On a roster of 30 players that equals to an average of more than 2 million dls per player. No way are players from 20-30 getting paid more than 2 million dls each. The highest paid player in Liga MX is Gignac around 4 million a year or at least was. The average salary in Liga MX per team was around 402k back in 2018.
I admit it sounds excessive. The top salaries I found digging around for Monterrey are: Rogelio Funes Mori - $3.8 Million Vincent Janssen - $2.8 Million Miguel Layún - $2.7 Million Dorlan Pabón - $1.5 Million Hugo González - $1.23 Million Luis Montes - $1.16 Million Carlos Rodríguez - $1.16 Million Jesús Gallardo - $1.1 Million Avilés Hurtado - $1 Million Maximiliano Meza - $1 Million Stefan Medina - $868 Thousand That's very different to what I've been implying.
I wonder how many players are being counted on the payroll. Reserve teams could add up, especially considering the ridiculous numbers of players Liga MX clubs seem to have under contract.
I don't think reserve teams are counted with the main team but if so then it also has to count for MLS teams since they too have U17, U19 and several have USL teams. But point was that MLS top spenders and Liga MX top spenders spend around the same amount on players only difference being that Liga MX has more flexibility and no such rules as DPs, TAM, GAM etc. Transfer fees aren't counted against them like it does in MLS. Liga MX teams can build better teams and with depth compared to the strict restrictions MLS teams have. On a side note, I'll take a wild guess and say that a team like Queretaro and Houston Dynamo have very similar roster salaries.
All this hand wrangling over quality of play and salaries in MLS, and yet, I can’t get past the thought in the back of my mind that MLS teams have no real reason to win CCL. What is the benefit of winning? What does on MLS team get for winning? What does the league get? How many MLS fans even know CCL exists? How many fans care? How many could name a Liga MX team let alone a Honduran team? I think the reason that there is an MLS team in the semi finals is because two MLS teams played each other in the quarter finals and one team couldn’t get out of it. Needless to say, I expect an all Liga MX final.
Because winning is the goal when a pro sports team enters a tournament. There's also money to be made. Ultimately, however, we could ask the same sort of "why" questions about pro sports in general. This seems to depend on the MLS market. For TFC and TFC fans like me, it's a big deal. I suspect a good chunk of the fan base would take a CCL win over winning the MLS Cup if they had to pick. In other markets, it seems to count for less.
The 2020 numbers were: Champions: $500,000 Runner up: $300,000 Semi finalist: $200,000 https://www.sportekz.com/football/concacaf-champions-league-prize-money/amp/ That hardly covers travel expenses. For all practical purposes, it’s a money loser. By comparison, a team losing a first qualifying round UCL game (well before any EPL team shows up) gets €280,000. https://www.sportekz.com/football/u...€30.5 million) that include market pool money. Based on money, why should a professional team would care about that tournament?
Winning CCL gets MLS a spot in the most important, glorious & relevant club team tournament on the planet, FIFA's Club World Cup!
It's not the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl some make it out to be. Ha! In Houston Texas there is so much diversity and so many that follow the beautiful game that any time teams face each other in CCL play it allows for the banter on the job site or around the watering hole on who is going to win. This is legit care for association football partner. Certainly there is a premium on winning for the Liga MX clubs as they don't like each other. So if an MLS team can get their name up on the board with those Liga MX teams, the MLS team is now in the discussion. More so if it is the local team Houston Dynamo. When our team defeated Pachuca that had Chaco Jimenez, Calero in goal and others that had become the first North American club to win a South American regional tournament when Pachuca won the Copa Sudamericana and were defending Liga MX champions, so when Houston defeated this quality of a Liga MX team in the first leg the return leg had teeth. It was an actual time when an Liga MX team was hearing it from the media in Mexico and abroad about being THAT team that loses to some second year MLS team. Then the game unfolded and it is up there as one of the best in CONCACAF regional play. Even in the loss, the Houston brand and image in our diverse and soccer loving community saw a legitimate move of the needle in respect and support. This is why an MLS team should care. Winning when a team shouldn't and people take notice. Us in Houston have lived this so our club cares about taking on regional competition. While I hear your gripe about the average MLS fan not being intimate with the importance of regional Cup play and the honor that is applied to regional play as known the world over, this tournament and the following it has in Canada and the United States gets bigger ever year.
Or tell Tigres that getting to play a final against BAYERN MUNICH is not fun! And surely didn't hurt at all when they approached Thauvin... yes, they're just about done buying a player younger than 30 from the defending World Cup champions Concacaf gives travel grants for games separately (IIRC it's US$50k for every away game). But it's absolutely fair to criticize them for the small prize pot, even if teams aren't playing that many games... and I have to think that the new format in 2023's gonna come with a significant increase in prize money, or teams are gonna drop out left and right. Prestige. I'd be lying if I claimed it was more than 50%... but it's way more than before, thanks to the runs to the CCL Final and more teams having been involved. And then in 2023, nearly a third of the league will be involved in the fall (and another third in Leagues Cup), so international competition will be unavoidable. Your average Latino MLS fan? I'd venture to say all of them But that is an issue particularly with the US market: we're insular by nature, and know very little about the region in general. The example I give is that pretty much any fan in Europe knows who Ajax and Porto are; but your average fan in the US couldn't tell you in which countries Saprissa or Olimpia are from, much less get hyped for games against them. Ditto Montreal. Canadian football fans aren't so insular, so they've been easily the most hyped for CCL play (LAFC wasn't far behind, though... that León game was spectacular).
It isn't the prize money that matters. TFC (who I happen to follow) average well over 20 000 for CCL home games. That's something well north of $1 million per game in ticket revenue alone. It is certainly worth their time to care.
I don't root for leagues; for instance I'd never root for LAFC or Seattle for example; but this is funny.
Think back to 1955/56 and the first European Cup. English teams didn't take part and several champions of mid-size European leagues declined. Where are we now? $billions in revenue, €19,000,000 in prize money to the winners alone and a 380 million worldwide TV audience.
Chuck Blazer, who was the guy who brought CONCACAF competition into the modern media era - and also reformatted the FIFA Club World Cup from a one game Europe/South America format into its present form - fully expected it to take at least 20 years before any of these tournaments would mean much to anyone aside from, ironically, the players. Nobody has ever understood the dynamics of this stuff better than he did. His vision was that you had to start this stuff in order for it to develop down the road. Now yes, I have to add the obligatory comment about Chuck taking a 10% commission for doing so but the fact remains that he was probably right; it will take years and years but eventually these competitions will become not omly relevant but wildly profitable.
I dislike the hand-waving that the CWC gets. The competition is important in South America, Asia and Africa. It is also important enough in Mexico, with many regios looking forward to their match against Liverpool. Or will you tell me that Los Angeles fans wouldn't be hyped if they were in that position? There's exactly one confederation that dismisses the CWC, and their legion of bandwagoners.