Since so many think DC United had a right to Adu because the location of where he lives and apparently the MLS front office agrees, why not incorporate a rule. For example, each club could have a X mile "rights" radius from its home stadium for all non-college or professional players that qualify for a to be determined residency requirement. This would motivate the MLS to be more involved in the area youth programs and perhaps a percentage of any future foreign tranfer fees of these players could be be mandated to be poured back into the system that developed the player.
I have advocated this in the past, and I have no reason to disagree yet. Not a big fan of amateur drafts in any of our sports.
The NHL used to do this back in the Original Six days...all it did was give a huge advantage to Montreal and Toronto. It is inequitable.
Seems more fair than the current system. And unlike your hockey analogy, I think all the MLS clubs are in relative soccer youth hotbeds as that is criteria for a franchise. LA and NY would have an advantage due to population but I would imagine the other clubs could make up for it with organization. And the majority of players would probably still come out of the non ZOCs and would be selected in a draft.
There's absolutely nothing unfair with the Adu situation. Some players want to play for a team, not a league. Sometimes the league has to let them. It's usually senior internationals, but sometimes, like with Donovan and Adu, it's a homegrown player.
Speaking as a KC fan...if our zone includes St. Louis, Omaha, Wichita, Des Moines, Tulsa...then we could come close to getting as much out of it as LA would.
I'm not sure I agree. The whole "geographic" thing breaks down as high schoolers move before signing, or college kids decide to attend University of Maryland instead of St. Louis University. For leagues interested in parity, an amateur draft is the most equitable system. At least that's what Chris Albright and Ben Olsen told me.
I am sorry to go off the subject but there is no soccer team in NY as you stated and Metros that your taking about is not a major league team which 500 folks were at GS the last time they played.
But our problem is that we suffer from competition for players from both College and other leagues. As it stands right now, it serves no purpose. If the kid is really good enough to change the fortunes of a bad team, he's also good enough to dictate to the league where he will play, since he can always go elsewhere.