We all know MLS has tiny salaries compared to the other "major sports" but, FYI, just by way of comparison: 10th highest paid player in MLS - Jovan Kirovski - $290,000 including all bonuses, etc. ($175,000 base) 7th highest paid player in MLS - Eddie Pope - $378,948 including all bonuses, etc. ($314,782 base) NBA minimum salaries for last season: 0 years experience - $385,277 1 year experience - $620,046 2 years experience - $695,046 3 years experience - $720,046 4 years experience - $745,046 5 years experience - $807,546 etc. http://www.insidehoops.com/minimum-nba-salary.shtml So, six MLS players make more than the lowest-paid NBA rookie. Two (notably not Freddie), make less than the lowest-paid second-year NBA player. The NBA "soft cap" for last season was $43.87 million for a roster of 12-15 players. The minimum team salary was $32.90 million. "Luxury tax" was paid if you went over $54.60 million. http://www.nba.com/news/cap_040713.html
When I read Goff's piece I cringed in anticipation of what now is the reality of serial Guppy bashing on this post. I agree with GM and others, that criticism of Guppy's salary is unfair. Every player negotiates his contract with the single entity that is MLS. Guppy didn't come in with an AK-47 and say "$120K or people leave in body bags." A reasoned decision by Payne, et al., was that Guppy was worth $120K. Was that a correct decision? We'll all know by the end of the season. I hope Guppy contributes. When he returns, he will be working on the left side with a true left-side defender in Wilson who is capable of making dangerous overlapping runs -- something Wanker could not do. Guppy's skill set is light years ahead of Gros and I have seen Guppy, Gomez and Moreno work well together. Add in another sophisticated forward like Quaranta and perhaps DCU will become more efficient at creating goals. At least I hope so. Another important point from the list was Wilson's salary. He is making around $30K at DCU, yet was let go in the A-League due to economic constraints. Unfortunately, that speaks volumes about why soccer is still an extremely minor sport in the U.S. (Remember the Virginia DCU license plate fiasco from last year? Last night at the local Safeway I saw a friggin' Virginia "Parrothead" plate. Jeebus, DCU is lower on the popularity food chain than a pseudo-beach bum singer.) What would be interesting is for someone to compare P-40 salaries with those paid to English reserve squad players. Finally, I admire the P40's, the Josh Groses and others in MLS who play a game they love for peanuts. How many of us would do the same thing in our lines of work? Also, I don't begrude Steve Guppy, Dema Kovalenko and Ben Olsen for making big bucks as role players, important players, but role players nonetheless. Good luck to all of them, I wish soccer in this country could afford to pay all of them more than they make today.
$365,000 for Tony Effing Sanneh? That's a helluva lot of money for a guy who, mercifully, can't clear a ball out of his box in the 88th minute.
The thing I look forward to most about Guppy's return is that I remember Tino saying after a game where he scored off a Guppy cross, that he was learning exactly where to run (near post) whenever Guppy had the ball because he knew Steve could put a quality cross in and he'd better get there to finish it. With Tino coming back (hopefully with sky-high confidence) when Guppy should be getting back into form, this could work out great for a September run for the top of the division
But every decision should be evulated beforehand based on risk and reward. The reward to DCU if he played 'fairly well' was pretty low, because we have other wingers on the team who can do that. The risk if he did nothing was high at that salary, and the guy is 37, and hasn't played at at high level in some time. At $120K, there aren't that many who would have agreed with that reasoned decision, IMO. I hope Guppy contributes. When he returns, he will be working on the left side with a true left-side defender in Wilson who is capable of making dangerous overlapping runs -- something Wanker could not do. Guppy's skill set is light years ahead of Gros and I have seen Guppy, Gomez and Moreno work well together. Add in another sophisticated forward like Quaranta and perhaps DCU will become more efficient at creating goals. At least I hope so. No insult there. Jimmy Buffet was the fifth highest paid musician in the world in 2004 for a reason--he's popular.
Right, a large portion of Route 15 South from Gilberts Corner is "adopted" by The Parrotheads of The Old Dominion There is a lot of $$ and organization amongst Buffet fans. Just hang in the parking lot before a show The Va plate thing fails every couple of years because no one champions it and makes it happen, they just set the idea out there and hope people will flock to it, which is just silly. I can't believe people are whining because a guy makes $120K a year. A pittance, I say. Yes, I know in a soft-cap league like ours we have to be more frugal than most, but please, that isn't big money. Maybe his incompetent brother moving to Chicago is to make it esier to send Guppy there next season for some allocation $$
I don't need a reason to tell the Dallas fans to shut the hell up. That's the way I feel all the time. Hey Dallas Fans! Shut the hell up!!!
While it is a tragedy that development players and even the low end of the pay scale players make what is barely a living wage in this area, I wouldn't be surprised if the team helped them out some way like paying for housing. I know the Richmond Kickers provided an apartment for a bunch of players since Ukrop owned an apartment building he could do it. If the team provided housing for players that is a huge benefit considering rent in this area.
Keep in mind that I was in no way attempting to say that those guys are being fairly compensated. My point was only that you can live on the salary they get. Though I do not live in DC, I have a very nice Mid Atlantic suburban apt (roommates), a car, a commute, and most of the other expenses a regular person has, and my mandatory monthly expenses are under $1500, which is covered by their salary range (~25k). It's livable. It's not high on the hog, but you can make it work if you need to, and to do what they do for a living, I would not be complaining much. That said, of course they deserve more. Well, except for Stokes.
No one should begrudge Guppy's his $120K. If the league was willing to pay him that, all the more power to him. Guppy's salary adds several emphasis to several points. First, MLS is, compared to European leagues for sure, and perhaps leagues elsewhere as well, very much small time in terms of pay. I don't know how much Guppy was making in his last full-time position in England, but I bet it was more than $120k. Second, the differences in salary mean that it will be continue to be difficult for MLS to attract foreign players, especially European players, at least players that offer any quality. There will continue to be the exceptional circumstances, the oldsters looking for a year or two in the States or whatever. MLS will continue to attract players from regions where pay is even less, like Central America and the Carribbean, but otherwise MLS is playing with a pretty weak hand. If and when DC ever gets around to signing the defensive monster from Argentina, everyone needs to remember that MLS pay is not likely to attract the top talent. With all due respect to Guppy, $120k would probably buy you a much better American player, for example. Finally, the salary figures make you wonder what Alexei Lalas was smoking when he spoke the other day about looking forward to the day when MLS teams could compete with English Premiership teams for the best players. Right now MLS can't outbid English clubs for the likes of Jonathan Spector or Kenny Cooper. Unless something awfully dramatic happens, I don't think any of us will live to see the day when American soccer teams are in the top rank, in terms of player salaries.
Sorry, Lanky, but I have to disagree. He has lots of options - and probably all would pay more than $28K. He's got a degree from Rutgers for starters. If he wanted his commission in the Marine Corps, they'd take him tomorrow - I think 2nd Lieutenants are making close to, or better than that right now. I think the reality is he loves the game, and being a pro athlete has its fringe benefits, I'm sure. And being a starter on an MLS Champion team has to look good on a resume. He should make more than $28K - being as he is in his second year as a starter, to get paid what he makes is an insult. As far as I'm concerned, they can cut Guppy and give $60K each to Gros and Wilson. IMHO, they're earning it.
Rutgers and the Marines are great, but it sure as heck isn't a bargaining tool for MLS. He's getting paid what he agreed to when he entered the league, what's the big deal? If he wants to make more money immediately while playing soccer, go call up the Richmond Kickers, they'd probably double his salary or more because he would be an absolute stud there. Josh Gros is a solid player, but he's got a ton of holes in his game. His defense is rather bad for a professional flank player and his crosses usually leave a lot to be desired. He's had one good season in MLS where he hit the rookie wall towards the end and one average year so far. This isn't to say that he couldn't develop into something better, but it's sure as heck not a Bryan Namoff situation from last season where the guy had been around--and contributing very positively--for a number of years.
DC is in decent shape for this year in terms of salary cap and upcoming moves (i.e. signing a yound 2nd division Argie defender) - there will need to be some salary dumping to fit Adu into the salary cap next year. Senior Roster (only $ which count against salary cap) 1. Olsen $165.0K 2. Kovalenko $165.0K 3. Gomez $158.5K 4. Moreno $157.8K 5. Quaranta $120.5K 6. Guppy $120.0K 7. Eskandarian $115.5K 8. Rimando $94.0K 9. Namoff $78.8K 10. Prideaux $69.3K 11. Carroll $46.1K 12. Wilson $33.0K 13. Simms $31.3K 14. Boswell $28.0K 15. Gros $28.0K 16. Perkins $28.0K 17. Van Sicklen $28.0K 18. Argie to be named later $??? Subtotal $1,466.6K Add $10.0K for roster penalties (cutting Lawson and Q2 after 3/31 deadline) Total $1.477M Salary Cap $1.600M (this is probably a floor amount - I believe that there have been a few reports which have this amount more in the $1.8M range). Minimum $ available for Argie: $123K If the salary cap is indeed in the $1.8M range, then a dump of Guppy would be enough to accomodate Adu's salary - absent raises for other players.
Have any P40/Genadidas players ever been un-exempted under the age of 18? Is it strictly minutes played, or is it, like so many other MLS rules, ambiguous as to what takes you out of the program? I can't see adidas too interested in subsidizing the kid with the big Nike contract
Maybe I wasn't entirely clear in what I meant. It's not that Gros can go to the front office and say "I have other options, pay me more" - I'm saying that if he isn't getting paid enough and isn't going to get a raise, he can walk - if he wants to - and probably into some other vocation/career that will pay a lot more. However, I still think he is underpaid. I look at the salaries and see people making more (in some cases a lot more) that don't break out from the pack wenough to warrant such hefty $. Just my opinion, and like a-holes I'm entitled to mine. Yeah, you want names. Prideaux for starters. And my heretical side says Ben Olsen is way overpaid for the way he has been playing (ducks) - time to put on my kevlar.
When we think ahead to next year we have to go far beyond merely accommodating the Awesome Argie and, perhaps, Freddy. On form, Gros deserves a raise, but so will Simms, Wilson and Boswell. And I expect Kuykendall to get some attention as well. He probably has been the biggest and most pleasant surprise of the reserve team matches. So if I were Ben and Dema, to name just two vets, I would be a bit fearful of my future. Sure, Guppy is overpaid, if only because he hasn't played for a long, long time. If he had been playing regularly, I think we might believe he deserved his pay, given his obvious skills and savvy.
Yes, indeed. The off-season should be more than a little interesting. DC management will have to be concerned that each of the top five salaries present a challenge of sorts. Freddy -- because he is highly paid, but does not start; Benny because he has many miles on his tires and is having only a so-so year; Moreno because he looks like he is running on fumes this year and has never been a fitness freak; Gomez because he plays the same position as Freddy; and Dema because he too is not getting any younger and is still a one-deminsional player. Of course, the same could be said of many sports teams -- veterans tend to get paid more, but are not necessarily well-rounded wonderful players. But on DC (and probably many MLS teams) there seems to be a real imbalance between the younger and older players in terms of salaries and when taking into consideration each of the players' contributions to the team as a whole.
Everyone assumes Freddy's contract is coming out of protected status next year. He is only 11th in minutes among those with Devlopmental Contract Status: DAL - C.Goodson:1434 NE - M.Parkhurst: 1350 Met - M.Bradley: 1343 Chv - B.Guzan: 1170 Chi - C.Rolfe: 979 Col - R.Lewis: 913 Dal - A.Pitchkolan: 781 Col - H. Freeman: 643 Dal - A.Alvarez: 598 Dal - R.Mina: 578 DC - F.Adu: 546 CMB - D. Szetela: 524 RSL - K.Cutler: 450 DAL - D.Moor: 417 SJ - R.Cochrane: 366 Based on age he should still have roster protection. Based on minutes to this point as wel. 1 Goal and 4 assits is not a huge contribution. So while many other teams may cry foul right now the numbers say Freddy is still a developmental player and should not count against the cap. Of this list I would only expect Goodson, Parkhurst, Bradley, Guzan, Rolfe and Lewis to change status.
Since we've never had a Gen Adidas player on Max Salary, I think we may see a gradual phase in of Freddy on the cap. Maybe 1/2 counts next year, full cap hit the year after or something like that. This is MLS, they can make sh!t up as they go along.
Oh as a 10 year grizzled vet of seeing MLS Rules, written in disappearing ink I know. I just wanted to point out to some of the "gloom and doom patrol" that right now Freddy is still in development. Unless you ask his "peeps".
Just to put another piece of data out there, DJ Countess RETAINED his P-40 status after the 2003 season when he played in 24 games and racked up 2,193 minutes....but then he only played 1 game the year before, and 2 games in the following year, so MLS may have justified it by averaging his minutes.