Lionel Messi to MLS?.. The Saga Starts Part 1 [R]

Hoesen had significant injuries after he left. Hyka sounds like a pretty typical age 30-35 decline.

 

Of course I was mostly kidding about the Quakes killing careers. But Hoesen went from a 12 goal scorer to not doing much in 2019 and not getting many starts at Austin even when healthy, though I know injuries at Austin and in Europe did him in. For Hyka, he went from solid contributor at Lucerne to, when he left us, career wanderer and not producing much and then end of career. He was age 30 when he left us, a bit early for a purely age-related decline.

 

Actually that's not true. Messi is NOT 35 "until" he turns 36 on June 24. Messi is currently 35.95 years old, and that rounds to 36 so Messi is already 36.

https://www.sportsjoe.ie/football/t...y-the-best-twitter-argument-of-all-time-28446

 

That spirit animal lives here.

 

If you round up, many of us are already dead.

 

You are 100% right Don!

MLS is vastly becoming bush league with these aging beauties.

Along with a 36 year old Messi, Miami also wants to sign Sergio Busquets and Ángel Di María who are both 35.years of age.

Ok maybe they could sign one 35-36 year old but signing 3 on one team?

They will be looking like a decrepit old bunch of Over 35 year old Peninsula Soccer League, NASL old timers!

MLS needs to sign more 25 year olds!

Largo ai Giovani (or rather, Let in the Youngsters)!

Just saw this on Facebook...

 

And this is the problem I have with the Messi deal. With Beckham, OK the league created the "Beckham Rule" (DP's) to make it possible for LA to sign Beckham but it's a "rule" that any team can use to their advantage. I think most everyone would say that it's been a positive development for the league.

But what would the "Messi Rule" be when he's getting cut into Apple TV and Adidas profits? Each team gets one player who will get some portion of Apple TV and Adidas profits? Yeah, that's not going to happen. So this will most definitely be a one-off special favor for Miami and one player.

Actually, I take it back. The Beckham thing was not so egalitarian. It included special rewards that are not available to any other player. He was given a share of club revenue + a "coupon" to buy an MLS franchise for $20-something million. So it's really the same crap all over again. Special league favors to one club / player.

 

Yeah, I was thinking every other MLS team not named Miami should be awarded Garber bucks (GAM/TAM) equivalent to the value of the excess compensation Messi is receiving from third-party profit-sharing with MLS sponsors.

 

This is big news for MLS and elevates the profile of the league, just like the Beckham signing did 15 years ago. But what does it mean for my team? not much really. Another game at Levi's maybe? A chance to see Miami's fortunes change on the field. Watching Messi in Miami will be like watching Messi in Barcelona or Paris...I can appreciate that he's probably the greatest soccer player the world has ever seen...but I'm far more interested in what's being done to improve my team.

Relegation/promotion simply means that there are consequences for owners who fail their teams and the towns they play in. Teams in lower leagues have a chance of moving up, small teams in MLS would have to work a little harder to avoid dropping down, might improve the quality overall and make things more interesting. Right now, it's way too easy for the crap owners like ours to neglect their teams year after year.

 

Not sure that's the case. It shows the league has a lot money but other than that just serves to prove the 'retirement league' status.

 

The jury is out on this. Beckham certainly elevated the profile of the league. This will too, assuming he still has some Messi magic left in the tank. There will be worldwide interest in how he does here and potentially it could be very good for MLS.

 

Messi's deal does not come with "new rules to allow it" though, like the Beckham Rule. It's just a one-off special deal (cut him in on Apple TV and Adidas profits). I don't think anyone has a problem with the "ends" - Messi in MLS. It's the "means" that is in question.

 

Wish I could rep this more than once...

The only thing I'll add is that people will find reasons to complain about ANYTHING. People were complaining about the forward thinking Apple TV deal even as all these regional sports networks are literally collapsing across the country. And now how brilliant does partnering with Apple look, with Messi having half a billion fans around the world, MLS has the Apple TV deal that covers pretty much the entire world... someone do the math on how many half season subscriptions they need to sell to cover his reported $50 million a year salary.

Currently "neglected into fifth place"... yeah that's right people will even complain about their team being in fifth place!

If Messi wanted the most money he would be in Saudi Arabia making 1.4 BILLION...
Imagine thinking the best player in soccer history who led his team to the World Cup six months ago makes any league a "retirement league"... would La Liga be a retirement league if Messi went back to Barcelona like they wanted, genius?

 

Apple and Adidas know that Messi is the one guy who can bring a spike to their streaming subscriptions and jersey sales, so they're giving him a percentage of the inevitable uptick in those... smart business decision and obviously what they make will far outweigh what they give Messi as he only gets some percentage of the increase in $$

 

All credit to Luchi and Leitch for getting the Quakes into fifth place! Hope they can maintain that. My guess is we are a few places lower by the end of June and end up missing the playoffs by a spot or two.

Want to wager a falafel or something?

 

Yeah, that's a fair point if those deals with Apple and Adidas are between them and Messi and the league is not part of it. However, do we really know what's all in the Messi deal?

"The Miami Herald reported that it would be a "complicated" deal valued between $125 million and $150 million over the length of the contract, which it estimates to be 2½ years in length, with an option year for 2026. The report states it would include salary, bonuses and equity in the team."

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...r-miami-mls-key-info-contract-deal-debut-more

I guess in theory once you pay the max salary budget charge, you can pay the player anything under the DP rule, so not sure if bonuses and share of the team are really violations of the DP rule in spirit. My main concern would be the league stepping in to give Messi additional stuff, like Beckham got with his MLS franchise "coupon". Now you are giving special league favors to one player / team.

 

That's a concern? I hope Messi gets a discount on an MLS expansion team, Messi would be even better to have as an MLS owner than Beckham. That would only mean good things for MLS long term if Messi owns a team in Las Vegas or Tampa or Phoenix. And your previous concern was with "one off" but that would by definition NOT be a "one off" since Beckham already got the same thing?
Obviously that's only going to happen for massive superstars where the rest of the league's owners agree to give them such a deal, because it's in their best interests, they're not giving it to Mustapha Jarju!

Messi plays for Inter Miami through the 2026 World Cup held in the US. Messi then brings Las Vegas Lights FC into the league as expansion team 31 or 32... five years later the Las Vegas Lights sign Mbappe or Haaland and MLS gives them the option to buy into an MLS team... full circle

 

Please, with the "gotcha" on the "one-off". You know what I mean - special favors for certain teams. I'm not an ends justifies the means guy generally. Yes it would be great if Messi owned a team. Special favors by the league for him to do it - that favors one team in MLS to help them secure a player - not so much. Every time you do special league favors for a team, it cheapens the league, and I'm not sure it's a good thing long term.

Anyway, I don't really get the big attraction with having former big stars owning a franchise. Michael Jordan owns has a majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets. Great for the NBA? I don't know, they're a bad team. Doesn't seem like it.

 

1. Facts are not a "gotcha"
2. You're skipping over the part where it's not "the league" it's ALL OF THE MLS OWNERS AGREEING. You're a smart guy, why would they agree to do that?

MLS is not the NBA. Obviously I've made my position on this known already since I keep saying that the Quakes need to join twenty other MLS teams in adding celebrity co-owners, with Steph Curry being the #1 candidate...

 

I'm not saying that what you wrote is not a fact. I'm saying that you are willfully ignoring the spirit of my post, which is special league favors for certain teams.

What is "ALL OF THE MLS OWNERS"?

 

Garber said months ago that something like that would only happen to sign Messi if all the MLS owners agreed to it, as they did when they offered it to Beckham.

Garber literally just works for the league's owners, he can't just give away a share of the league, he doesn't have a share to give away, the owners decide on that just like they decide on any expansion team even if Garber is the one in front of the cameras making the announcement once the owners make their decision.

Sorry I'm not some degenerate gambler (going to Vegas next week but just for the USMNT and tasty vegan food)

 

To me it doesn't matter if all the owners agree or not, I can still question whether I think it's a good idea for the league, "the league" being a proxy for commissioner + owners, etc. They are of course free to do whatever they want to do as "the league", and I'm free to like the things they do or not, as a fan.

 

There are celebrity investors and then there are celebrities that have majority ownership or a significant part of ownership. Of course celebrity investor seems like a good thing on balance to bring a little more publicity to teams. But I'm not sure celebrity majority owner is necessarily such a good thing that we need to covet it so hard. They do not necessarily make good owners.