On one of the Boards they are talking about 1/4/03 being a key date where teams need to be at the Cap. I looked this info on MLS.Net and couldn't find any info about key dates for 2003. Anyone have the list of Key dates? Has the Cap for 2003 been posted anywhere? Damn, I wish the inner workings/plans and negotiations that are going on behind closed doors were more public.
I don't understand your statement. Are you suggesting they have been over or under the Cap? I must admit that I would be very surprised if they were allowed to play loose with the cap when other teams like DCU have been dismantled in order to get below the Cap. I am aware that the League has done special deals with some high profile Internationals to get them on board but that has been accounted under some other column other than the salary Cap. Unfortunately the Revs have never been gifted with one of those special cases. You need to be ithe MUTTS or LA to get that kind of exemption consideration
Personally, I don't think that they have ever been close to the cap number of 1.7 million. I can't imagine a roster of players that combined to make that much. I could be wrong, but I just don't think the numbers ever added up to that much...
So you are saying that the Revs have been always understaffed, that they could have added more/better/more expensive players at various times to improve the team, but have chosen not to? Can you give us a little more insight as to why you think this is so? I'll grant you that the Revs have (for 6-1/2 years at least) always managed to get as little bang for the buck as seemed humanly possible, but I believe that was more based on poor judgement than willingly deciding to skimp on quality for budgetary reasons. It's like what they used to say about IBM: "you can get better quality, but you can't pay more." Also keep in mind that they had to make a trade with San Jose this summer for cap room, so that they could sign Douda Kante. No way they would have gone through the motions on that if it wasn't necessary. And only for the reason that other clubs have done this before did it not come out that this was another way of bending the rules for a team in an important market. Tom
Tom, Like I said, I'm probably wrong. I just can't imagine 1.7 million for the 20-22 guys we've be rolling out. Plus, there has been no talk about any issues related to to Twellman's raise and things they need to do to stay under the cap. I can image 1.5 million or 1.4, so the difference is minor. I am also going on the imformation that the Patroits are something like 3.5 million under the NFL cap. Just look at the current roster and ask yourself is the average salary $80,952? Current Roster #24 Adin Brown Defenders #2 Leo Cullen #3 Rusty Pierce #7 Daniel Hernandez #8 Joe Franchino #12 Daouda Kante #18 Carlos Llamosa #19 Nick Downing #21 Shalrie Joseph Midfielders #5 Brian Kamler #6 Jay Heaps #14 Steve Ralston #16 Jim Rooney #17 Braeden Cloutier #22 Marshall Leonard #23 Tony Frias #25 Winston Griffiths Forwards #9 Diego Serna #10 Alex Pineda Chacon #13 Wolde Harris #20 Taylor Twellman
I doubt if it's as cut and dry as us having players on our rosters whose salaries add up to $1.7 million. We probably use up some of our space on players who are cut after a certain date or players that were injured or the like. On the other hand, other teams are well above the cap even after they make their moves to "get under the cap". Take DC, for instance. Etch makes well over the max, but only the max counts towards the cap. If DC needed to cut $200k to get "under" the cap, they would still have a payroll around $1.9 million ($1.7 mil for the cap plus about $200k for what Etch makes above the "max"). Was the cap room that we traded for to sign Kante, or Griffiths, or both? Either way, I doubt that it was for much cap room. We only traded a 4th rounder. Didn't Chicago trade a first rounder for cap room to sign someone like Vaudreil?
But Twellman will be up around 100-125 this year, so there is a fair amount of cap right there. Well worth it, but a factor nonetheless. It will be interesting to see who else the Mutts will have to trade/cut. According to the Washington Post, they picked up $600,000 in salaries, with Mathis and Balboa at the high end of the pay scale. Jolley is out of contract and looking for $100,000 and not to mention Tim Howard who just signed for the max, beating out The Fat Bastard as the highest paid keeper in the league. They say Bradley is good at getting a lot out of low salaried/journeyman players, so this is his chance to prove it, because that is all that will be left of this team after those players eat up the cap. Not that I wish anyone to get injured, but I would dance with glee to see that smug prick Bradley repeat himself with the same old whine from this year, how injuries have killed his team, while neglecting to mention that in Chicago, as it seems here, he had a handful of salary-cap hogs who made it virtually impossible to even bring in an A-Leaguer as an injury replacement. If you take a stupid gamble and lose, OK, that happens sometimes. But to take the same chance again after getting burned is just plain arrogant. Tom