......then where are we going to get the players from? Now I do not know if the league is going to expand, but just for sake of argument, what if they do? Judging from this years expansion draft, it would seem like the player pool is really depleted. So, for the sake of conversation, let's look at what the league might do if it expands to San Antonio and Seattle (or any 2 new markets) next year. If it is San Antonio and Club America joins then they will probably go the Chivas route and bring in their own players. However they still have to fill the roster up to the limit and I am wondering where those players are going to come from. Seattle has an easier time, they may simply bring in the 4 alotted foriegn player to beef up their roster. Now it sounds easy but will they be able to compete. I am also looking at some of the the things the league is trying to do. The league is raising the roster limit, so maybe they are of the opinion that if they bring in younger talent and get them first team playing time then they will be better off when their is an expansion draft and they have to lose some players. I am also still wondering what will happen if we lose a team next year. I am thinking, how will the leagues number look, will we have 13 teams, will we get another team in and make it 14? As you can see, ther is quite a bit to think about in the off season and going into the next season. Bobles
It would make it much easier if we expanded to rochester and seattle so they could keep some of their old players. Otherwize we just expand the limit on international players, and buy up some over-the-hill players playing in europe.
The player pool only looked depleted because this year's expansion draft was a lot more restrictive than the 1998 expansion draft. In 1998, 96 players were made available to expansion teams, out of a total of 195 in the league. That is, about 49% of the league's player pool. This year, only players not on the developmental roster had to be protected. Even then, only 68 players out of a total of 192 were available for selection, only 35%. Add in the 43 developmental players, you're looking at only 29% of the player pool. And, they weren't even allowed to choose all of these players, since teams got to pull back a player after every selection. So, we can figure that the expansion teams got something like the 124-133rd, and then the 144-153rd best players in the league; and actually, they presumably did worse than that, since Chivas was looking for a specific player-type (Mexican), and both avoided Senior Internationals. I feel extremely confident that the league can fill holes in the bottom third of its talent pool before another draft next year, if need be.
This "problem" is a non-issue because they can always expand the number of SI's allowed per team. (Which they did this year). Furthermore, teams can dump medium-quality SIs and replace them with high-quality, high paid SIs. As long as the foreigner buffer exists, the quality level of the league will remain pretty constant unless the salary cap changes.
I don't know. It depends on a few things, I'd think. 1) Forget Chicago for a second (because I don't think it'll happen again), but whenever you add expansion franchises, there is a drop in quality, because you usually have sucky expansion teams. Rarely (I said forget Chicago) do you have a really competitive expansion team in their first year of playing. It has to do with team chemistry, quality of players, and the general upheaval that comes with an inaugural year. 2) One thing I will say - the parity we saw this year will start to melt away starting next year. With two new teams, I think we'll see some (maybe 2)teams REALLY suck, and some teams start to REALLY dominate (again, maybe 1 or 2). Now that 4 teams won't make the play-offs, that'll make the gap more visible. 3) Wages just went up this year for many players. That's a big deal. More and more people will see this as a possible career option. 4) I'm really excited by this years crop of rookies. Grabavoy, Dempsey, Ngwenya, Adu, Gaven, etc., etc., were all very exciting players this year. Next year, maybe add Szetela, and we have a whole new generation of players who will be in the league for a while. So a good crop of rookies always will help the level of play in the league. 5) I think, incrementally, you will see the age drop, and the quality rise, of the foreign SI's that start appearing at our door. Small steps, but this will help counteract the dilution of the talent pool.