Palencia's worth comes off the field as much as on. He brings a legitimacy to the team and a player that the mexican fans in LA can relate to. I think he's worth every penny to that franchise.
iowa007 (that's a funny thought, I'm picturing a spy in overalls).... There is no salary cap. There is a salary budget. MLS has allowed teams to operate at a 'deficit' by exceeding their budget in special cases where the end result has marketing value, (e.g. Freddy, Palencia, El Spatador, Lothar of the Hill People, etc.)
It actually makes no sense to me either, iowa007. Seems like if you are in a big market you can try to buy the championship (right Red Turds?). Doesn't seem fair to the teams like the Crew who have good support from thier fans but aren't allowed marque players and the extra dollars. However the Turds, Chivashits, and LaGals can go and bend the rules and get whoever they want. -The Far Side P.S. The Crew suck
First of all - Red Bull doesn't have one single player over the magical $300k mark. And your other point that Columbus "aren't allowed Maque players" is just wrong. Any team that wants to shell out the extra cash can have a marquee player - they just need to have it approved by the league. Let's face it - KC is not a big market and they have two players over the $300k mark.
I may be mistaken on this, But i'm pretty sure DC has had at least one player every season of its existance whose salary was over the maximum cap number.
Quoted so people catching the end of the thread don't miss this. Guys like Palencia and Adu certainly bring a solid level of talent to the field, but it's definitely not the full reason for their large salaries. These are the players that MLS actually profits of of.
the first time they were revealed was during the effort to organize the player's union. i believe they wanted to force that information out to improve the chances for collective bargining around the league. that seems like a fairly compelling need from the player perspective. unless i'm mistaken, don't the other pro sports leagues make salaries public? certainly wages in the epl and other big leagues are well known and i think transfer fees have to be public.
Total Salary By Team: Chivas -- 3604403 Los Angeles -- 2771685 Kansas City -- 2583423 DC United -- 2392775 Salt Lake -- 2262468 Dallas -- 2200098 Chicago Fire -- 2172792 Colorado -- 2109550 Houston -- 1898163 New York -- 1856779 Columbus -- 1799362 New England -- 1739246
SEe the way these players survive, ive been told is they'll get under the table bonuses, like free living expenses and shit like that. So basically all their money they are getting is basically money to play around with.
that's not entirely accurate. some of the bigger stars do get some personal service contracts beyond salary. many of the lower paid players get opportunities to do paid promotional appearances (not all player appearances are paid) which is why you often see so many younger/reserve players on the appearance list. this isn't "under the table" at all.
Now granted these are professional athletes and our salary expectations for pro athletes is high...and most MLS players are going to need a second career by the time they hit their 30s, but Brian Carroll is what 24? 25? making almost $60,000 a year at a job where his "work hours" are maybe 4 or 5 hours a day with 2 or 3 months vacation...ok so he has to work most weekends...but still that's not exactly bad living. $16,500 on the other hand sucks Eski Red Bull Spit
Could the 16.5k guys be Project 40 (or whatever they call it now)? My reaction to Palencia was also "WhoTF?"...
Palencia was a long time Mexican National teamer. Then again so was Suarez and Ramirez...look at the small change they are playing for. That's admirable. I guess they love playing, or maybe they like living in LA. Carroll, Boswell, maybe Perkins (we'll see) seem underpaid.
i thought in the case of suarez and ramirez that they were still getting most of their salary from chivas mex?
His current salary has little or no bearing on transfer offers as 1) it's not out of line with Euro pay scales (and may be low), and 2) any transfer is going to come after both parties agree to a revised contract. And even if the contract were bought out, why would saving 100K/year all of a sudden make a $2 or $3 million transfer attractive? Speaking of Europe, how long before Boswell looks to get over there with his salary?
Uh I wonder if anyone told Moose that there are these people called "agents" he could hire to negotiate his contract. It looks as if his grandma, working with numbers from the Truman era, might have had a hand in it. I mean, $16,500 that's ridiculously low. There don't even seem to be any incentives worked into it that can bump it up. Hell, even Willie Sims at #24 could go from $30k to $37,500 this year. What a joke, I hope DC's at least paying the rent on a TH for all the new guys to live in. Hell they should have two THs looking at some of the other guys' salaries as well.
Oh. Good call. I guess so, those are tiny salaries for guys of that caliber. Although Suarez is ancient. 37 I think.
While I think he is being underpaid based on his position in the draft, he also has to compete with so many others for real PT on this team, and that effects his salary. Many of the top picks in the draft have all received some significant PT so far with their clubs and some have even become starters (Wynne, Kljestan) and were expected to do so. We knew Moose was probably going to be Reserve Team fodder this year unless something totally unexpected occurred. That being said, Moose probably should have ended up in the 30,000-40,000 range. If he's going to hire a new agent, I suggest whoever is representing Josmer Altidore or half the guys on the Fire!
Suarez may make the Mexican NT this year, so it's not as though he's completely washed up as a defender. Palencia, even at his age, has a skill level that most players in MLS just don't have. Dude was totally electric only 3 or 4 years ago.
3 or 4 years ago, Preki and Etcheverry had some decent skills, too. I understand the marketing angle, but on the field, MLS needs to be have a 'what have you done for me lately' attitude. Folks have wondered about Filomeno's salary, but figure that he's a bargain seeing that he's got nearly idential stats to Palencia at 10% of the cost.
Although a more appropriate comparison would be about 1/2 of the "cap figure". And then there's the fact that Palencia has probably generated a lot more income for Chivas than Lucio has for DC.
I present, the MLS All-Salary (guaranteed) Team! Palencia(1.36M) Donovan (900K) Mathis(410K) Armas(325K) Guevara(281K) O'Brien(270K) Pope(395K) Sanneh(365K) Mastroeni(268K) Sequeira(173K) Cannon(172K) These are the players with the highest guaranteed salary at their position. Mathis, O'Brien, Mastroeni, and Sanneh were listed at multiple positions so I just put them where I thought they made sense.