Our friend Steven Goff from the Washington Post is reporting that Developmental players will be getting a $1,200.00 pay raise this season and will now be earning a paltry $12,900.00! http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/ It's no wonder that more and more young kids are seeking opportunities in Europe! This a crying shame for MLS and something they should NOT be proud of!
Are you kidding? That's over a 10% raise!!! They just need to be happy with that - it's nearly minimum wage.
simply makes more financial sense for kids in america w/o lucrative offers from europe to go the college route.. this is a damn shame (for the sake american soccer development), but until MLS becomes profitable, it is also going to be the reality of the situation for a long time to come..
I agree. Not so much right now, because the vast majority of those making that dev contract right now dont have many other options elsewhere. But as the youth system grows and these players coming through the ranks see that they wont make crap promiting into the first team, will bolt if they can (Gabe Ferrari for example) before we even get the chance to see them. They need to scrap the whole Dev contract thing and just set a minimum salary for all first team players and allow them to designate those under 24 or 25 as not senior roster ( to ensure every team is keeping places on the squad for young developing talent from their drafts and academy.
MLS: hey mr union rep, here's the pot of money I have. MLSPA: spend it on benefits and salary increases for the established players. MLS: what about the rookies? MLSPA: OK, a few grand then.
DUDE, shutup. MLB Farm teams and NBA Farm teams do the same crap. Those MLB players get paid squat *hit as well as those NBA wannabes. Yeah its very very low but hey thats life right? I mean, its a route to the pros instead of going to college and gettin' drunk every weekend. I'd still choose the college route as I am in it right now. You have to ask yourself though, Is this dream of yours worth it, of playing professional soccer? Not that many players in this country think so ONCE they are done with high school. But with this MLS Youth Academy stuff, it should help a little bit.
For MLB Farm teams... http://en.allexperts.com/q/Minor-League-Baseball-2921/minor-league-baseball-salaries-1.htm I would agree with your assesment of MINOR League baseball players, however we are talking about MAJOR League SOCCER. If you want to compare apples to apples, let's talk about the guys on the bottom of the totem pole in MAJOR League baseball...
How many links do you really want? Over/Under 100? Have you not a clue how many young players we are losing? http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=399682&cc=5901
Which just tells me that you didn't follow the signing of the original CBA where the majority of the increases and benefits were targetted at the low end of the scale.
According to Yanks-Abroad.com, there are 57 Americans playing overseas. I really doubt more than a handful are over there because thee salaries at the low end of the MLS ladder were not to their liking. On the contrary, guys like Preston Zimmerman, Benny Feilhaber, Lee Nguyen, Charlie Davies, Robbie Rogers, Oguchi Onyewu and other young studs were headed for higher numbers, but made a choice based on their own reasons. So if you're worried that Ian Joy didn't like his salary while with the Crew and figures he can do better in the German Regionalliga, I think MLS can survive that kind of blow. MLS and the union have done nothing but make improvements to salaries and benefits for players over the past three years. Is there more work to do? Of course, but it's a shame that some "fans" are more intent on bitching instead of taking a clear look at the situation.
Let's take a look at the lowest team payroll in MLB for the '06 season, shall we? The Tampa Bay Devil Rays had the lowest payroll in the league with the bottom guy making $327,000! http://sportsline.com/mlb/teams/roster/TB
Dude. Seriously, dude. Do you really want to go there. Do you really want to blindly compare salaries without looking at revenues? Just stop. We all wish players made more. But you need to stop the moral indignation without looking at reality.
If you take my posts as "bitching" then so be it, but the fact that young guys in MLS are below the poverty level is not acceptable! If you're satisfied that a kid can go work at McDonald's and make more than a "professional" soccer player then pass the rose colored glasses on over to me so I can have a "clear look".
Considering the union accepted a CBA with this language, I'd say it is acceptable. They accepted it. Life isn't fair. Not everyone gets to make the money they want. I certainly hope you unleash your moral indignation on other industries that pay lesser educated people poorly and make them work more than four or five hours a day and don't give them all the perks of a professional athlete. Yea, this is something MLS should improve. And they are. Rome wasn't built in a day.
I was only making the point that the designated representatives of the players approved the salaries.
you guys need to understand that the owners have been losing money for 12 years now. Its isnt like they are making money. its is as basic as supply and demand as demand grows for major league soccer all players should expect to make money but not when owners are losing upto 3-5 million dollars a year. MLS has lost 350 million dollars since its establishment.
We will never know about the players we are "losing" because how many kids COULD have played in MLS, but didn't like the idea of making peanuts and now instead are working in other industries throughout the country.
I might add, it's a situation that most (not all) really don't understand. Development players are not meant to be regular players who contribute consistently over the course of the season. They are essentially practice squad players who are given a 1-2 season shot at making the big time (MLS). Those who do contribute regularly can very easily renegotiate their deal, assuming they want to extend their contract a few years (and some don't, knowing that 2 years of solid performance will result in a much bigger raise than 1 year of solid play). The players who sign these contracts have a choice - make more playing in the USL or get to showcase their talents day-in, day-out in front of an MLS coach with the hopes that they get to sign a "normal" deal. Oh, and I'm going to make a note about this post. You heard it here first, but if you think people are mad about this raise, wait until they get a load of next year's (2008) ummmm, well - let's just say the vitriol will be flowing.
Poverty level? Really? The 2004 U.S. "Poverty Threshhold" for a single person under 65 was $9,827. It hasn't gone up 3k in the last 3 years. Throw in the fact that DEV players generally earn quite a bit more in benefits and other earnings than just their "DEV" salary. Most DEV players earn extra money working various MLS camps, they get per diems while travelling, not to mention other "benefits" that tend to put them way over the "poverty" line. Don't think of DEV players as being the end of the "major league bench" Think of it as being the Reserve or "minor league" team. Part of the incentive of the low salary is to make the players either prove their worth, or get out of the way for the crop of kids that will show up next season. DEV players in MLS are like A-Ball players in baseball. Keep'em fed and housed for a year until they either move up or move on.
To increase the developmental salary MLS should do like the AHL does. Everyone pays $2-3 for a puck and they put a helmet on the ice. The person with the closest puck to the helmet wins. If you land it in the helmet it's something like $2,000. The winner gets $500 and some Aeros tickets, the Aeros organization keeps the rest of the money (no telling how much they keep). They could do this with soccer balls and perhaps a cheerleader as a target.