The more interesting issue is not that. What is interesting is that fans collectively get 25% and coaches collectively get 25%, but by the means that fans vote, they dilute their vote and contribute very little to the final result. Coaches are more focused on good players. I suspect some significant fraction of MLS fans vote for the home team across the board. If half of fans vote that way, then right off the bat, 12.5% of the total all star vote is wasted, 12.5% of the fan vote can actually be used to seperate top players from the standard home-vote field. Of the 12.5%, some fraction are keen observers of the present year, and others are casual observers and factor in previous years into their vote, thus the fan vote is further diluted. If they wanted to get the fan vote a little more oomph, they might drop all players below the top 20 of vote getters and recompute the fan percentages....
But the question remains - Why should fans get a vote in a game that they don't care about? The thing about the "all star" game is that IIRC players get bonused on appearing in the game. Therefore, I think it is our duty as fans to help people like Gros, Merritt, Kuffour, and all the other poor players get that bonus! Y'all had a true opportunity to make a difference in the wallet of some of these players and you didn't take it! For shame that fans actually voted for the high money players that don't need the money!
I'll admit that my votes are probably in the 12.5% throwaway, but not for United......I've been casting votes for Chicago players (we play them the following week). The last thing I want is any extra minutes on any United players legs going into August.
I disagree. I think this year there has been enough criticism that Freddy has gotten too much too soon and too much attention and too much marketing burden, etc... that Garber will be wary of this and not want to make it look like they are putting marketing ahead of Freddy's development and since he hasn't earned it, he won't pick him. Just a hunch. BTW, a player I think should be a Commissioner's Pick who has DCU ties is old friend Brian Kamler, who has toiled in this league for 10 years but never got an all-star appearance not a national team cap. Granted, he hasn't warranted them, but if the CP is to reward service to the league, I think honoring a good guy like Kamler who has been in MLS since Day One and who has always been a good teammate and great with the fans would be a way to go.
Please point out where I said that it was a bad system. (Hint: I don't think that it's a bad system, mostly because I think that I think that MLS fans are, for the most part, idiots.)
Hmmm. If you're reading this in a group of 10 fans, then at least six of you are idiots. Look around. I choose to believe I'm one of the (at most) four.