You also see why Chivas is having problems-- dropping large, by MLS standards, sums on marginal or merely avereage players: Douglas, Zuniga, Romo, and Loera all made more than 90k. With a guy like Romo-- who seems like a solid enough prospect-- makes a $100k, perhaps you're seeing just how high MFL salaries are and perhaps that Chivas' MFL associations put them at a disadvantage. Then you look at their mid salary tier MLS players-- Perez, Suarez, Martinez-- and compare to, say, NE: with Dempsey, Noonan and Franchino... Chivas has overpaid from top to bottom...
Here's everyone who makes $200K or more: Code: LA Donovan Landon F $900,000.00 $900,000.00 DAL Johnson Eddie F $750,000.00 $875,000.00 CHV Ramirez Ramon M $425,000.00 $500,000.00 KC Wolff Josh F $350,000.00 $420,357.14 RSL Pope Eddie D $314,782.00 $378,948.66 DC Adu Freddy F $300,000.00 $550,000.00 CHI Sanneh Tony D-M $285,000.00 $365,000.33 RSL Mathis Clint M-F $270,000.00 $410,000.00 CHI Armas Chris M $250,000.00 $325,000.00 NY Guevara Amado M $240,000.00 $281,250.00 COL Mastroeni Pablo M-D $225,000.00 $243,000.00 DAL Vanney Greg M $216,667.00 $241,667.00 NY Galvan-Rey S. F $216,660.00 $216,660.00 COL Cunningham J. F $210,000.00 $225,651.00 NY Razov Ante F $210,000.00 $213,750.00 LA Kirovski Jovan F $175,000.00 $290,000.00
FC Dallas, with EJ's new contract figured in, has the 2nd highest roster expense in the league. Only LA's is larger. And here is another suprising fact, RSL's roster is more expensive then NY's.
looking at this list - maybe MLS HQ leaked the salaries to show the union "Look at all the deadwood who are making big $$ in the league. We'd love to pay the younger guys more except we're not getting enough production from a lot of the senior players". Well, probably not, but that list does give that impression.
Particulrly on Zuniga, they just didn't do their homework. Reasonably priced American GKs can always be had. The only guys at the GK posiiton who make more than Zuniga are: Code: LA Hartman Kevin GK $145,000.00 $153,000.00 COL Cannon Joe GK $131,250.00 $131,250.00 SJ Onstad Patrick GK $119,350.00 $119,350.00 NY Walker Jonny GK $105,000.00 $105,000.00 [i]CHV Zuniga Martin GK $100,000.00 $105,000.00[/i] {Note: you can see this list is slightly dated, since there are some guys on it like Walker listed with old teams. Makes me wonder if Cassio's contract counts on NE's figure} Part of that is the nature of expansion, though, simply being desperate to field a team that has a couple stars, fills out the roster without an excess of embarrasing players, etc. RSL strikes me as overpaid pretty much top-to-bottom as well. (Their 10th highest paid guy is Dante Washington at $60k. Cihvas's is EZ at $61k. Out of the two, it seems like EZ comes a lot closer to earning his money.) Next year Chivas should have the courage to go with El Guzano, to can whichever of Ramirez or Palencia is least performing to his contract, etc, will be able to draft a stable of younger, underpaid Americans (or Mex-Ams, or whatever), and will look a little more 'normal.'
Mean salary in MLS is $71,299, median is $42,625. If you take out the $11.7s and $16.5s (the developmental kids), mean jumps to a respectable $92,613 and median a decent $61,250. Edit with more fun stats: 331 players total are listed. There are 55 players with a salary of $11,700 and 31 at $16,500 -- nearly 26% of the league is officially developmental. The union-designated "official" league minimum is $28K, and there are 30 players (9%) earning that. 63 (19%) have guarantees of $100K or more. And you can pinpoint the approximate date when this fell into Bell's hands based on the fact that the Razov /Wolyniec trade (June 7) is accounted for but Suarez's waiver (June 27) is not. And yeah, the Revs stand out as the team with the most shocking numbers.
Of the 331 players listed, 123 make less the 30k a year. Wow.... Mama's don't let your babies grow up to professional soccer players.
Look above at my edited post -- you really need to take the developmental kids out of that list because they're getting subsidized. Believe me, I know that it's mighty hard to make it on $28K / year or even something close to that, but it's not that bad. Honestly, when I first opened the file I thought it would be worse for the players than it is. What this proves to me is that it's the developmentals, not the $28K guys, who are keeping the league solvent.
The team salary sheet tells me that one can field a pretty decent team for $3M (but without the $900K probably) and that spending $1.6M on a team where a few $200K players could make the product superior is rather criminal. Having a $1.8M payroll in New York is both criminal and insane.
With Zuniga, though, I wonder if he was actually a "bargain" for one of the name Mexican players. In other words, they could have had, say, Garlick for less, but Zuniga's still much cheaper than getting a Mexican field player with his pedigree. I think they made a number of bad decisions in their signings, but I think I'd just call Zuniga a "wrong" decision (assuming that they didn't know already that he was, essentially, finished-- but my guess is that this latest injury is what really did that).
Message to all the young kids thinking of turning pro: Do it as soon as possible. If you go to college, you lose $. LA is paying Quavas Kirk $86.5 to go to High School this year. Meanwhile, Jamie Watson makes $35k and left UNC early. And how pissed must John Busch be to have 2 other GKs on the team get paid more than him?
My understanding has been that there is corporate money there for these kids from Nike / Adidas / others, and no-cost living arrangements are provided. Could be wrong about what exists today, though -- someone will surely correct me if I am.
I know that Generation adidas suplements some salaries and cost of livings, but these under 20k players are usually not Ga. No-cost living arrangements are nice, but not necessarily a very desireable option for many players, particularly those above the age of 18. Heck, Eddie Johnson at $875k has a no cost living arrangement....but it has nothing to do with money.
That's why Troy Perkins was working part time at a local sporting goods store last year until his contract was upgraded.
I guess long-term there is the marketability they hope to gain... I kept considering as an immediate gain... The initial point is, is he worth it? and could they have gotten him for less? Beckham was an astronomical purchase for Real Madrid who frankly probably didn't need him on the field to win games... However, he's been a huge money maker for the club - I read a report where they generated more revenue from sales of "Beckham" RM jersies in the first year to easily cover his transfer fee... So, there you easily see that he's worth it financially. I just wasn't sure that Landon is/was... but when I think about perhaps the long-term marketability I start to see the potential (hopefully LAG will realize the potential - I mean "realize" as in reap, not comprehend.).
If Landon had just scored a few freakin' goals against SJ, instead of pulling a disappearing act, who would be arguing against a $900K salary?
I wasn't saying there wasn't a negotiation - I didn't seem to me that they negotiated hard with the guy - who, by his own admission (at least through the media after-the-fact), had no realistic alternative. because of his own needs. Yes, he could have stuck it out in Germany. Yes, he could have gone to another Eurpopean club... but the problem wasn't playing time in an of itself - it was that Landon isn't happy living away from home (his girl and mom). If I knew that and I was walking into negotiate with someone that wants my house, and only my house, I run him to the edge of brinksmanship because I have nothing to lose (MLS had already moved on without him)... and I get myself a bargain.
Not really, when you look at the fact that 2 guys (Pope & Mathis) are in the league top 10 - they're very top heavy... it really just sucks for everyone else they have... The 10th highest paid guy on RSL is Dante Washington at $60k for a 28 man roster - yikes. The problem with expansion is the role players... sure, you field 2-3 stars but if they don't have quality at the other 8 positions on the field, you struggle... then you lose one of those players to National team duty, a couple decent mid-level guys to injury... and you learn pretty fast where the talent drop off is for the club.
I'm not saying its a good use of money, just that they actually are spending. I've made the argument, several times, in other threads that RSL went about setting up this team in the completely wrong fashion. And if you want to play that game, the Metro have Sergio Galvan Rey on their squad...certainly you are getting more for you money with either Mathis or Pope then they are with SGR.
Ohhh............but I don't know how to have a non-argumentative discussion on bigsoccer. I didn't think that was allowed.
I'll disagree, because I think realtively expensive (by which I mean anything more than about $90k) foreign GKs are bad as a general strategy, not merely in this individual instance. The difference between them and what you can get from the $60k American journeyman very rarely justifies the pay difference. I take your point about selling some tickets with a Mexican 'name' player, but ceteris paribus, you're a lot more likely to do that with a guy who can generate some offense.