AEG Wants to Tilt the MLS Rules A Little More in the Galaxy’s Favor

By: Laurie | September 28th, 2008

So it’s no secret that I’m an LA Galaxy fan, right? Even now, when they’ve won only one of their last 14 games and are looking like they’re going to miss the playoffs for the third straight season. But even I had to laugh at this one.

The man who brought the “Beckham Rule” to Major League Soccer now wants to change it in a dramatic fashion. And if Tim Leiweke gets his way, David Beckham and MLS’ other marquee players wouldn’t count a dime against the league’s salary cap. [...]

“There are some in the league who argue, ‘Yeah, but you’re spending the same amount of money on the rest of your team that some of the other teams are spending on their entire team. So you made some bad personnel decisions.’ I think we probably did. I’m not an expert, but I think we spent some money and brought some guys in that ultimately aren’t very good. So they are right: We’ve made some bad decisions.

“That said, why does David [Beckham] count against the cap when you see the impact that David has created for everybody else in the league? Why do we get penalized for that? Every team should have the ability, I think, of pulling in a Designated Player and making a decision to pay that player outside the cap, and it shouldn’t have an impact on the cap.”

Quick facts: The current MLS salary cap is about $2.1 million per team. The first DP on a team counts $400K against that cap. Any additional DPs count $325K. Since the DP rule was enacted at the beginning of 2007, the teams that have done best in the league are the ones who haven’t forked over the money for DPs.

In Lieweke’s view, the Galaxy are being penalized for taking risks that benefit the entire league. And yes, there is something to this. The Designated Players who’ve been brought in (especially Beckham) have brought more glamour and more name recognition to MLS — and consequently a lot more $$$. People who didn’t even know that the US had professional soccer two years ago are now taking in the occasional game, as witnessed by record crowds around the league when other teams play the Galaxy.

But here’s the thing. The Galaxy have horrendously mismanaged their personnel decisions this year. For most of the season, they had three (!!!) DPs on the payroll — Beckham, Landon Donovan, and Carlos Ruiz. This meant that of the $2.1 million salary cap, $1,050,000 was going towards three players. The result? The rest of the team had to be cobbled together largely with kids just out of college and players over thirty who were maybe a bit past their prime. It was a huge gamble, and it didn’t work. And now AEG, the Galaxy’s owners, are saying, “Wait! We need a rule change!”

If this was the first time this had happened, they might have a shot at it. They do have a somewhat valid argument. But the thing is, LA has a history of seeking special treatment. The Beckham Rule was created for their benefit, and last year they created a new rule that allowed players who’d already been making over the non-DP limit of $400K to be grandfathered in as DPs. (That’s how the Galaxy wound up with Donovan and Ruiz in addition to Beckham.) There’s also been some manipulation of tournament rules to allow the Galaxy to take part in competitions when they hadn’t earned the slot, presumably to get more money and exposure from Beckham. (SuperLiga ‘07 anyone?)

It’s a bit like The Boy Who Cried Wolf, except we have The Owners Who Cried Unfair! Eventually everybody just starts tuning ‘em out, and they have to face the consequences.

Even if it means that the “jewel of MLS” will be watching the playoffs on TV.

Again.