Here's an idea: Allow a fourth DP slot for under 30 DPs. The player will count as a DP for the duration of the contract provided he is under the age of thirty at the time of the signing. I admit that I just randomly thought this up and posted it here so it may be a crap idea.
It's not the world's worst idea, but again we come to the problem that arises whenever we talk about raising salaries in MLS. Namely: With the "International Slots" system in place, any rise in salary is only going to serve to pay the shit American players more. So your system means a little more money in Jeff Larentowicz' pocket, but would be ill-served raising the quality of play in the League, in general
ideas are fine (crap or not is irrelevant, it could spark an interesting discussion either way). but you have to at least try to describe the problem/arguments.
I've been thinking that Youth DPs (and I'm talking about the rule as of now, so under 23 players) should sort of be handled like GA players. If you take a risk and grab an 18 or 19 year old kid that may or may not pan out, you should be able to try and develop him like we do GA players. That would mean that you could carry him as an off-budget player until he plays enough minutes. We should be encouraging teams to develop these sorts of players, but we make a Danny Mwanga start off as an off-budget player while a Fabian Castillo counts at 15ok AND a senior roster spot. There has to be a better balance that lets teams try and grab younger foreign players.
I don't agree with this reasoning. Shit players in all leagues and in all sports often get overpaid because of behemoth salary structures. There are currently international players who are overpaid in MLS. None of this means it is a bad idea to find a way of paying players more to eventually enhance talent, and thus, improve the quality of play. Forget the whole DP thing for a second. Imagine instead that you had a $10m salary cap and a $100k minimum salary. It would likely mean that there would be some mediocre talent that would be overpaid for a few years. But over time, with that kind of budget you would attract better talent. With a 100k minimum salary, you would encourage some young talented athletes to stick with soccer instead of running off to other sports. You would then have the money to encourage many of the best Americans to stay home instead of running off overseas. After about five years of a bigger and better salary structure, you would revolutionize the league, its perception around the world, and its perception among American soccer fans. Talent upgrade would in fact ensue. *** I AM NOT CURRENTLY ADVOCATING A $10M SALRY CAP. THE LAST PARAGRAPH IS MERELY HYPOTHETICAL***
I don't see the advantage of adding another DP slot to teams when there is already so many unused spots. I think there is only 28 used spots in the league and there are 38 spots awarded to the 19 teams and 19 more if the teams are willing to pay 250k. So right now there are a lot of spots out there just not being used. I would LOVE a rule that says that teams can just trade or sell DP slots to other teams but the cash has to go back into their salary budget. If you made the sold/traded spots cap exempt, it could get really interesting. Then you could let the market speak for itself. So instead of trying to force a 4th DP on the entire league when in fact only a few teams want a 4th DP or try to push the market to buy players of a certain age group, just open it up and let the market decide. If teams do really well with buying young guys, then other teams will follow. If teams end up loosing a lot of cash going out and buying DPs then teams will follow that. If the league runs out of spots then they can add another DP slot to the market.
it makes sense. or instead of tying it to a number of minutes (may get tricky if the player suddenly breaks out, and the team has no "normal" DP spots), maybe this "U23 exception" could for instance be limited to transfer fee. You are allowed to buy one (or more) U23 from another league without using a DP slot, as long as the player himself will be paid within normal cap rules. In Fabiano's case, he'd count as 50 or 60k, but his transfer fee would be off the books. Lets say your rule was introduced before this season started. In all likelihood, the most immediate impact -- Galaxy resigns Donovan (who was 29) to a multi-year deal and frees up his "normal" DP slot. Spending more on talent is fine. But it's not the only or even the main consideration. Otherwise there would be no cap at all. Which is why when you propose an idea like this, you need to explain where in your opinion the current system is failing. Right now the purpose of your suggestion is not clear, at all.
it seems drastic, potentially. even 1 "U23 exception", if it was introduced today, would probably be severely restricted at first. For instance - you can only use it if your DP spending is under a certain limit. MLS is cautious, and for a good reason. Longer term, MLS is willing to increase discretion to spend. Lately - via boosting allocation money by ~15% each year. But I don't see why the same couldn't be done via such exceptions instead. But it won't be drastic.