I sat across the aisle from Plata one time flying to Vegas. He was not long. Crazy thing was he was flying out the night he just played at the RioT. Then we both lost our carry on bags and got to go on a quest together. Good times.
Nat Borchers invited my boys and me to the lockeroom one day. He went in first to make sure we were good to go in. My guess is he told the players to get decent. Joao didnt get the message and I walked in to see him buck necked. Thats my Joao story. You cant unsee these things.
Kenda said they went on an adventure in Vegas with Joao. That’s a pretty ambiguous and potentially terrifying statement
Haha! Our adventure was confined to the airport, so all the clothes stayed on. We had to go looking for our checked bags (not carry on, that was an oops on my previous post). It was probably my fault, since I sat next to him on the shuttle, trying to make small talk, and we exited at the wrong stop and went to the wrong baggage claim. Sorry Joao!
@goobx1 Thank you for the interview with DJ! When you put all the pieces together from his answers to various questions it pretty much answers 85% of the questions I have had regarding the calamity this season is. The lead up to the sale of the club seems to provide most of the explanation for why it appears to us outsiders that the FO was unprepared to fill the roster vacancies they knew were coming. Really the only thing he said he questions from the FO is why did they miss so badly on Goncalves. He didn’t answer about the Boavista fiasco. Maybe he doesn’t know much about it. Regarding the future I buy into his thoughts about what the Miller’s bring. His data on ownership/FO/coaching changes since 2013 was interesting. His observation about RSL’s deepest playoff run was when the League owned the Club and basically left the employees alone was also interesting.
Thank you very much. We love chatting with DJ. He's such a great guy in and outside of the Utah sports scene. If you have ever seen the Souper Bowl of Caring around during the Super Bowl season, he brought that in through his church congregation. He is a really, really, cool guy.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6450778/2025/06/25/mls-salary-list-2025-mlspa-messi/ Nailed it. RSL is cheap. Only Montreal (well known cheap owner) is spending less on their roster. I don't want to hear anything about RSL spending on transfer fees either. They're not really doing that, either. https://mlsplayers.org/resources/salary-guide
Wolff $160,000.00 Wellings $160,000.00 Villa $83,955.00 Vera $557,004.00 Stajduhar $169,650.00 Silva $86,604.00 Russell $325,000.00 Ruiz $911,500.00 Rivera $171,100.00 Quinton $125,000.00 Piol $336,859.00 Palacio $423,167.00 Ojeda $708,653.00 Moisa $104,000.00 Marquez $96,197.00 Marczuk $735,500.00 MacMath $250,000.00 Luna $499,833.00 Lambert $218,150.00 Kerkvliet $80,622.00 Kei $156,000.00 Katranis $494,875.00 Junqua $312,368.00 Hidalgo $305,800.00 Hezarkhani $86,980.00 Henry $107,988.00 Gozo $93,345.00 Gonçalves $1,797,108.00 Glad $1,330,000.00 Farnsworth $80,622.00 Eneli $416,000.00 Caliskan $104,000.00 Cabral Barbosa $460,000.00 Brown $313,688.00 Brook $274,883.00 Bell $81,068.00 Barea $82,358.00 Anderson $86,512.00 Ajago $80,622.00 Agada $546,875.00 Athletic says Goncalves is at $2.1m. This says guaranteed compensation is $1.8m. I'm not sure what to make of that.
I took the highest 19 paid guys (could be someone else, I don't know who's on the senior roster) and used their budget charge. I came up with about $7.76m. I looked up the stuff I did in January, the salary is up about $450k, but down about $300k in GAM. I don't know if the GAM/TAM situation has changed substantially, but I had RSL with an available budget of about $14.3m (salary budget is cap+TAM+GAM). They are spending about $8.43m towards their budget. They have barely touched their GAM stockpile.
If you haven’t listened to the Random Fans podcast you should. DJ gets into all that and what he thinks the Millers will do to address it. Just be aware that throughout the interview he pointed out that big turnarounds don’t usually happen overnight.
I'll try to listen tomorrow. Been preoccupied with the NBA draft. I'm a little skeptical of DJ being that much of an insider though. It's hard to hear about the Bees ticket situation and not think RSL is next. How else will the team afford big transfer fees?
I live just a 7 min (sober) walk from the new stadium. The approach of having it open before any other commercial property in that area is completely moronic. They should have played at ballpark on 13th this season. The ego of it all got in the way. It should be a bigger draw. I think with some restaurants and such next season it will be. Right now it honestly looks like a war zone with a baseball park. It also doesn’t help that the millers price pretty proudly for AAA ball, imo. No reason I shouldn’t be able to get $5-10 tickets for the grass seats. Paying over $20 for an actual seat is a joke
Man I’m gonna go through this more closely tomorrow, but the salary we took off SKC is insane. the amount of salary spent on CM spot is pretty bad too. That Ruiz contract keeps getting worse and worse
Agada is getting $546,875? That's a hefty price for a traffic cone. Hopefully he can turn things around and justify that contract.
Wolff $160,000.00 - decent for the value Wellings $160,000.00 - doubt he’s on cap hit Villa $83,955.00 - who? Vera $557,004.00 - this should be ok, but feels high Stajduhar $169,650.00 - shrug Silva $86,604.00 - no cap hit Russell $325,000.00 - not a terrible number for the potential upside Ruiz $911,500.00 - ouch. Very much ouch Rivera $171,100.00 - who? Quinton $125,000.00 - this is serious value for what he’s done for the club Piol $336,859.00 - I don’t get what justified this Palacio $423,167.00 - too high, not awful Ojeda $708,653.00 - when at top of game this is good Moisa $104,000.00 - off cap Marquez $96,197.00 - off cap Marczuk $735,500.00 - interesting gamble, don’t hate it but don’t love it MacMath $250,000.00 - he’ll be gone next year Luna $499,833.00 - incredible value still Lambert $218,150.00 - not good Kerkvliet $80,622.00 - sure why not Kei $156,000.00 - just bizarre at this point Katranis $494,875.00 - not terrible, but strange Junqua $312,368.00 - feels high for what he’s supposed to be Hidalgo $305,800.00 - can be good, but overpaid now Hezarkhani $86,980.00 - nice Henry $107,988.00 - worth the risk Gozo $93,345.00 - ********ing steal Gonçalves $1,797,108.00 - ******** this guy Glad $1,330,000.00 - he should be fighting for all star spot at this pay. Farnsworth $80,622.00 - shrug Eneli $416,000.00 - injury sucks, but this makes sense Caliskan $104,000.00 - could be a steal Cabral Barbosa $460,000.00 - great deal Brown $313,688.00 - I don’t get this even when he’s healthy Brook $274,883.00 - like piol, feels bloated Bell $81,068.00 - cool Barea $82,358.00 - cool Anderson $86,512.00 - cool Ajago $80,622.00 - this is fine for what he is Agada $546,875.00 - this is not a terrible number, but sucks up more cap than you’d want
I think there's 40 guys there. Only the senior roster guys really matter. If you can get guys like Gozo this year and Eneli last year that can contribute as non senior roster guys, you're ahead. There's a cap on what those guys get paid and it's not much. If we're not using those spots, that's another story. The amount of money for rosters has gone up substantially the last several years. So Junqua for $300k is not bad. Any starter or top sub guy at this number is good value. When guys have roster designations, you have to look at their cap hit, not their salary. U22s can make up to the max. I don't care if someone like Marczuk is making near max, but I think it's a waste of you're using a U22 spot on Piol and only paying them about half what they can make. Go get a better player. Agada is not overpaid. Strikers are always expensive, even if they're underperforming. Ruiz is overpaid if he can't get back to his pre-injury level. It's crazy that RSL only has two guys making more than $1m. Glad is overpaid. They are sitting on pile of GAM. I'm not saying they need to spend it this summer, but they've got some explaining to do.
Ruiz, I think, was worth it when he got that pay raise. But then we only got about 3games with him and then essentially 2 lost seasons. I don’t think that was a mistake. It was a misfortune.
Goncalves makes (pauses- - -does math) 20x what Gozo makes? LOL. Glad makes double what he should (imo). I guess there’s value in sticking with one organization after all. Although, I have to say, he’s quietly having a very good year.
So Giroud and LAFC are parting ways It’s interesting to see how a well ran club handles a missed swing on a DP. Unless I’m mistaken, they didn’t gaslight fans to what they were watching and saying he would be the next Robbie Keane. They didn’t lie about injuries and then accidentally let it slip that he was actually pseudo suspended. no. Instead they found a new home and figured it out. Is it that easy to move Diogo? Probably not - his career isn’t that of Girouds. But a good club handles the shit, it doesn’t ignore it
Since signing Diogo, Blitzer group had been trying to sell the team, or it least a majority share. We were not being run by a passionate owner. Honestly, I’m getting used to this kind of BS after the last decade-plus.
I have a hard time with the shade thrown at Glad. He's been a solid choice in the back since he came out of the academy. He only gets recognized for his mistakes, and don't get me wrong, he gets burned from time to time, but not consistently enough to justify replacing him. He'll probably spend his entire career here just like Beltran. I'm not saying he should be on the ring of honor, but this is the kind of academy value we should be thankful for.
Exactly. I wasn’t throwing shade at him. I truly think a player of his ability is worth about $700K. Yes, reward him for his dedication to the organization too, but not $600K.