According to Twellman, MLS owners are working on mechanism to bring in dos Santos and Chicharito

One to Orlando and the other...?

 

See Hernandez, Luis

 

Gio could slide in nicely with NYRB pushing Sasha out wide. Or replacing Felipe in a 4-3-3.

 

See Dempsey, Clint.

 

The Colorado Rapids have scouted Chicharito extensively and believe his bench-warming skills make him highly qualified to be their latest designated player on the bench.

 

Orlando is where it had been reported that there was a team with the interest and willing to pay the money. What confused me about it though was why any new mechanism would be needed--Orlando seems to have the DP slot.

I was thinking that maybe the player decided that he only wanted to play in NY or LA, and so we needed a new mechanism to make that happen. . .

. . . but this is also a possibility. Perhaps the league is working to implement a subsidy program for certain players of 'strategic value.' Since they've done this a couple times already, it would be nice if the program were 'above board' so that any team understands what they would need to do to use it.

 

Kaka, Rivas and Rochez are all considered DP's for Orlando.

 

The mechanism could possibly be a "4th" or "domestic" DP label/regulation from MLS. With possibly all of Canada/US/Mexico (or even all of Concacaf) players being eligible for the "domestic" (or "regional") DP slots.

Who knows?

MLS business mechanisms are always fun.

 

i am not sure why this wasn't fixed during the cba negotiations and before the season. the simplest thing is to "redo" the DP rule to make it simpler and more flexible.

DP cap hit can be either 10% or 5% of the overall salary "cap" (so for let's say 4M cap the hits would be either 400k or 200k).

then you just have to define what special reasons you fall into the 5% category as a DP, mostly things the league wants to promote its teams to do ... so lets say under 24, previous contract was a non dp contract with mls (resign league players), a US or CAN national teamer (how to define that is of course debatable) ... and the great thing is you can always add to this list of what kinds of DPs fall into the 5% category as opposed to full 10% DPs.

then you set the limit on DPs not by numer but by amount of cap hit space you can use on them ... so somewhere between 30% (what the current rule of 3 DPs would translate to) and probably 40%.

so you want 3 to 4 big name euro established stars like villa and lampard and pirlo .. well then you get 3-4 DPs. you want all young SA prospects like Castillo and/or resign your built up MLS stars like Wondo/Beckerman/Zusi/Besler well then you could have up to 6-8 DPs. it would depend on the team and the different strategies teams pursue would be interesting to watch.

but this is MLS so nothing so elegant will be forthcoming.

 

Ohh, so maybe the 'mechanism' moves one of the latter two off that status and onto the 'core player' status. That would make the pieces fit.

How about because if it were, they'd still be trying to negotiate it?

Perhaps more importantly, right now the union perceives little direct stake in the DP rule, because out of its membership of--what, close to 500 players?--only a tiny handful of present players have ever been 'elevated' to the status. The union knows it's mostly about guys who aren't currently in the league, and thus are not their primary responsibility.

 

Right on--if you create a 4th DP slot for sub-$1M DPs, then for some teams currently with 3 DPs, that opens up a new full DP slot.

Rivas and Rochez are Young DPs, anyway:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...tience-young-dps-carlos-rivas-bryan-rochez-af

So the reduced hit to Orlando may give them more $$ to squeeze Chicharito under the cap.

 

IMO, the players going after FA and not a expanded salary cap or more DP's makes sense. It looks like the current MLS players may have made the right gamble.

 

And you could easily argue that Chicharito is even more valuable considering how successful MLS is on Spanish language TV. Not that Mexican-Americans will only watch Mexicans, but it does give them a hero to pull for who also plays in the El Tri games they watch.

 

I remember when OCSC announced Rivas and Rochez as DPs, they said if they needed they could have used allocation money to buy down one of their salaries, but at the time they did not have a second full DP on the horizon, so they had no need to.
Also, the large turn out this last weekend in Orlando to see Mexico v Costa Rica, and the obvious fan favorite being Chicharito, he would be a big hit here, course numerous other cities could say the same.

 

For ********s sake, tab, please tell me you had a brain fart and forgot the 1000 times you've read on bigsoccer that that's against the law.

I know your go-to shtick is to pretend all kinds of impossible things are possible and then argue them ad infinitum. But let's try to keep this one on track, okay?

 

"DP slots" are the same as "international player" designations (and foreign worker restrictions)?

If MLS is adhering to green card and employee eligibility requirements and U.S. Employment law as a whole, why would it matter if some internal roster mechanism had some broad or specific classification or designation ("DP" or otherwise)?

Could MLS have a "Spanish-language speaking" DP slot? That is a special employee skill set that would fit within the marketing/customer-facing portion of the business. Or depending on the market/franchise, it could be a French/Italian/Portuguese/Polish/German speaking DP, or what have you.

How does the "young DP" program work? Aren't the age restrictions (or internal MLS regulations and roster classifications) in violation of some U.S. labor laws that prohibit hiring discrimination based on age of applicant?

 

I'm not playing your game tab. Find another sucker.

 

I, for one, find it plausible but unlikely. We've already gone down the road of having a Mexican team in MLS. Having a Mexican DP slot would have just as bad an affect on the fan base.

 

I am pretty sure the DP rule has nothing to do with the CBA. The league as added and made multiple changes to the DP rule with out having to collectively bargain it.

The owners can make a change to the DP rule when ever they want as long as it does not affect the baseline CBA rules.

 

The mechanism that Twellman is talking about is actually two fold

1) The need to expand the DP rule in some fashion (maybe to 4 DP's where 1 has to be a youth DP or something like that)

2) The owners all agreeing that dipping again into the Providence sale pool is worth it for the league. There would be enough money left in the kitty to get these two players but you would have to do a ton of convincing to the 18 other owners who would not have these players on their team.

 

And what "track" is that?

We are discussing some unknown and vague "mechanism" that MLS owners are working on, or at least this news as it has been tweeted by Twellman.

I am not pretending anything. I am offering ideas for what could (even remotely) be within the operational scope of what MLS may be considering as a mechanism for acquiring/signing these two specific players. I am not at all intending for my ideas or discussion to be read as some kind of shtick.

Thanks for your contributions to the discussion and thread.

I'd argue that Blanco to MLS would be the more relevant historical context and example (when considering the possible Chicartito signing specifically) than would be the "CUSA experiment" with the Vergara/Cue franchise ownership.

How would the fan-base feel about a "CONCACAF NT-eligible" DP slot?

Would that make any kind of sense for MLS, and could they legally/operationally implement it?

Personally, I think MLS needs to just drop the "DP label" and just go to some broader "off-budget" and "on-budget" guidelines and "restrictions" within their operational roster rules and regulations for the league and teams.

 

About the same as we'd feel about lining the field with powdered cocaine.

 

Well, ticket prices would probably go up a bit more in that case.