MLS and Chinese Super League cooperation

EvanJ · Aug 5, 2016

Achowat said: ↑

Workers want to make as much money as possible. You're arguing that professional soccer players are irrational economic actors. That's a bad argument.
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The language and culture matter. The same salary can't buy the same amount of things in every country. If you were offered a job in France or Germany (or pick any European country that you don't currently know the language of) that paid 10 percent more than you make now plus the moving expenses, would you move for that job offer? Would you move if the job in Europe paid 50 percent more? There are differences between how people would enjoy life in Country X vs. life in Country Y that cannot be quantified into an amount of money. I would change your first sentence to "all other things being equal, workers want to make as much money as possible."

Elninho · Aug 5, 2016

Mmmcounts said: ↑

I do know one big part of how MLS makes money. US Soccer gives it to them. Seriously. MLS, overall, is a loss leader. It's not making money all on its own right now. The national teams for both men and women make a whole lot more money than what their actual expenses are, the MLS and the NWSL actually, literally package their TV rights along with the national team games. They are not doing this alone. In every sense of every big-money deal that leads to the MLS getting money, US Soccer, the US national teams, they are attached to MLS at the hip. And guess who is pulling the bulk of the weight. On top of that, as previously alluded to, US Soccer literally just spends money on MLS. Pretty much all of that money is brought in by the national teams, but it is spent on MLS and MLS related interests on a fairly consistent basis, although it's not always in precisely disclosed amounts because Garber wants to be able to keep that vague come CBA time and say that MLS isn't really making that much money. Which it isn't, but they are also spending a substantial amount of money (that they do really need) from US Soccer in some form or fashion.

So what I'm suggesting is that it makes sense for MLS to feel like it owes the USMNT a debt of gratitude and some occasional consideration. It does owe them at least that.
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Sorry, MLS probably isn't losing money on its own at this point. It may look like it is because of the way MLS owners structure their investments. The Columbus Crew is reportedly paying an exorbitant amount of rent to the corporation that owns the stadium, which is owned by the same people. Other MLS team/stadium arrangements are probably structured similarly.

Also, even if MLS were to get 100% of the money from the packaged TV rights, something like 75% of the league's revenue would still come from game day operations: tickets, merchandise, concessions, parking. And there's no evidence that MLS gets anywhere near 100% of that money.

Finally, even if MLS were to owe the USSF something, I'm not sure how exactly playing a month-long preseason tournament with Chinese clubs would help either the players' fitness or the league's competitiveness against Mexico. Every team in the league played at least 4 preseason friendlies, and some played as many as 8, during the month of February 2016. The majority of MLS teams played at least one game against foreign opposition, and many of those games were against Latin American clubs. Playing a tournament with Chinese clubs would be instead of these games, not in addition to them, so would in fact rob MLS teams of the opportunity to face Latin American opposition in preseason.

Achowat · Aug 6, 2016

EvanJ said: ↑

The language and culture matter. The same salary can't buy the same amount of things in every country. If you were offered a job in France or Germany (or pick any European country that you don't currently know the language of) that paid 10 percent more than you make now plus the moving expenses, would you move for that job offer? Would you move if the job in Europe paid 50 percent more? There are differences between how people would enjoy life in Country X vs. life in Country Y that cannot be quantified into an amount of money. I would change your first sentence to "all other things being equal, workers want to make as much money as possible."
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Okay, yeah. But those are still economic decisions. You can be a rational economic actor and realize that getting a $3k a year raise, but you need to spend $10k to move isn't the best idea.

Choosing which company to work for based on a meaningless off-season tournament that no one, in any country cares about is not that.