Ives reporting Matt Kassel looked good in scrimmages this morning. We could be looking at the first academy signing soon.
NY has just signed 5 more Dev players, bringing the total up to the 10 limit, so if Kassel is to sign one of those 10 players just signed to a Dev contract will have to be cut. Very unlikely Kassel would get an 18 man senior contract at this point, although NY does have 1 left.
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2008/03/kassel-and-mls.html Well, what do you know. I would have predicted RBNY would let him go to Maryland a year (there are worse developmental experiences as an 18 year old than playing against guys who are 2-3 years older in the ACC) rather than getting mostly reserve minutes, but it appears they'll be talking to Kassel.
Yep, that's what it looks like. I'm glad the contracts are out there for the prospects, because a lot of these kids shouldn't and won't sign contracts for dev salaries or even the senior minimum. But I do wonder if there's limits. I don't think the league wants one of its weaker youth systems (whoever that turns out to be) signing guys to GenAd deals solely because they haven't filled the quota that year and it costs them nothing.
I have to say it seems like yet again MLS is making up rules as it goes. They are now saying that these players may sign Generation Adidas deal, a complete 180 from the way they have previously utilized the GA contract. Also, they are now saying if a Homegrown Player is given a GA deal no other Homegrown player may be given one while another is under GA. When is MLS just going to wake up and simplfy the whole process by eliminating the Dev roster status and using a pure min and max player roster where all players will have freedom to negotiate a contract based on ability without major restriction? The new CBA fight can't come soon enough. I hope the Players really stick to their guns, the cap needs to be at least doubled and these silly dev contracts need to disapear. Something so simple as an academy structure shouldn't be a complex mess of rules and designations. Why does MLS always try to reinvent the wheel? Now i am glad Kassel can sign a respectable contract, but there is a danger and precident being set here as it seems to suggest that most academy grads will be seeking to sign only if they don't have to sign a Dev deal. Unless they scrap that silly designation and contract status there will be bad issues in implementing a true acadamy pipeline.
I agree with you, for the most part. I think that a big part of the problem for the younger players isn't just the cap space though. That is certainly part of it. A bigger issue to me is the minimum wage, and the wages given to developmental players. I understand that there are those hard line capitalists (defending the developmental player wages) that will say that it's just the price you pay for wanting to play professional soccer. Let me ask you this though, what other professional sports league in the world (in an industrialized nation) pays their roster beyond their best 18 players so little? The Players Union needs to stick it to the league in terms of wages for the minimum wage senior roster and the wages of the developmental players. Otherwise, the teams will just spend more of the increased salary cap on giving their 'star' players more money. I'm all for that, don't get me wrong. But paying academy players so little would severely increase the number of players that would just opt for college soccer. Yeah, there will be the occaisional Adu / Rooney type that busts through at 16 or 17, but most of your academy players that want to graduate to the senior team would turn their noses at 12,000 bucks. I don't blame them. You'd get a better quality of life going to college on scholarship. Now that is sad. So here is hoping the league drastically increases the minimum wage of senior and developmental roster players, as well as the salary cap.
The NBA's developmental roster makes no more than MLS's. You just don't see it because it's called the "D-League" and they play in another city.
Ok, well, let's just say soccer league, ok? Let's see what the Dutch league's #19 - 28 make. I would bet my house it's more than 12 grand. Soccer is a different bottle of wax than basketball when it comes to developing players. With all due respect to the "D-League", college basketball is the primary feeder system for development to the NBA. We're talking about bypassing the college game for the most part in soccer (for reasons stated ad nauseum). We're talking about trying to get them to bypass that, and 12 grand in a major metropolitan area just won't cut it. No flame intended, I just think the two sports are hard to compare in that way.
And how much does the Dutch league pull down in television contracts? MLS is far more different from the Dutch league than the MLS Reserves are from the NBA Developmental league. I am all for improvements for the players in the next round of the contract but calling for a doubling of the cap is a little ridiculous.
True enough, I'm sure that, just as their #1 through #11 are paid a good bit more than ours, their #12 through #28 are too. All I'm saying is, in every industry like this, for every guy you see on top with all the money and fame, there are 100 who have none of it. The main difference is that the big leagues do a better job of hiding it fromt he camera. By the time you put on the ManU shirt, the professionalism is all the way. Whereas MLS is not that smooth, and sometimes you can actually see the pimples under the stage makeup.
I agree with you both. I don't necessarily think the salary cap needs to blow up, but we have moved quite a bit beyond the point of worrying if the league will fold due to overspending. (As long as a reasonable cap remains in place) All I am saying is that the academy graduates should be better compensated than the current pay rate of a developmental roster spot. If you're going to make this the biggest recruiting tool in MLS, then it should be fairly compensated. A couple of million dollars to over double every single developmental player's salary in the league is not asking all that much. (Especially from owners who aren't exactly short a couple of bucks) I also agree that there are players abroad that are in the same circumstances. Those players aren't generally found in the first team though. Even in the NBA example, I think of the D-League more as like the USL. We're talking about making the academy system (in the long run I mean, not right now) the primary means of attracting domestic talent into our league. I just don't think that can be accomplished at the current pay grade. Maybe I'm wrong, but I sure wouldn't jump at the chance to make such a small wage to play for the Red Bulls. (Especially as a player that is not from New York and then have to move there and somehow live off of that salary) I think in the end the CBA will take care of it, and that the two sides will figure out fair compensation. Next year is the year that the league changes financially anyway. The biggest drain on finances, the Red Bulls, will operate at a much cheaper cost, and for the most part MLS will control its revenue streams and not have to broadcast their own games. This alone changes the cashflow dynamic drastically compared to a few years ago. By no means should we expect MLS to pay Premiership type wages. Hopefully though, every first team player on a roster will be above the poverty line.
Btw, for those who haven't seen it yet, the Red Bulls decided not to offer Kassel a GenAd contract, and he'll be off to Maryland in the fall: http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2008/04/red-bulls-pass.html http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2008/04/post-19.html
Agoos is a ************* How are we gonna build youth in this country if they wont get chances to play in a low league like MLS. Let these wonderkids play, not send them off to college or USL.
There's still a reasonable chance he'll be in an RBNY uniform after his freshman season, especially if you listen to the way both parties are talking about it. As I said back in post #5, there is a logic to letting him go to UofM for a year.
Lets think for a second. 1. He wasn't going to play this season. 2. He's training with them all summer, basically until August (I'm assuming UMaryland starts some time in august). 3. That is basically 2/3 of the MLS season, then he goes straight into the UMaryland season and they are one of the best teams in college soccer. Winter comes, he gets a rest then does Spring season and then starts training with RBNY again, and if he's improved and gotten more physically mature they will sign him. Sounds like a good plan for both sides to me. Not many college players get the benefit of training with a pro team all summer before the college season.
Yeah, the RB fans are apoplectic about it, but a lot of that is based ona stereotyped and underinformed view of college soccer, especially when you're talking about an 18 year old playing in the ACC against guys two or three years older. One indication of that is that Kassel is not the highest-rated incoming freshman of Maryland's recruiting class. That would be Kaoru Forbess or Garland, TX. http://umterps.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/spec-rel/021808aai.html Now, you can't gloss over the risk here that he might head to Europe after a season, but there's been a lot written about on Kassel and extensive talks with RB, and it seems pretty clear it would have to take a major change of heart for that to take place.
I respect the college game but these last few years have shown that it does a poor job in developing players for the pros. These days a player comes out of college and that first year or two he is playing on the reserves of an MLS team. So more than likely he will be in the same position he would be in if he signed now. The real issue is that Red Bull has little faith in what they have produced. They are afraid to take a chance and a risk. They could have signed Gabriel Ferrari by using a discovery pick but they chose not instead he went a signed a deal with Serie A club. The youth academy sytem want really take flight until teams take the big step and sign and play their youth prospects. I doubt Red Bull has that kind of vision. Chivas has usesd several discovery picks on players from its youth teams from Carlos Borja to Jorge Flores. Red Bull could do the same.
I must disagree on the 'long apprenticeship' theory. This year what you're saying has some truth so far, because the new foreigner limits have put a real squeeze on rookies. But you just have to go back to last year to see something different. These were the top 5 draft picks: 01 > Edu (TOR) 02 > Soumare (CHI) 03 > Harrington (KC) 04 > Seitz (RSL) 05 > Thompson (NE) The bolded/underlined got at least 1,000 minutes last year. And Seitz probably could have too, if not for Nick Rimando and the U20s. Now, it drops off after right after that, but that's because the picks get more speculative after that. And that's what I mean by 'stereotyped'--it's what's called the ecological fallacy, the assumption that what tends to be true for the whole is true for each part. There's a class of college guys who get PT most years. -- My other problem with this analysis is that it is not comparative. Do guys who get drafted at 18 years old despite not being NT regulars and not being the most highly rated players in a top college recruiting class usually get regular PT any faster? Of course not. Have you heard anyone with credibility saying they think Kassel will get significant PT this year? I haven't. So if he's not getting first team minutes, is the RL any better? Probably not much. How many future all-stars do you usually see on a Dev roster? Plus, college soccer plays 18-20 matches at that level counting tourneys, the RL plays 12.
Other than RBNY fans on Bigsoccer (whose opinion on this subject can probably be mostly ignored), who exactly says that Kassel is a "wonderkid?" He's a very highly regarded youth club player, a high school All-American, and has played with the under-18s. All very promising, but those don't seem like Donovan or Adu level credentials.
I actually had Harrington highlighted, then took it back when I looked at their stat page, even though I could have sworn he got big minutes. I'll fix it.
And one of the things I say about college soccer is that the freshman year can probably improve any 18 year old kid, except those that were so gould they really should have turned pro at 16 or 17. For any kid for whom the frosh year is a waste of time. . . the senior year of high school was a bigger waste.