http://espn.go.com/soccer/news/2001/0109/1004502.html This states that SJ rec'd a '03 Draft pick from NE for not a player or pick or cash even, but "budget room". It goes on to say that it can only be done when a team is given a chance to sign a player to replace a injured player. I guess it shows that the salary cap is not as flexible as most of us thought but this sure sounds funky.
It's as though San Jose were paying a Rev's player's salary for the rest of the season in exchange for a draft pick next season. With single-entity, that translates to "budget room" instead of cash. This means that San Jose: > wants more draft picks next season to replace players they expect to lose (LD?) > has been holding onto extra "budget room", and > doesn't think they'll need it for any new signees this season. For New England: > they really want to sign someone that will put them over the hump and into the playoffs > they've got loads of talent already, next year's draft isn't a big concern.
First off, this was actually announced earlier this year when the Fire needed help. Secondly, since the League owns all contracts, just look at it as MLS having a $17M or so salary cap which is evenly distributed among the teams, but teams are allowed to trade their unused money.
Sounds like a dangerous precedent to me. Once the teams can start trading the unused portions of their salary caps, what's to keep them from stocking one team with a bunch of top quality players while the other teams have a bunch of mediocre talent? Sounds a lot like the lopsided NASL to me. If it was up to me, I'd keep it at a set salary cap for each team, no Enron-esque financial deals allowed.
They've been doing this for a while now. And if you look at the last few years, there is much more of a concerted effort to keep the teams as even as possible than there is to stock one team to the detriment of others. The NASL debacle occurred because there was no salary cap and market size tended to dictate what a team could spend. MLS has a cap. I don't see your correlation. What incentive to MLS is there to artificially create one dominant team?
I think MLS jumped the shark when Landon stopped dying his hair. After that it just wasn't special anymore. We almost had "Special Guest Star" Paul Gascoigne. - Paul