of-play-isnt-top-priority/
Hooray for corporate franchise football. Locations and hometowns (and home fans) are near irrelevant. Just matters which global brand you obey. Yay! I'm just going out on a limb here but I imagine the overall budgets for MLS clubs is a big factor.
She was also in a couple of episodes of 'Falcon Crest'. Jane Wyman's character (Angela) referred to her as 'Babylonia'! It was quite funny.
There's a 2.6% correlation between spending and league position in MLS this season compared to 70% in the EPL over the last 10 years. Other leagues, not EPL, but leagues where money is an issue should be looking to MLS.
I'm not getting on about the Pigeons exploits being down solely to their corporate prowess. This is a case where MLS' cost control measures will at least mute that influence. (If anything I'd rather see other leagues adopt similar measures fostering competitive parity) What I'm bemoaning is a) how this as a model can lead to advantages in other leagues and b) the diluting if the local factor that is quintessential to sports. The reality is that both NY franchises have brands that link them to larger corporate structures. I feel those are bad for sport. The nature of what these competitions are implies each team should stand alone as its own operation, IMO.
I didn't say it was irrelevant, I said it's not specific. There are two "feeder" clubs in MLS, the Belgian Pro League has 6 or 7.
Are they really feeder clubs though? Outside Tyler Adams how many players have gone on to play for Man City or another Red Bull team from NYCFC and RBNY?
NYC had a few loans in the early years but since the Jack Harrison trade there's only been deals between NYC and Montevideo City Torque. I wonder how City feel about Gio Reyna. All CFG deals (as far as I know): Frank Lampard loaned to Man City. David Villa loaned to Melbourne City. Shay Facey loaned from Man City Angeliño loaned from Man City Yangel Herrera loaned from Man City Mix Diskerud dumped on Man City U23 Jack Harrison sold to Man City for $4.4M Taty Castellanos from Torque for $468k Eloi Amagat free transfer from Girona Santiago Rodriguez loaned from Torque.
Fantastic article by Sam at The Athletic but I do disagree with a little of what he implies. The fact that he believes increasing the level of play isn't a priority is an interesting one. The alphabet soup of the salary budget was designed just for that but his point of changing it I believe is valid. A ceiling and a floor with thirty million seems reasonably well thought out. The only thing I might add to it is increasing the number with prize money and from selling players. . Adding prize money to the budget from where you finish in the table and in the playoffs would be first. Second would be from the Leagues Cup that starts in 2023. . One of the problems of winning in MLS is that it's hard to keep the core together as players are looking to be rewarded. Giving the team and the players incentive of expanding the budget with money they win in competition seems like a win win. .
I liked your post, it was thoughtful. However, this comment here, that’s not just an MLS problem. That’s a problem in any organization, albeit sports more than others. If you hire great people, over time, they’ll either deserve pay raises that will cause budget problems, or they will leave.
Yea, I totally agree with other leagues and other sports. You might even say they would want to leave because of various reasons. The only big difference is MLS is constantly evolving their salary budget as it is a growing league.
1. Screw the Leagues Cup. 2. That's a feature, not a bug. You can't just buy your way to a title in US sports and I hope that never changes. Making it possible to keep your team together just by outspending them, is part of why I couldn't care less about most of what happens in the big Euro leagues.
To each his own. For Me I think it's good for any sport. There is a difference between rewarding success with players you develop and buying players from other teams.
Increasing the available roster spend from $9M to $13M under the new CBA by 2026 would be fine but I think the 2026 World Cup should lead to a sea change in the way MLS operates. You really want to take advantage of the familiarity the US will have with World Cup players and bring some star names into the league, not just the odd aging DP. It'll be the last chance we have to leverage a domestic WC for at least 30 years. It should be like 1996 but on steroids.