I know it will not happen anytime soon (if ever), but now or the next several years is the best chance to make it happen. Once MLS is big-time and its player receive salary that is 10 times what it is today, it would be very difficult to impliment this idea due to the player union and such. However, if this idea is impliment now, then the current players (especially one in the near bottom of the salary pole) will lose out some necessary cash. So it is kinda of a trade-off. But it is good for the fans and for the league image. What I am suggesting is that 10% of MLS player salary before tax go into a "Special Community Fund." The 10% breakdown as followed: 5% will go toward a system that accumulate over the years for Stadium money. That way in 20 years when MLS want to build a new stadium, it does not have to ask the local tax payers like many current football/baseball are doing (I live near seattle, both Safeco field and Seahawks stadium are funded mostly by tax payers dollars while the school system went down the drain, right now two local school district are on strike) 5% will go to the Community as charity in the way of repaying the community that support them. This money could help build soccer field or set up a local amatur kid soccer league or something like that. or help out the homeless and stuff like that. (5% of 1.7 mil is around 85,000 dollars) This would make the league really GREAT in the American public eye. It could go a long way to attract new fans and set up an example for the other pro leagues. If the other leagues do not follow (and I don't think they will) they will not look good to the public eyes. It would be wonderful to see NFL,NBA,NHL,MLB impliment something like this (10% of the player salary to go directly to the community and to set up a stadium fees situation). Anyone would love to play a sport they love for a salary of $100,000 a year. Yet they are demanding more and more. It is outrageous. I am sure if you ask the former NFL,NBA,NHL,MLB players 20-30 years ago before the salary bloom if they would support this idea, I expect they would. P.S. I got this idea while seeing a COMMERICAL on TV about a ______ (name of a MLB player which i am not going to name) Charity that ask the fans of the Seattle Mariners to contribute. I know it is for good cause and everything but for goodness sake, the fans are making around 1% of what the players make and yet are ask to donate money. EAch pro team (especially the one where players make millions) should require each player to donate 5% of his/her income to the community as a tax break. How about another 5% for the stadium fees so that the tax payer money can go to the school? IF I have this kind of power over MLS, I would impliment this system. It would make MLS looks great in the eyes of the public and piss off other sport leagues. Beside, with the added support (money) from new fans I could raise the salary cap a little to boost the minimum salary of MLS from (24 K) to (27 K) to offset this 10% community fund system. Overall, it would be great PR. And you better start now before it is too late. What do you guys think? If you have the power, would you do it?
While i admire the thought, MLS players do not make nearly enough to make a dent in future construction costs. And say a player makes $100,000 for 5 years. Then what? They take a risk that may or may not pan out. They have a small, small window to make $$ during pivotal years in their lives as wage earners.
This makes no sense if you bother thinking about it a bit more. This is a just a roundabout convoluted way of asking the players to take a paycut so that the owners could save up some money to pay for stadiums. Why should the owners bother paying the players this money and then taking it back because of some league tax on players' salaries? The money is moving around unecessarily from one pocket to another and then back again. Just give the players a paycut if you feel like you need to save up money for stadiums. Not that I advocate doing that, but at least it is straight up, not devious and back-handed like your proposal. - Paul
Well, then, let's up it to 20%. At any rate, its just as ridiculous as making MLS players take a pay cut.