Is it just my imagination, or has the Galaxy somehow managed to avoid the salary-cap induced upheavals that have bedeviled almost every other MLS Cup winner? If they have managed it, how have they done so? On the one hand, LA is subject to the mandatory 5 percent (or 10 percent) across the board salary increase required of all Cup winners; they signed Kim, a Korea international, at what must be close to league maximum; and they just picked up Alex Pineda Chacon who, even if he no longer makes league maximum, must draw a handsome salary as former league MVP. Any one of those would seem to put a team in serious salary cap jeopardy, let alone all three. And that doesn't take into account whatever salary adjustments are due to Carlos Ruiz as league MVP. The only player they seem to have dumped is Matt Reis. And there's no way that his salary alone can offset their new obligations. So the question: how have LA avoided the salary cap miasma? Thoughts?
To be fair to LA, except for the Mexican "superstrikers" they have managed to stay probably just above the "salary cap" by avoiding the kind of crippling salary escalation among their supporting players that has whacked the Fire and DCU by re-signing Senor Hundredfires to lower salaries and by getting young Americans who are just good enough to get a sniff of the USMNT without actually getting called up and thereby becoming well-known and expensive. That said, yeah, if they're under the salary cap this year then I'm Zinedine Zidane. Still, now that they've won MLS Cup, I expect LA to get somewhat dismantled in another year or two, especially if the Mutts haven't won anything by then. Odds are LA probably won't get totally dismantled ala the Fire and DCU but they'll get hamstrung just enough to be put at a disadvantage to the Mutts. After that, New Jersey will have to earn it.
SoccerAmerica reported (MLS Confidental) that both APC and Lalas took pay cuts on their just signed new contracts in order to insure LA didn't have any cap problems. We'll lose Fish after this season to some Euro club (probably) so don't expect dismantling just yet.
APC was also not reported to be at the max to begin with, but somewhere in the range of 170K. Ruiz is just over 100K according to SA. Cien reportedly went down to $50K. Califf, Victorine and Vagenas are probably all still on their original contracts. I doubt there's anything more fishy here than anyplace else.
I thought Lalas was already cheap which was why you supposedly weren't over the cap last year. Is he playing pro bono now? And APC must have taken a helluva reduction considering LA didn't lose anyone and gained Hong. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy it. If the Metros win MLS Cup 2003, you'll probably be spared what DCU and the Fire have gone through. Otherwise, they'll probably take you apart just enough to make you worse than the Mutts.
Was Vanney making league max? I kinda doubt it. Same for Caliguri when he retired. If L.A.'s players have anywhere near the same kind of contracts as the Fire's suport players have had, there's no way LA can be under the cap after years of Cup finals and keeping Cobi and few other players for the past few years. And if LA's players don't have those kind of contracts, they should fire their agents immediately.
Dear Conspiracy Joe, Of course the league invites this kind of speculation with its less than transparent approach, and neither you nor I can ever know for sure, but... I would guess that Gregg Vanney and Paul Caligiuri were actually both very close to if not at league max. Remember, Vanney had been with the team from day one, had been an all star, had played in cup finals etc. etc. If he wasn't at the max, he was probably close. Caligiuri was an original "marquee" player. He ended up in LA after a legal wrangle over what representations had been made to him when he signed. I would gues that he was salaried at the same level of the other "marquee" players - the Tab Ramos, Eddie Pope group. I can never prove that, but think about this: If you genuinely believe that the league has put in the fix against your beloved team and the playing field is not even, give up. Why are you wasting your time or money supporting a team in a fixed league? Go watch pro wrestling - nobody does "athletic entertainmnet" better. Or maybe, just maybe, you are so jealous of Sigi's ability to find and develop young low salaried players that you cannot stomach actually giving him credit for what he has done. Vagenas and Victorine were there for the taking in the draft - why did your team pass on them? Califf comes in because DMB won't play on the west coast (or do you forget situations where your team benefits from such oddities). Over time, good management will yield good results. Sigi proved it. Bob Bradley proved it. It doesn't require league favoritism to understand that.
Has the Galaxy really not had to make moves? How many players did they have to jettison for Luis Hernandez who was lifted off their roster a year ago? (that's 1 max salary slot) They got rid of Robin Fraser for salary cap issues 2 years ago. LA lost Vanney, who was a highly paid player, last year opening up another chunk of cap room. They have very few "name" american players. In fact they have: Cobi Jones. Compare that to some teams last year like Chicago (Armas, Razov, Wolff, Zack, Boca) or Metro (Ramos, Mathis, Balboa, Howard) or even NE (Llamosa, Ralston, Twellman, Brown). LA has 1 american star (Cobi) and 1 past american star (Lalas). And then they have a bunch of "solid" but not great MLS players like Vajenas, Elliot, Sasha, Califf (he's borderline to be a "name" player but did horrible in his nat appearances last year), etc. LA has 1 striker while teams like Chicago, Dallas, SJ, Metro, and NE had at least 3 guys who would have been starting for LA up front last year. And was Ruiz paid as much last year as say APC, Moreno, Razov, Wolff, Mathis, Spencer, Donovan, or Kreis? I expect most of that group out earned him. The Galaxy seem to have built a team around a bunch of bargain players and suceeded in doing it. I would bet they had fewer players making 175k or more per year than every other team in MLS had last year. And they definitely had less than say DC (Pope, Etch, Moreno) who was the worst team in the league.
And when talking about rosters and big players note the MLSnet wallpapers from last year DCU 2 players LA 1 player NE 1 player SJ 2 players Dallas 3 players KC 2 players Clb 1 player Col 2 players Chi 3 players Metro 2 players That isn't scientific or anything, but it does show that Dallas and Chicago had more players that MLS wanted to display than LA or NE. 8)
Chris Albright - $100k Isaias Bardales, Jr. (P40) - $0k Joe Barton - $25k Danny Califf - $50k Mauricio Cienfuegos - $275k Simon Elliott - $100k Jimmy Frazelle - $25k Gavin Glinton -$25k Guillermo Gonzalez (P40) - $0k Kevin Hartman - $150k Ezra Hendrickson - $75k Hong Myung-Bo - $225 Cobi Jones - $275k Ricky Lewis (P40) - $0k Tyrone Marshall - $50k Hamid Mehreioskouei - $25k Alejandro Moreno (TI) - $25k Jesus Ochoa (DP) - $25k Carlos Ruiz - $275k Scot Thompson - $25k Arturo Torres - $25k Peter Vagenas - $50k Sasha Victorine - $50k Alex Pineda Chacon - $150 Alexi Lalas - $75 I come up with $2,100,000. This would be around $350 over the cap. Cienfuegos and Ruiz are not at the max. According to reports that would be $400k off the $2.1 million. Developmental players don't make $25k and they don't count against the cap. Including P40's MLS clubs can have six this year. That right there is $100k that comes off the $2.1 million. APC isn't making $150k I don't think Vagenas, Victorine, or Califf are even above the league minimum, so the $50k I have could be incorrect. There is the annual percentage raise to consider, however. Has Elliott renegiotiated to get up to $100k? What about Ezra? Los Angeles is not going to be over the salary cap this year. Caliguiri was making the max in 2001. Vanney wasn't that far off and the same could be said for Fraser in 2000. LA had to get rid of two players (Fraser & Vanney) and one retired. The 2003 squad will be built the same way the roster has been built since Sigi took over. Low paid role (UCLA) players and some promising young talent. Even Mathis, when in LA, wasn't making more than the league minimum. Could LA add another high paid player in the $100-150 range this year or next? No. But they sure aren't and will not be over the cap the next one or two years. If they keep winning and players like Califf, Victorine, Vagenas, and Lewis can become MLS All-Stars and legit USNT pool players, then LA will be in trouble.
WOW!!!! "Preston North End" is REALLY up to speed on the Cap! It sounds like he should be (or maybe is) a GM!!! Kudos! VERY IMPRESSIVE! By the way...don't forget that Chris Armas, Ante Razov (and to a lesser extent Joey Franchino) are also former Galaxy Players who were traded or lost due to expansion. These players became high salary players as the years went on. Over the years the Galaxy have kept a consistent balance of less expensive quality youngsters & a limited number of players making the "max". This appears to be a recipe for success (This philososphy was proabably reinforced by the Luis Hernandez debacle). It also helps that the team plays in an area that is desireable to live in (unlike.....KC for instance).
exactly re hong: supposedly a bunch of korean-american businesses are paying him a bunch of money for advertising, etc. otherwise he may not have come.
Performance bonuses are pretty much SOP in MLS ocntracts and, according to trial testimony, are in there to allow players to make extra money without raising the cap.
Salary Cap After messing around with the MetroStars cap for a few years - and administering to a past pro team - I thought a neighborly speculative estimate about LA might be a nice place for you to start for 'marking up' with facts which you have available about specific contracts: LA Salary Cap Budget - Player - Actual(guess) 267 - Jones 267.5 267 – Myung Bo - 220 267 – C.Ruiz - 110 150 – Pineda Chacon - 125 150 - Hartman - 150 150 – Cienfuegos - 150 75 - Victorine 60 75 - E.Hendrickson 75 75 - Elliot – 90 50- Lalas - 75 50 - Vagenas - 60 50 - Albright 60 35 - Califf 45 35 - T.Marshall - 50 35– G.Glinton – 27.5 27.5 - Ochoa – 27.5 27.5. - Moreno – 27.5 27.5 - Torrez 24 Total 1.8M - 18 'roster' players Below names do not count towards the cap P40 – I.Bardales P40 – R.Lewis P40 –G.Gonzalez DV – DV – DV – I dont know who these people are, and unless they're budding stars and replace some of the above, they'll be Development players or playing elsewhere S.Thompson - J.Barton - J Frazelle - H.Mehreioskouei - J.Barton - 267.5 – Caligiuri ret 110 – Vanney to FR1 have fun
for any player who makes more than the league max (what is it? 265K? or whatever it is), only the league max amount applies towards the team cap. the rest is just gravy for the player. so when etcheverry makes 350K, only the 265K applies towards DC's cap the same with cobi
Sure, smog, riots, and freeway gridlock & shootings make LA very desirable. Oh wait, it must be all the readily available blow. I forgot about that. I'm sorry, you were right afterall.
If these players really only make this much, I have to agree with the "dumbest agents on Earth" hypothesis.