What Changes Should Be Made to Salary Budgets?

The NBA has had this for decades. It's called "Bird rights" and it allows teams to go over the cap to retain their own players.

Rule made so Boston could keep Larry Bird. Length of time with team impacts how high you can go. 3 years is full Bird rights (you can offer them max contracts).

Signing as a FA resets the Bird rights click. While getting a player in trade does not.

 

I think changes are coming. Loosening the reigns a bit. But I would not expect anything drastic. Slow & steady is working pretty well.

A 4th DP. More U22 slots, perhaps the additional one has to be donestic. A slot for a Bird/Icon guy who is a DP in all but name. Raising the Senior & Reserve min salaries. A rise in the overall salary budget.

 

What MLS needs is to change Commissioner and any other person that's being in place for 25+ years. MLS needs fresh ideas and a different vision to really move the league forward. That slow but steady pace served its purpose already. Make that quote of "league of choice" really mean it not just say it for the sake of saying it.

 

Exactly my point! It needs new ideas that involve the sporting side rather than just concentrating on how much money owners are making and how much valuable those teams are. Making the product and overall league more competitive isn't going to hurt their valuations.

 

Players compete for their job. Nothing is guaranteed for domestic or foreigners. They also have other leagues as options.

And that's the issue. Even us as fans all we brag about are valuations of billionaires not the sporting side of the league we watch. We, just like the billionaires, have become so accustomed to say "MLS teams are worth this much" as if that helps any on the field where it matters.

 

Players want to protect their jobs in every other league in the world. Nothing is guaranteed. You either are good enough or not. That's the way sports work...well apparently not in MLS. No wonder we have a lot of troncos.

 

Well unless every team changes owners..... it's not going to matter who the commissioner is. Afterall.... the commissioner is hired BY THE OWNERS. The commissioner's job is to represent the owners and be their public fave. The owners of the 29, soon to be 30 teams are the ones who make the decisions.

 

We can have all the labor laws you want that doesn't mean a player can't be let go because he just doesn't cut it or isn't good enough to play in MLS. The quality of any player has nothing to do with US labor laws.

 

And here lies the problem. I understand owners want to make money, as much as possible, but they are clueless on the sporting side. They need someone who knows the sporting side and how to move the league forward while at the same time make money and continue the rise of their valuations which matters a lot to them.

 

If a player is bad he gets bought out, loaned out, doesn't get a renewal etc. Bad players aren't guaranteed to stay in a team just because they are part of a player's Union. We see this all the time at season's end in MLS.

 

Exactly. They can't however force a team to get a player or stay with a player that team doesn't want, need and/or wants to replace.

As for revenue, MLS does revenue sharing. That isn't a problem for MLS. The business side of MLS is top notch. It's the sporting side that needs improvement and new ideas.

 

What you're missing (or possibly choosing to ignore) is that the salary cap rules are set up, by an agreement between the league and the union, to make it difficult to cut a player mid-contract. The salary cap and international rules here don't exist in Europe.

 

or, signed by the Chicago Fire to a multi-year contract!

If they are very bad, we send them to Lugano in Switzerland.

 

Didn't Vermes end the contract of a player mid tournament last year or the year before that just because he felt that player wasn't performing? Don't remember the name of the player but right after a game the player was cut from SKC. It can be done and has been done in MLS and there is nothing the player's Union or US laws can do about it. You don't perform and you will be cut from the team.

 

Hey now, Lugano finished 2nd in the Swiss Super League this season.......

Just like Real Madrid forced Gareth Bale to take a paycut to be loaned back to Spurs? Or how Barcelona forced Frankie de Jong to go to Manchester United.....

 

"Mutual agreement" is ending a contract. Jose Mauri is the name of the ex-SKC player. Either way, player's Union or US laws can't do anything about it. If an MLS team doesn't want a player they aren't obligated to keep him just because he is part of a union. That's why MLS has a rule that they can buy out a contract (2 now) per year of any players. Buying out contracts just means team is getting rid of a player.

What does Real Madrid and ManU have to do with MLS player's Union?

 

You posted that the difference between MLS teams and teams from other parts of the world are that those other teams can simply get rid of players they don't want. If two of the biggest and richest clubs in the world can't get rid of players they don't want...... Stop acting like the majority of clubs/teams outside of MLS can simply buy, sell, sign and cut players however/whenever they see fit.