Post-match: Jones/Yeboah Testimonial Match, Presented by Kalshi - Crew v Nashville - Match 4 - 3/14/26 6:15P

IDGAF if people want to invest in MLS as an entity. Columbus is doing fine financially as-is and the way its set up, we can, and do, compete. Why would we be happy to get rid of that? We're already putting ourselves in a shitty position by switching to a cold weather schedule when trying to compete for players. It's only going to get worse when we have to compete against teams in our own league that are willing to outspend us.

We aren't going to be a top 10 spending team most years. I don't see how you can look at the world of soccer and try to argue that the top spending teams don't win almost every time. It'll be like that here, too.

 

And as the Crew has proven, you still need to get a lucky hit on your 10 shirt.

Schelotto, Higuian, Zelarayan, Cucho. Those were pretty decent rosters they joined but they needed those 4 guys to win ( yes I know Higs didnt get a Cup but he was damned close and would have except for Steve Clark ( ptewie) and an utterly incompetent linesman.)

None of them were pure hitters. Now our big stud is Wes, who is in fact a pure hitter and God bless him but unless and until Tall can pull a driver out of his ass the most we can hope for is a pretty good team that goes out in the second round

 

You don't care if the league that the Crew are in thrives or stagnates?

Ok, thought experiment:

Rewind to 2017/2018. Austin "dual track" is announced. Dr Pete and whoever else goes to the Haslams and says "invest in Columbus (and by extension, MLS)."

Jimmy asks, "is the league growing? Will my investment become more valuable over time?"

Pete says, "nah, shit's staying like this forever, because boo to spending and a better quality league"

Do the Haslams, or anyone else, say "yes?"

The answer is no. Hell no.

You think people are investing in teams around the league (I mean buying ownership stakes) and they want it all to stay stagnant? Are you serious? Of course they don't want that.

We know most teams dont make money. I got news for ya, the only way they are making money in the future is to produce a better product, and that's accomplished with better players, which costs money.

Its not rocket science.

 

The tl;dr is that the success of the Crew is directly tied to the success of the league and its growth. To deny that the league's overall health and future growth potential is relevant would be foolish. The two are directly tied to each.

 

You are making his argument for him. The owners of the Guardians and Pirates and Reds and 20 other teams don't even try to compete in MLB because they recognize they have no chance. They keep their investment in the teams though because the Dodgers have to give them a cut of every Ohtani jersey they sell and the Yankees need to share their revenue from the YES Network. It's "good for the league" and fruitful to owners to just let five teams operate with payrolls that are 2x to 5x higher than the other 25 teams.

That's what you're advocating for. It is not a limitless marketplace for MLS. It's limitless for LAFC and Miami. For almost everyone else, the market is "players not good enough to start in Europe." Every other big soccer league is the same. The 17 other teams in the La Liga table every year make money on the backs of playing in the same league as Real, Atletico, and Barca.

In your scenario, why would the Haslams even try to spend and compete? In an uncapped league, the odds of winning MLS Cup with a $15 million roster are practically the same as $30 million. They aren't beating teams with $50-75 million rosters who have guys on the bench that would start for 80% of the league's teams. Jimmy could make more money by just running out a Moneyball roster every year and cashing checks from all the advertising and merch and tickets that the monolithic teams generate.

The competitive imbalance that Garber has lusted for during his tenure is what would be best for the league, and it would be terrible for fans of 80% of the teams in MLS.

 

Because unlike some very unimaginative people, I don't think you need to spend the most to win and/or compete. Ask Atlanta how all that spending is working out. Ask repeated offseason champs Orlando how they've been doing. Toronto spent a lot for a ling time and were pathetic.

Money helps, but it ain't everything. If your mindset is that only money wins, then quit following the team immediately, because they will never win the spending contest.

 

And I also assume you're not advocating for a salary capless structure. Getting rid of the GAM, TAM, DP stuff while keeping some sort of salary cap, floor, luxury tax, etc. is the way forward for the league. The only thing I would want to keep as a roster mechanism is home grown talent. I think that giving teams full or nearly full cap exemption for home grown talent is a way to level the playing field.


The NBA has a pretty great CBA that would convert pretty well to MLS.

 

The top teams spend about $30 million in salary in real dollars now. Bottom teams spend $12ish million in salary. I'd just make that (more or less) the cap ceiling and floor.

No more TAM and GAM.

You can have one franchise player that's a DP and capped at whatever number.

To promote strong academies, all academy kids on their first contract don't count against the cap, and second contract is capped at a low charge.

I'm not pro spending more money now, I just want to keep it at the current level but streamline the rules.

It's already been strongly rumored the rules are changing soonish. Doyle himself said as much on Reddit recently. The rules are being loosened. The calendar is changing. Burying one's head in the sand like an ostrich isn't an option (not you specifically Zman, speaking generally).

 

Don’t need to be the biggest spender or even a top spender every year but what you can’t do is limit yourself to ballin on a budget! You have to do what it takes to win by spending smart and if you spend big on DPs you have to hit a high% perfect example is Gazdag he is a ballin on a budget move. We needed help but we spent a small amount and it never made sense the guy was never scoring more than 5 goals in the run of play. He was a PK guy who benefitted from others. It was an extremely risky move to think he would do more here. Now the better move was to find the right guy and get a quality player regardless of price.

Some ppl buy the most expensive stuff which isn’t always better

some ppl buy cheap stuff because they are frugal

some ppl buy quality irrespective of the price

which one are we going to be? If you have a mentality you’re never going to spend big and limit yourself to finding “gems” you’re already self defeated! Nothing wrong with being smart and investing in Crew2 but if you need upgrades at a position you go and get the best player that fits your system. If you’re a selling team you look for quality try to enhance and profit. You can’t do that if your always unwilling to invest because your frugal.

Bez isn’t perfect but he was what this club needed our problems are much bigger than Issa Tall. If the owner ran off Bez to get yes man and let key FO personnel leave because they want to run the club like a business that’s fine but your quality suffers and nobody can take you serious. Haslam helped STC but we need to STC from this jack ass. His vision and leadership trickles down. He is trash and now he is destroying this club. You want to be the best you need to bring in the best ppl in the FO, scouts , Coaching & Players. By consistently winning you will profit. The value of the Club will increase even if your bank account takes a hit currently. He might be better than queso boy but he is a mediocre owner with a mediocre mindset and we are getting mediocre results. Until this changes I’m sorry to say we will just best case be a exciting team to watch because even if we strike gold again Haslam will get in his own way and Columbus will not consistently be a top4 team while he cuts corners to try and turn a profit.

 

I forgot if I posted it, but it is all yellows tomorrow for the crew. We have yellow shorts.

 

Those are no fun--ask Mrs KG.

 

I am not saying the cure-all is being the top spender in MLS. There is stupid money at all levels of spending. Running everything dirt cheap and meddling in the locker room like Montreal is as stupid as what Toronto has done paying for Bernardeschi and Insigne and now Sargent. There has to be sufficient spending with smart money. The Crew has been stupid money for two years.

Instead of paying the market rate of $16 million for a dynamic #10 that would have filled the void left by Cucho, they paid top of the market prices for a poacher that can't create chances for himself or anyone else and a PK merchant who can't function outside of a rigid formation. Their decision to save $4 million on the outlay is going to result in about $8 million in losses on those deals.

Instead of spending the money from selling Aidan Morris to get a new #8 who could stabilize the midfield, they signed Dylan Chambost for a transfer fee that was undisclosed (read: cheap). Then gave $400,000 to Derrick Jones for two straight years for their bench depth.

They haven't transferred in a CB since 2023. They paid Rudy Camacho $600,000 last year and watched him sit out when he was cleared to play, and then rewarded him in December with a starting spot and a new contract for an undisclosed fee (read: cheap).

All of these decisions boil down to an unwillingness to pay market rate for replacements. That is what I mean by needing to spend.

Cincinnati is the antithesis. When they lose a player, they go out and pay the going rate to replace the production or upgrade the position. Miami and Seattle and LAFC constantly look to upgrade. The Crew has to do that or they'll never be in the mix for trophies as the rules are loosened to accommodate higher spending by the elite front offices. No more self-imposed limits or budget signings. Pay what it costs to get the players you need.

 

Using a team that isn't good in the current roster system where spending doesn't equal success is not a good argument. Mls is one of the only leagues in the world where it's not the case because of its crazy rules.

If they change to what you're suggesting, fine. But that's not what I've heard the compromise is going to be. Once a team can use a dp on 6-7 of its 11 starters instead of 2-3 the teams that spend big are going to win every single year. It's not really a hard concept. Just look at literally every other league that exists.

Nobody wants the league to become irrelevant, but they don't need to massively increase spending to keep growing. They could, you know, try marketing themselves.

 

I don't see that as a lack of willingness to spend, I see it as bad judgement from an inexperienced GM that increasingly appears to be out of his depth.

 

Technically, teams already can use the equivalent of 6 DPs, if they use their U22s as DPs, not to mention buying down dudes with allocation that would otherwise be DPs.

Doyle said he wants transfer fee amortization to be ended. That would allow teams to spend a lot on fees and not have it affect a players cap. That would be a huge rule change that would make the rich richer. That might be a step too far, not sure how I'd feel about that.

 

Note too that " Moneyball" is not about winning championships. Never was.

Moneyball is about fielding a reasonably competitive, non-pathetic team on the cheap and then reaping cash from league media and merchandising deals.

Being ,#1 isnt the goal; the target is being #3-6 or so without spending a lot of money.

(Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill dont talk about that in the movie of course, but Hill/Podesta is an economist, not a baseball guy)

The goal is to make money from league membership, not win a damned thing. If lightning strikes and you accidentally do, great, but thats not really the target. On the field, the only goal is to not stink so bad that it kills ticket sales, sponsorships and local media.

Its more or less perfect for MLS, where it's said that when the owners all gather at MLS Cup every year the winner and loser doesnt matter very much, even to the owners involved.

They arent there to celebrate the team that wins the trophy at the end. Rather, they congratulate each other on the year's bottom line.

 

And, if I may point out, the Oakland Athletics are now in Vegas.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but playoffs make league position irrelevant as long as you get it. If it was single table like Europe, that would be a different conversation.

And can we just be real for a minute? Fans that seem to think we have a birth right to be the best in the league, or damn near it, every year drives me crazy. Ya know what, third place in the East and a conference final is a good season 99% of the time. That's a fine goal to be the club's goal, with a load-up of talent when it presents itself for championship pushes.

Maybe not expecting a trophy every year makes me less of a fan, IDK.

 

Because of shit Precourt-esque ownership, not a roster building strategy from 20 years ago.

 

Just to be clear, I was referring to actual team strength, which may or may not mean regular season table position.

The playoffs are a whole different subject but the point is the same: a mediocre, uninspiring team limping into the playoffs and maybe winning a game or two doesnt change the equation.

 

True--the point was that Moneyball didn't save baseball in Oakland in the long run.

 

Well--it was the city too. They once had all for major sports in Oakland. Today--they don't.

 

My position would simply be that with a decent/good academy and good general management, even (smart) moderate spending should lead to a top 4 team in the conference with an expectation to be a real threat to make the conference final. I think that should be the standard for us. The yearly standard some fans have of championship or bust is nonsense. Some of those years will lead to a cup final, either through pure odds or adding talent.

If Miami and LAFC is the top tier, Columbus will never CONSISTENTLY be in that tier, simple as. Occasionally? Sure. Of course, playoffs somewhat neuters tiers as the great equalizer. Ask LAFC how their last couple playoffs went with all their shiny new toys.