The New York Times reports this morning that Tim Howard has signed a three year contract for $300K per year, making him the highest paid keeper in MLS. (I saw it in print edition; can't find the link). Assuming $270 counts against the cap, that gives them Howard, Eddie and Jaime at 270. I don't know about the rest, but it seems safe to assume that Mathis is not about to go on food stamps. Do they have serious cap problems, or is this just MLS waiving the rules once again for Fun City?
SoS have serious cap problems. Which is not to pick on them--they have the cap problems that almost everyone in MLS has (and probably not as bad as SJ has now where they really don't know what is happening with about 5 of their starting positions). Let's do a quick run down on the math: Moreno, Pope, Mathis, Howard--all make either MLS max for 2003 or at least over $200K. That's 1.1 million on a cap of !.7 million. But wait--Richie Williams, Andy Williams and Jolley all make over $100K each (let's pretend they're all at an even $100K though Jolley makes more). That means with only 7 players they are at $1.4 million on the cap. $200K for the remaining 11 roster players. That means they couldn't even fill the remaining 11 spots with guys all making the MLS minimum (b/c they'd still be over the cap). So Balboa is either going to be cut or sign for significantly less. And it's obvious that they're looking for both a better and cheaper version of an A-mid than Andy Williams. What SoS faces now (and what Chicago faced and what DCU faced last year) is this: if you have more than 1 or 2 maximum salary players on your roster (we had 3 plus Olsen, Chicago had 4 plus Razov, SoS now has 3 plus Mathis), then you cannot afford to have depth and you cannot afford to have mid-salary vets (like Talley and Kamler and ATC) on your roster. If you have 3-4 max salary guys, almost the entire rest of your roster (except for 3-4 players) needs to be guys making MLS minimum or near minimum salary.
I believe that the contract is for somewhere around $200k, and the additional money is in "incentives." That doesn't mean money's not tight. The midfielder replacing A. Williams (between $125k and $150k) has to make no more than him. Also, I think there have been a couple contracts restructured already, and a few more to come-- you can guess the names.
Not to nitpick, but with my math that leaves $300K. That's still not much to work with. But an extra $100K could pay for 3+ players...
Gosh, and here I was thinking only New England got the privilege of not counting (Twellman's) incentives against the cap! Yet another MLS bias if the mutts get away with it. GM
I think Haig's earlier post is accurate. A variety of players will take pay cuts (Balboa, Richie Williams). I think Andy Williams will be replaced. I suspect that part of the reason for Magee over Davis (I know, I know, Bradley will insist it was all about talent) is that Magee is P-40 and Davis left P-40 this season. Bradley and Co. have taken a calculated gamble. It's more or less the same one that Hudson and Co. took last year. It is: can our stars stay healthy and play like they're capable of? If the answer to both is "yes" than the SoS will be a force to be reckoned with. If the answer to either is "no" (ie: don't stay healthy or Moreno, Pope, Mathis, Howard, do not all have great years) then the lack of depth will show big time.
200k...300k with incentives, whatever it is I still think it's a complete waste of money on a goalkeeper in MLS when there is so much young talent that is only marginally worse and significantly cheaper towards the cap. Thanks for the info, Haig.
I think that I agree with this. If a US goalkeeper is deserving of this much money, we should shop him overseas. Then bring in one of the excellent young guns making $30K to $75K. If there's one thing that we ought to be exporting, it's keepers. Of course, it's also possible that this is just the first step toward doing that. Sign him to a good contract and then shop him so that you get good transfer money.
For those saying tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to, there is a difference between $300K salary and $200K salary with incentives. With a $300K salary, it all counts this year. With $200K plus incentives, the $200K counts this year and any incentives earned count against next year's cap. It's a subtle difference, but look at it this way... Howard goes to MLS and says, hey, I deserve more money. I'd like to play one more year here, get as many caps as I can this year and then next winter, shop my wares overseas. MLS says, Sure Tim, I think we can help you there.
I think Mathis makes about $200,000. I'm pretty sure I saw his salary somewhere in the SoS forum and it was less than max.
According to the lawsuit testimony, incentives never count against the cap. Incentives may force a highe rbase salary to kick in for next season, but the "salary cap" involve sonly "salary" not any performance-based or sponsor incentives. From the testimony, it showed that this was an across the league policy.
Re: Re: Salary Cap and SoS Yeah, but then it comes down to which players they feel like giving these types of contracts too, which may or may not depend on the team they are on.
Keep in mind that the Metros aren't done either. Some of the players rostered right now may not be there on opening day. Added to that, they have some young players on the roster that the coaching staff at least thinks will be able to contribute right away. We know Jeff Moore, on a developmental contract, can play. Dealing a 2nd rounder AND Nelson Akwari for Regan tells me that Bradley thinks the kid will be a contributer. Same thing with Magee. Everyone has said that Clark will be able to help out early as well. That leaves players like Richie Williams, Marcelo Balboa and the like out in the cold. Mathis does not make the max, and from all indications he makes around 200k. Also, one thing that someone mentioned on the Metro board that seemed interesting is this: The article mentions it as a contract extention. It may be the case that this upcoming season was the last on his original contract, and the next 3 years (ie: 04, 05 and 06) will be the years that Howard is at max salary. If that's the case, when you take into account the likelyhood that Mathis and Pope stand a good chance of leaving after this season, Howard's raise isn't as crazy as it looked.