i am not really a follower of the MLS and i am not really informed. i have heard from friends something about even though so and so may be on the metrostars that they don't own him. can someone please explain the system to me. ty in advance
The league, not the teams, owns all player contracts in MLS. It's called Single Entity Management (SEM). This isn't to say that teams don't have a lot of say in just who's on their rosters. They do. But they don't own "their" players and, if someone is transfered, they don't benefit except, in certain instances, in being awarded an allocation (i.e., they can identify a player they'd like to league to sign as a replacement for the trransfered player). Why does this system exist? Well, it's meant to ensure fiscal responsibility: no one owner is alowed to out-spend the others, thereby putting weaker (financially) teams at risk; losses are shared equally amongst all investors. Without SEM, MLS probably wouldn't exist. The question, though, is will MLS stick with this system forever, or will it eventually shift to a more traditional one. I have no idea if MLS will ever dump SEM. But I do know we'll have this system in place in MLS for the foreseeable future.