The usual procedure for MLS when an expansion team comes around is to hold an expansion draft, just as other American sports do. I hate expansion drafts. Is one really needed? Could Toronto live on free agents and NotSoSuperDraft picks? I think they could. Would they suck at first? Probably. But Chivas USA sucked their first year too. And it's not like Toronto would have to be very good to make the playoffs in year one, either the top 4 of 7 or the top 8 of 13 (depending on if MLS goes to one conference or not). Why should other teams lose players that their fans may be attached to just because a new team is starting?
The way I understand it, teams are allowed to protect like 10 players from selection. Teams trade "fan favorites" quite often. If they have more than 10 (or however many) fan favorites, I'd say they could stand to lose one or two.
This is interesting as Inter Tornoto (or whatever it's second name will be when it offends or doesn't acknowledge someone) faces different rules for its roster. With Canadians being their domestics and Americans being in the international category Toronto could only have at most 7 Senior Internationals and 5 Youth Internationals (I believe that was the rules for Real and Chivas when they entered (Feel free to correct). But with the bulk of their roster being Canadians I'd say they'll do some sort of draft of Canadians.
The biggest issue that's going to determine all of this is how Canadian and American players are treated with regards to being internationals. If Americans are considereed internationals, the draft style stuff simply won't work, there aren't enough canadians in the league for it to happen, and you can bet your ass Houston isn't going to let DeRo, Onstad and Serioux go so easily. So they'll have to come up with some sort of mass Canadian allocation system and a way to aquire these players. If I was a USL team, i'd stock up on all the Canadians I could, in hopes of holding out for an MLS pay day.
Rumor has been that Canadians will be domestic players. Toronto would get 4 extra SI spots, as long as they where used on Americans. So youd have something like this: 10 Canadians 4 SI* 4 Americans *NO idea if these could be Americans as well
I understand the Canadians not counting as international players ruling, but I think it's a mistake to have Americans count as Internationals as well. One of the purposes of having MLS is to grow our American player pool. While Canada also wants the team to help grow their player pool why not settle in the middle and say that any Canadian or American would count as a domestic player and any player from a country outside of the two would count as an international? If they did this I could see a Toronto team composed of 50% Canadian, 30% American and 20% foreign ( 4 SI + YI spots)
Is there any where to read about the MLS deals with its players (tranfers, buying/selling, allocations, etc) The MLS is really confusing when it comes to this. Toronto must be a big soccer city compared to the rest of their nation do get a team, and along those lines I think they should try to buy some of the canadian internationals. I look at the play pool, most seemed to be playing for English lower divisions, MLS and in or around Scandinavia. Maybe ask for MLS to subsidise some transfer fees instead of the usual benefits. If they did that they could almost become a power house. Then again I have no idea how the wages compare from lower england leagues, and ones in Scandinavia. On the comments of the MLS being the "American Pool" or whatever your term was, I think is would great to see the MLS be the number one league for the North Americans and Central Americans(CONCACAF). So Canadians should be their dominate make up. PS I know this is semi long, but anything happening to the Lynx?? Disclaimer: I really dont know alot this subject so I welcome some one to critique this.
I read that the Lynx are still staying in Tononto and will be sharing the stadium with the MLS team. It would be great if the two teams formed some sort of partnership and the Lynx could turn into a farm team for the MLS team.
From what I hear the Lynx what to compete with them. In North America that's kind of like bringing a sword to a nuke fight.
do you guys think Maple Leafs Sports has already contacted Radsinski? I bet he would love to finish career at home.
First off, after two years of the Reserve league, there's no way that Toronto is going to suck as bad as Salt Lake and Chivas if they do the same kind of expansion draft. Each team theoretically has 10 developmental players so that's 120 players who aren't on the regular rosters. There's got to be a quaie a few pretty decent players hidden among them who, for various reasons, can't find a first team spot. Secondly, Toronto is going to be an absolutely awful squad if they try to be a primarily Canadian team. All of the good players are taken, either in MLS or in Europe. Most of the Canadian players who are in the USL are there beacuse they're not good enough to play elsewhere. It's going to be just as stupid as Chivas trying to only have spanish-speaking players. Imagine iof you're the Toronto GM and you need to develop a right back. For a US team, there'd be dozens of choices. The team picks the best one and drafts him. But a Canadian team has to find the best right back who has Canadian citizenship and that's a much tougher challenge. I don't know how MLS is going to work this out. But I think it has the potential to be a disaster.
Here is a shot i took at the Toronto roster. It's not perfect, but it's a starting point. Read the whole thread and not just the first post before responding, cuz it's a work in progress. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=334225
Chivas sucked the first year because they made horrible player decisions and were arrogant. They actually could have been decent last year (not horrible) if they had swallowed their pride and admitted that the American game is tougher than they thought.
I think to make it even league wide Canadians and Americans should be considered domestic for everyone. If Americans are considered internationals for Toronto they are going to have serious issues competing.