I read recently in the Washington post that Marco Etchverria is "thought" to earn about $500.000 a year. I had previously read somewhere that he earned around $400.000. I remember reading that the Walter Mathaus who played for the MetroStars earned about one million. Now if I remember correctly MLS has an INDIVIDUAL salary cap of about 250.000. And I undesrtand that there are many players earning above that So. Cany anyone explain those salaries? and more important to the credibility of the league> Who decides that team X can have a player earning 500 thousand or 400 thousand and team Y cannot violate the individual salary cap? I know somepoeole are going to say that those are not the salaries paid by MLS by rather "arrangements" with promoters etc. Give me a break... It stinks.....
"Walter Mathaus" is a dead commedian. Lothar Matheus is the German defender who played for the Metros is 2000 . As for some players earning above and beyond the realm of possibility, that is something the league decides. When there is a player who the league considers to be just as important to the success of the league as he is to the success of his team (ie: the boy is marketable), MLS will kick in some extra dollars. Just off the top of my head, this type of deal was done with: Jorge Campos, Josh Wolff, Lothar Matheus, Etcheverry, Luis Hernandez, Cobi Jones, and many more. Basically, as far as salary cap impact is concerned, when a player gets more that the max, that player counts 275k (official max salary) against the teams cap. Does it kinda stink? Yeah, but without this kind of practice, MLS would have lost a number of their most marketable players. They have broken the bank for select marketable players since day one, and they will do so in the future (Tim Howard and Landon Donovan appear to be two likely possibilities.) JMac
I thought is was endorsements. Etchevary > Adidas, Plus the USMNT (Cobi) gets paid by the USSF. The world cup bonus was in the $250,000 range.
Well MLS made up for Lothar's contract by selling the tv rights to German television. So I wasn't that pissed of with that. Now his play....
Wasn't Walter great in Grumpy Old Footballers? I don't think anyone can definitively say exactly what playerX makes because Betty Crocker-an enron chef-couldn't cook a book better than the MLS.