MLS Salary Cap of $2.3 million in 2008. Yes, Per Team.

Somewhere, in the deep, dark bowels of a double super secret meeting location, the millionaire and billionaire owners of MLS get together to engage in double super secret plotting about how little they can pay their players. It happened again this month.

The MLS Board of Governors (which apparently consists of the “owner-operators” and swingin’ guys like Don Garber, the MLS Commissioner) got together to debate, among other things, whether to raise the MLS salary cap from its current $2.2-ish million to either $2.3 million or $2.5 million.

Which figure won the day? You guessed it. The lower, $2.3 million amount.

Never mind that $2.3 million wouldn’t keep David Beckham in underwear for a year. This is what each MLS team has to spread across 28 players its 18 senior roster players.

Okay, yes, the teams will get an additional $125,000 to throw around on things like signing bonuses and transfer fees. And yes, only the first $400,000 of a Designated Player’s contract counts against the $2.3 mil. Or $325,000 in the case of second DPs like Landon Donovan. And yes, this amount may not sound so bad for a young player living in, say, Columbus.

But keep in mind that a lot of European players make more than that per week. And that this is less than a pittance, relative to other sports. And that the minimum player salary for 2007 was $12,900.

Yes, $12,900. (For a complete list of player salaries, visit the Players’ Union website.)

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for fiscal prudence. I’m not interested in seeing MLS head down that NASL road, bankrupting itself on exhorbitant salaries when the revenue streams to support the salaries aren’t there.

Thing is, though? Will MLS owners ever admit that the revenue streams are there? And how will fans know one way or another? Ticket sales are up, TV revenues are up, team gear sales are up, and yet the players who make it all happen are valued at only $2.3 million per year.

The MLS is an incredibly secretive organization. They don’t make financial figures public, and anyone talking about anything financial, like this meeting, faces fines.

Yes, this is their right as a privately owned business. But this degree of secrecy, combined with the fact that some of my boys are getting poverty wages, makes me suspicious.

Especially when we’re talking about billionaires arguing about pocket change.

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Category: World Football