When you're starting out from a highly restricted spending structure with a complex set of rules to keep costs down because you're a 10 team league hemorrhaging money and expansion teams worth like $5 million because you don't want soccer to fail in the US for a third and possibly final time, and then start loosening those rules because you're now a soon to be 30 team league with team valuations closing in on a billion dollars and $500 million expansion fees, those changes to the league rules will obviously suit the richest teams more. Of course your definition of "richest teams" may be different, for example maybe you consider the Quakes a poor team, but they are owned by a multi-billionaire who is currently trying to build a stadium in Vegas that could end up costing like $2 billion. The bottom line is, the current version of MLS has one of the wealthiest sets of owners of any professional sports league. Almost all MLS fans want the league to loosen the restrictions and open the purse strings much faster than they have been, but they're taking a cautious approach. Also just wait until you find out about the hundreds of soccer leagues across the world with no salary cap or other spending restrictions, the most "suit the richest teams" structure possible!
Do you mean teams that actually want to move the league forward instead of still operating in MLS 1.0 like our beloved Quakes? We've got an uber rich owner, all MLS teams do, it's just that our owner likes to be cheap. We can easily be one of the "rich teams". Fisher's choice to be a small team.
Free agents https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-free-agency-big-board-who-teams-could-sign-this-winter Armchair Analyst: The Free Agency big board is here! Featuring a DP 10 who just had his best season, a No. 9 in his prime who had 17 goals two years ago, and a ton of center backs. https://t.co/Ou2kxYKAQn pic.twitter.com/GtRJnWco1g— Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) December 11, 2024
Reminder that Miami was supposedly sanctioned by the league office for circumventing the league's rules just prior to being celebrated by the same league office for signing Messi. And then of course Miami continued signing aging former Euro Stars, like a Draft Kings customer using his children's savings accounts. . Because MLS is so punctilious about the rule of law.
Let me guess. Matt Hedges is one of them. I see a couple of former Quakes (Nick Lima, Godoy) are on the list. Not as many potential candidates as I would hope. I guess that there is a reason why they are on the list.
Most of the ones who are obviously good players will likely wind up on their current teams, like Rusnak (according to whomever wrote that piece). In those cases it could be mainly a negotiating tool for the player.
What do you mean "supposedly sanctioned" they were undeniably sanctioned, and those moves came after the sanctions ended. Similar to how the Galaxy were recently sanctioned (more recently than Miami), but then signed a bunch of guys after those sanctions and won MLS Cup. You see there is this thing called "chronological time".... literally no one besides you is even questioning whether they were canceled?? You can question whether the sanctions were severe enough, that is subjective. But can you provide one citation suggesting they weren't in fact sanctioned? Worst conspiracy theory ever, so an average day for the cranks on this board.
Here is the saction: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-...iami-violating-salary-budget-and-roster-guide As to "proof" it was implemented unknown.
Are you the only person in the developed world without access to Google?? How intellectually lazy do you have to be to not even bother spending five seconds looking into the conspiracy theory you're pushing?
Don was asking for "proof". I don't have any do you? Other than the sporting director. Guess you could look up how much allocation money they spent during that time frame and if their cap number was the required amount below? You know you sometimes come off as condescending, but that's OK still enjoy many of your posts.
Cash sanctions are powerless against a team with top-level financial backing because they are just the cost of doing business for them. A better approach would be something like losing DP slots, international slots, eligibility for tournament play, etc. Those are sanctions that can't be sidestepped by merely spending more cash...
Reading back on it, the violations were actually pretty bad. They essentially had 2 more DPs than allowed and paid 3 other guys essentially under the table in some way to circumvent the cap. The penalty included a cash fine, suspension of their COO / Sporting Director thru the season, and reduction in allocation money (effectively reducing their cap number) by about $2M in 2022 and 2023. Somehow they still managed to turn around and assemble the most SuperTeam ever in MLS history in 2023. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I hope one day the Salary Cap is removed and teams are allowed to fight or flight. I have no issues with super clubs and shit barn burners.
It matters. If you’re going to have rules people need to follow them or the league quickly becomes a joke. Kind of like in a democratic society you have to enforce laws or you wind up with rampant corruption. If you want a free for all league, remove the rules.
I agree Jazzy but reality is that in every sport teams have been caught cheating at one point or other. Not saying it's ok but the most ambitious teams will always look to do what it takes to be the best. It happens time and again. Man City... you're up.
You can be "ambitious" without trying to cheat. It was pretty bad. They were running with 2 extra DP's and 3 other guys had money under the table. Assuming they haven't cheated to get their current roster, it's been the most ambitious in the history of the league. So we can see that cheating is not required to push the envelope.
Again I agree 100%. Then again you have corporations, governments, medical establishments etc "cheat" sports is lowest on the totem pole. It's unfortunate but it happens all around us every day in pretty much everything you can think of. To think other wise would be very foolish and naive in these times.