Again..... If a team is currently paying a player outside of the salary budget (TAM/GAM) that player's max budget charge is $800K. How does increasing the max salary budget charge to say $1M or $1.5M while increasing the budget improve flexibility exactly? Say you're currently paying a player $1.5M. Currently they cost $800K against the budget. If the max budget charge is increased to $1.5M, how exactly does that free up more money in the budget? https://www.mlssoccer.com/about/roster-rules-and-regulations
No you actually wouldn't........ Look at what teams are CURRENTLY spending versus what the Salary Budget CURRENTLY is. For most teams, this won't affect how they currently construct their roster. What are realsiticaly talking about here? 1-2 more players getting paid above $800K? That's not going to move the needle as much as some would like to believe.
And if we increase salaries, will there be enough domestic talent to warrant that, or do we need even more?!?! Intl roster slots to make it worthwhile? Or will this just inflate the wages of your average green-card-holding CAN/USA MLS player?
I dunno. $15 million? Agreed. Which is why you have to give teams the option to up the talent across the board.
So 15/25 million with 3 DP players & 3 DP homegrown players exempt from the budget would easily work without all the other mechanisms. The Overall spend in 27 will be about 13 million. This gives a slight increase and gives teams that want a DP the option. It also gives the league a chance to retain more domestic talent for a longer period.
The CURRENT salary budget for the 2026 MLS season is: $6,425,000 CURRENTLY every team in MLS is spending at least 50% ABOVE the salary budget. Every season the Salary budget is increased as laid out in the CBA. The budget charges are also proportionally increased accordingly. The changes some are asking for, aren't going to move the needle enough to make MLS teams consistent CCC winners. Also, where is the money going to come from to essentially DOUBLE the salary budget? Rough numbers, to get the Salary budget to $15M/team, we're talking adding an additional $250M+ to the current salary spend. Where's that coming from?
What makes Liga MX teams be consistent CCC winners and how can MLS replicate it? As for where the money is going to come from, let the teams figure it out. Revenue sharing, TV deal, sponsorships, stadium naming rights, jersey sales etc. The same way every other club does it minus the league wide revenue sharing which is MLS only. To use one example, where is NYCFC getting its money from to try and buy Pulisic from AC Milan? His transfer fee will be upwards of $40M. That'll be the biggest transfer fee paid in MLS if the deal is done. They got $40M to spend on ONE player, they sure could spend that across the roster and be way more competitive.
C'mon, don't play naive. You know where that money is coming from. NYCFC is the wealthiest team in MLS. They're part of the City Football Group. Transfer fees are not the same as player salaries, and you know that. Also, let's stop pretending that MLS isn't a single entity. That fact isn't changing. So when you say "let the teams figure it out" that's exactly what the league is doing. Trying to figure out how to spend more money without overextending the league's economic stability. The league is run as a collective. Whether fans and/or detractors like it or not this isn't changing. Framing potential roster rule changes outside of the single entity framework is a useless pie in the sky exercise. Further, throwing out ideas such as doubling or even tripling the current salary budget number is unrealistic. Realistically, I can see the league raising the budget to $10M. Then they'll simplify some of the more ambiguous roster mechanisms. IMO they should allow unlimited buyouts for teams with the added stip that there's a proportional ammount of dead budget space for the remaining duration of that players contract. So teams can't just get out of jail (bad contracts), but are on probation for a period of time. Not going completely unpunished for making bad decisions, yet also getting some form of budget relief. Maybe add a rule that teams can convert up to a max of $10M per season of transfer fees received into GAM. Also give teams the ability to defer GAM to future seasons as well. For example say LAFC sells David Martinez for $20M dollars. They can convert $10M of that into GAM to be used this season. They can also defer another $10M for the following season. Teams should also have the ability to use GAM to pay a players entire salary, making that player not count against the salary budget. Give teams the option to not include transfer fees in a players budget charge.
The salary budget doesn't determine how much a team is going to spend, the salary budget determines what the split is on player salary spending between "the league" and "the investor operators." Increasing the salary budget by $1m or playing around with some novel rules on *AM are kind of the same thing.
Just wanted to note that TAM is not being phased out in the current CBA. It starts at $2.8M per team, then shrinks gradually to what it is in its final year, just over $2M per team per team. GAM, of course, increases dramatically throughout the term of the CBA, starting at just over $1.5M per team/year and ending at close to $4M. The ‘total spend’ (base salary budget + GAM + TAM) amount in the last year of the current CBA is already $13M per club.
So if TAM is decreasing every season in accordance with the CBA, and GAM is increasing accordingly, how again is that not TAM being phased out? The MLSPA literally negotiated the phasing out of TAM in the last CBA.
That's peanuts for the region. I sometimes think that the World Cup won't help MLS but hurt it more. Watching games with the best players will probably send more new fans searching for top five leagues than buying an Apple TV subscription.
Do you think fans of Ligue Un, Serie A, Turkish Super Lïg, A-League, J-League, K-League, the EFL Championship, League One, League Two will stop watching their teams because they've been watching the best players in the world in the World Cup? It's unlikely. Probably the opposite will happen. And tbh an average MLS or EFL Championship team could probably beat half the national teams playing in the tournament.
No it didn't. The CBA ends in January 2028 with TAM still above $2M per team. The current CBA says nothing about what happens after it expires, of course. It's well known that the players union hates TAM and wants it gone. It may well get phased out in the next CBA. But that's yet to be determined. It's all right here, for anyone struggling with insomnia (p. 38): https://s3.amazonaws.com/mlspa/2020-2028-CBA-Long-Form_FINAL.pdf?mtime=20230221184117
Your question is misleading to what I said. You ask me do I think "fans" of _________. I clearly said new fans (meaning folks who don't normally watch soccer) that are now interested in watching soccer. I work in a Pub and there are plenty of regulars who keep telling me they are coming around to soccer after busting my balls about liking soccer because of the World Cup. . Now if your question is do I think MLS fans will abandon their team, the answer is no. The talk from the league for years has been rocket fuel for the league. The status quo of doing the same thing they've been doing for thirty years is right up there with keep it on ESPN for way less money and eventually fans will start watching. . I think after getting 500 million from San Diego last year to join the league, investing 50 million for each team over the next five years by each owner for the roster would be a good use of rocket fuel.
In the short term, yes, probably. But there are Americans and Canadians abroad that would come back if both pay and league quality increase. In the long term, the domestic player pool would grow because the top American players are playing against better imported talent every week and expected to perform according to their salary levels.
American sports leagues, and clubs, with the salary cap, are vastly more profitable and successful than than their European counterparts, throwing out the EPL. The salary cap, revenue sharing, and "rewarding losing" in the draft help balance the league out and make it possible for different teams to win. Bayern Munich, PSG, and Barca/Madrid winning every year is boring. It is about prioritizing the league over an individual club. And I think, for the most part, the MLS/American model is the correct one. Europe is moving our way with spending limits and financial fair play, not the other way around. MLS will incrementally loosen the reigns, which is the right approach. Not to say they could not do better on this rule or that rule. But Turner, Freeman, Richards, Ream, Jedi, Adams, Tillman, McKennie, Dest, Balogun, Pulisic, Pepi, Weah Wright, Zendejas, Aaronson, Reyna, McKenzie, Trusty, and Scally have or are now playing in a relegation environment. Freese, Brady, Arfsten, MRob, Roldan, and Berhalter have not. That is 20/26. Almost 80%. I think it is hard to argue lack of pro/rel is what is holding us back.
It kinda already isn't. On the top 20 count. The bottom 10 (21-30) do not count vs the cap. And actually teams can go to 31 with a loan and beyond with off-budget HGs. A third of the roster (or more) is off budget now. But I know what you meant.
This is what TAM currently does. And they are phasing it out. For my mid spending Crew: $2 mil +: 3 players. Abou-Ali, Rossi, Gazdag. $1-$2 mil. 1 player. Schulte. $800k-$1 mil. 4 players. Gomes, Moreira, Zawadzki, Arfsten. 8 guys over $800k. $700-$800k. 3 players. Amundsen, Herrera Picard. $600-$700k. 2 players. Chambost, Akhundzada. $500-$600k. 3 players. Farsi, Bangoura, Thiare. 8 guys over $800k. Another 8 at $500k-$800k. We have one player at $400k-$500k. Two guys at around $200k. One just over and one under. I think we bought one down with GAM so they can be Supplemental. IDK what Brooks Lennon makes. Everyone else is Vet Min/HG level sub $153k.
You are talking about a completely different thing than what Pochetino was talking about. Pochetino wasn't talking about salary cap rules.
The Premier League is the most competitive league because of the fight for the European places. Most seasons relegation is an afterthought. This season we were a bit "lucky" because two established teams were involved. Same with other leagues. Who was actually following the relegation battles in Serie A, La Liga, Eredivisie or the Belgian Pro, unless an American was involved? Is Eibar still in La Liga?
Are you seeing it from a perspective of an American fan's interest or from the perspective of player's/coaches? Because if it's from American fans then yes, no one cares to watch who is getting relegated. That was already established that the most popular leagues in the US are EPL, Liga MX and MLS in that order. 2 out of those 3 have no ProRel.