I am hoping for a last hurrah from MAE in 2003, followed by his retirement. I have a question: In addition to having MAE's 270k salary to play with in 2004, will DCU be due an allocation once this marquee player retires? I think there is precedent.
I dont know about an allocation but still 270k if he's still making that? i thought he went through several pay cuts before he resigned? someone fill me in on his pay...
Who the hell REALLY knows? Remember this is MLS. --Part fantasy, part socialist-corporate, utopia. (See signature below...)
I think (but do not know) that the distinction between Marco's retirement (or Valderama's "retirement" for that matter!) and Ramos' is that the foreign players were considered allocated and the US National teamers (like Ramos or Cobi Jones or Harkes or Dodd) weren't in the same category (the difference between marquee and allocation?). Frankly, it's a stupid distinction. SoS (and I'm not friend of that franchise) deserve an allocation more than Colorado does for Valderama. But the league certainly set the precendent before when Lubos Kubik retired with Dallas (Dallas! he wasn't allocated there--just retired there) and got an allocation for him. So I think DCU would get an allocation for Marco's retirement. And I'm positive he makes the MLS max. He's had pay cuts. But that when he was making more than $500K (only $270K of which counted on the cap). He's still above $270K from what I understand. Last of all, don't be spending that money too soon in 2004. Hudson has already admitted that DCU will be cap challenged in 2004 (not Chicago or SJ bad, but definitely not under the cap). Here's why. 1. Assume we have a good season. At least half a dozen players and maybe as many as 10 will qualify for various bonuses or salary increases. For instance, does anyone doubt that if Quaranta scores a career high in goals this (say he gets 12), he doesn't get a hefty increase? A bunch of other guys (Rimando is a classic example) and still underpaid and will get more than $5k increases. Kovalenko would be another candidate. Nelsen and Reyes--2 more examples. 2. Earnie Stewart, as I understand it, only counts for $50K on the cap in 2003. Since he came on a free transfer, we can apply his major allocation to his cap money (which counts as $150K off of a $200K base). But he could be down to make the MLS max in 2004 plus we lose the cap exemption. 3. If some of our P-40's step up to the plate and play alot (Eskandarian or Carroll or Stokes), then we lose their protection as P-40's--they get promoted. The reality of MLS is that EVERY year you face cap crunches unless: (a) you're no good and have no big names or (b) you make major roster revisions each offseason and dump cap commitments.
It has taken me a while to grasp this harsh reality of MLS, but if it means this league will be around in 20 years, then I am not complaining.
I thought you got an allocation/compensation if one of your three designated marquee players retired, went down to injury, or was sold. This is what Kevin Payne repeatedly said that Marco, Eddie, and Jamie were.....and why we recieved no help when Olsen went down. I would suspect that Tab was no longer a marquee player in the swamp, thus no compensation.
While I agree with most of what you usually say, I do have to throw something into the mix in regards to what you say above.. MLS owns all the contracts in the league and the players are paid accordingly.. Some contracts are only for one season (as Marco's have been for the past two seasons) and some are multiyear.. In some cases (like Stewart's), money is being saved for this season cap wise but his full contract will count and undoubtedly it will affect our cap next season.. But for most of the other players, they get paid whatever their contracts stipulate.. Only a few select players from what I gather have incentives put into their contracts (mostly allocated or other high profile players).. While I agree that if Quaranta scores somewhere in the range of 12-15 goals he deserves a raise but it doesn't necessarily mean he will get one.. Having that $270k will help our team tremendously next season in regards to perhaps bringing in another big name Hudson type of player... We'll see how this all pans out next January...
Lets not forget that more than likely, Olsen's $150k+ will come off the cap as well if all goes as planned and he heads to Europe. MLS held a "league option" year on Nelsen's contract this year. He's gonna need/get a big raise in the offseason as well if he's gonna stay... at least up to Mike Petke type money.
1. MLS used to have the marquee player designation (sort of a "lose a big player to injury and we'll cut a little slack by getting you someone not as good" rule). It has now been eliminated. Lose a player to injury and you can call up A-leaguers on a temporary basis. But players injured during the season cannot be cut or removed (see Amman and Alavanja and Peay--the test case--as just 3 examples). 2. Some people spend their entire MLS career (see Sergio Salas and Micah Cooks) as P-40 players. However, once you play a lot of minutes (basically, if you become a starter), you lose the P-40 designation. You still get the college stipend but you count on the cap. Thus, Kyle Martino, Brad Davis and Kelly Gray (all P-40 rookies last year) lost their exemptions this offseason. Quaranta became a starter (even though he missed half the season) so he lost P-40. I think it's a very rough standard (if someone doesn't start most of the games but the team views them as a starter, or if they play major minutes, they probably lose P-40 status). 3. Cweedchop--I don't mean to make it sound like players dictate the salaries or that pay increases are automatic. Take Ryan Nelsen as an example. He signed an artificially low salary b/c (a) he had no bargaining power (couldn't get a deal from Grasshoppers of Zurich) and (b) thought he'd be getting playoff money in MLS. But you can bet that his contract has him getting a $5K increase every year. This is part of the reason Carey Talley can be making decent money (I thought he was around $70K when he left). They don't have to be all-stars. But if you stick around with the same team long enough, unless you're David Vaudreil, you get pay raises b/c the 2nd or 3rd year of your contract kicks in.
I was thinking about Olsen too. He either will leave and thus United will have his 150K to help with the cap, plus probably get an allocation for him OR he stays in which case his salary will probably go up to league max which will put an additional crimp into our cap. BTW, I think it's just silly that the metros didn't get an allocation for Ramos.
I'm thinking that if DC has a successful season, and looks like it doesn't need any more help for 2004, or if they stink but get an extra allocation from some other source (viz. Olsen), there will be no allocation for Marco. But if they don't do so well, and don't have another way of getting more players, the league will determine Marco merits an allocation. We can pretend there's a set of logical rules, but the truth is that MLS doles out allocations to tinker with the parity formula.
Just out of curiosity, why would Quaranta get a raise? He's got two years left on his contract, at which point I expect him to leave for Europe(he's EU eligible IIRC).
Could be right on that. Kubik retires (after Chicago had to dump him for cap reasons--basically a gift to Dallas) and Burn get an allocation. Valderama is forced out by Colorado (pretty similar to what Chicago did to Podborzny and Kosecki), yet Rapids get an allocation, Chicago didn't get any. And you already know my feelings about Ramos--while he's not my favorite player of all time, he stuck with your team from the 1st match, was a marquee player. If that doesn't deserve an allocation, than the Valderama and Kubik deals are a joke. It will be very interesting to see what happens with expansion. I'm assuming it happens but obviously nothing is definite. Still, I could see a deal where the league suddenly develops a new kind of compensation for teams that have too many players chosen in the expansion draft. Who knows?
I think that's more or less the way I've always had it, though in the heat of discussion I may have not explained that clearly, or, more likely, been misunderstood.
I'm new to all this salary cap/allocation/etc. talk. So please indulge my ignorance for a second. I take from this discussion that the league max. salary is $270k (theoretically). What is the league min.? Just trying to get a point of reference for discussions like these. Thanks.
The consensus guess for league minimum is around $24k. Though a player on a developmental contract can actually make a bit less.
My understanding is that players with developmental player contracts (ie: not P-40 but cap and roster exempt) make less than $2,000 per month. And it is not a year-round contract, only a monthly one (much like the NFL "practice squad" players).