Comments on: MLS Poll: Should the DP’s Wages Count Against the Salary Cap?

By: bluemeanies

bluemeanies — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:54:34 +0000

$400,000 was chosen because that is the highest a player (say, Taylor Twellman) can make without being bumped up to the DP bracket. You don’t lower that without either a) saying that a DP is worth less than Taylor Twellman in the accounting which would be wrong or b) forcing Taylor Twellman to take a pay cut, which while funny is also wrong.

By: alessio

alessio — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:36:13 +0000

Real soccer fans in North America want a league with a legit structure and sensible policies. Twelve year old girls want Beckham to take his shirt off after a goal.

Wow, right fucking on, Sam.

By: Enrique

Enrique — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:41:01 +0000

I think Beckham has been great for the leaguye, maybe not for the Galaxy. We need more players of his stature and more quality players to play along them, a perfect ex.: Columbus. I think the first DP should not count against the cap and the 2nd a smaller amount than the 400k, raise the cap to at least 3 million so we can afford better players and have better teams ultimately. The problem with LA wasn’t Beckham, he can play, the problem is that they had to pay Donovan as well, it left little money to put good players around them. Let’s be fair, they sucked because of their defense not their offense, they were the best offensive team for the majority of the season, they could not stop my grandma though.

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:22:49 +0000

Okay, Leiwenke is suggesting that having to pay for a DP is being penalized? All credibility = out the window. As long as arguments like this are being thrown around, the MLS will not be anything more than it is now, and that is not much. It’s hard to shed a reputation of a bullshit novelty league, but it’s the sad reality of things. Real soccer fans in North America want a league with a legit structure and sensible policies. Twelve year old girls want Beckham to take his shirt off after a goal.

By: J

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:58:32 +0000

The cap needs to be raised and DP’s should count as a certain percentage of whatever the cap may be. It definitely needs to count for something, though $400,000 is probably way too much. Plus, it ultimately hurts the rest of the players in MLS because it makes owners reluctant to agree to minimum salary increases. I would like MLS to reach a point that players considering moves to the Norwegian leagues or other smaller leagues in Europe would be able to receive equal pay to stay in MLS. This requires MLS to grow in stature in the eyes of European scouts (which means that we need to attract more top level talent like Beckham, Angel, etc.) but at the same time, we also have to be able to pay MLS players as much as they would get in second tier Euro leagues. Then, hopefully guys like Parkhurst and others who leave MLS for smaller Euro leagues would consider staying in MLS a desirable option.

I like the league’s cautious approach, actually. But I do think expanding the salary cap a little and determining a percentage that a DP slot can take up on the cap will go a long way toward making sure that DP’s will be surrounded by quality talent, thus helping to raise the profile of the league, and (most importantly) keeping more talent in MLS. I think it would be great if MLS were considered a proving ground for moves into top flight Euro leagues, but I’d rather that players considering a move to Norway or some other league of similar quality choose to stay in MLS.

By: bluemeanies

bluemeanies — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:00:45 +0000

What, make the DP invisible like Gen-A? Wouldn’t that be the equivalent of making a supersecret roster spot? The benefit of having a DP taking up 400k on the cap vs having a player who is hugging the max salary of 400k close is for each team to determine and price into the contract. Because Liewecke wants a mulligan on Becks doesn’t make it a good idea.

The cap itself should be raised but please no Enron accounting.

By: Daryl

Daryl — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:41:12 +0000

I voted “no way”, but would also be comfortbale with “less than $400k”.

Mostly because right now having $400k of that DP salary count against the cap means teams with a DP have to sacrifice some good players to make room. What MLS needs is a team (or preferably loads of teams) where a DP is surrounded by quality instead of crap.