EXACTLY! I was wondering the same thing, along with the money MLS and Galaxy apparently got for allowing Beckham to stay on loan in Milan. And if Montero is sold, I’ve read some reports that Seattle MLS gets 60% of any transfer fee. So where does THAT go?

Good point about the loans, too. That was an aspect I hadn’t given much thought to, but yes, definitely a backdoor way into the better leagues.

1. Start by paying them more than what a minimum wage worker at McDonald’s makes. the minimum salary for a first year player should be $40,000 to $50,000 per year. It is absolutely rediculous for a college graduate or having left college as a junior, to be making less money than he could if he took a regular job. the MLS as an employer shouldn’t be competing against entry level jobs in the corporate sector.

2. Start building real relationships with European Clubs that allow for off season loan deals. What the Beckham (initial deal) and Donovan loan deals did was show that players can benefit from just simply training and even playing in reserve matches with clubs in Europe. If we aren’t going to have an August to May schedule, then we should be using the November to March time frame to get our players staying healthy and playing at a higher level to improve the level of play in this country.

3. Loosen the salary cap. Right now with only one DP per team, there is emphasis on getting a quality striker or playmaker. Fine, but right now those players (outside the likes of Schellotto and Ljundberg, are not really contributing a huge amount to their teams and certainly are not teaching their teams to play better.

Having said that, I think that for right now, the MLS is something of a feeder league–and that is OK. The league is just 13 years old. We cannot expect to be competing with clubs and leagues that are 100 years old–it just doesn’t work that way. Now, in 20 years if that is still the situation, then we have a problem, but right now I am okay with a feeder league status.

What the MLS needs to be doing is taking every transfer fee that comes in, give the team that lost the player a cut and then plow the rest of the money back into three areas: 1. scouting, 2. player development, and 3. coaching development.

Where did that $10 million for Jozy Altidore go?

If we want the USMNT to be as strong as possible, then yes. It is the best we can do.