As I mentioned in my North American edition of What to Expect When You’re Expecting in 2010, I have quite a few gripes to vent about the current systematic failure that is Major League Soccer.
Let’s start where Jimmy Hoffa would. There exists an abundance too great of players who are currently being underpaid. As far as I know, this is a first in the world of sports. In no other sport or league can you make the argument that there are athletes who are getting paid too much AND too little. Of course, there is the underlying idea that the salary cap is an idiotic rule to begin with. This is a professional sports league. That piggy bank was made to be broken.
Let’s compare the salary cap to other sports, shall we?
As of right now the salary cap stands, for an entire team, at a very modest $2.3 million. Before I get on with the salary caps for other leagues in America, I think I should let it be known that this means a Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi equates to one entire MLS team, bench and even non-bench players included. Also there is of course the designated player rule, whereby only $450,000 of a player’s salary goes towards the cap, with the remainder being held against the owner of the team. This is sometimes referred to as the Beckham Rule, since its inception was geared to allow his arrival to the Galaxy.
Onto the other leagues. In the NFL, the salary cap is an astounding $128 million, or roughly 11.5 Ronaldos or Messis. It should also be noted that the salary cap for the NFL at its inception in 1994 was already past the 30 million USD mark. Granted, most football teams pack up to 60 players into their squad, but even then, supposing the average squad size for an association football (this term will only be used during paragraphs that contain references to both sorts of football) team is 23, when you proportion everything out, the NFL would still provide teams with a salary cap that is in the 20 millions (going off the 1994 salary cap) .
The NBA, which curiously boasts the highest average player salary in America, is the sport with a squad size a few shy to the football average, with an average size of 16. What’s their salary cap? 58 million USD.
In Major League Baseball there is no salary cap, but instead there is a luxury tax whereby after a team spends over the amount listed for the season, they are forced to pay 17.5% of whatever amount they spent over the cap. Interestingly with a roster cap at 25, that makes baseball the sport most comparable to football. The cap for the 2009 season was set at $162 million, with the general consensus being that 2010 will see this rise past the 170 mark.
So as you can see, the MLS is being strangled by this ridiculously-sized salary cap. While it is understandable that since association football is not the most popular sport in America, as it lags behind baseball, football and basketball, something must be done about the salary cap. This is not a matter of over-spending, it is now a matter where you have active professional players who are actually struggling financially to make a living. So while I know that there will be the cynic who says that this is how it should be, let’s at least have some consideration that they should be treated equally to their counterparts from other sports.
Then we have that ridiculous method of deciding the champion based on a knock-out tournament, where even teams with losing records stand a chance to make the playoffs and even worse, as in the case of the Red Bulls, go all the way to the final. While this isn’t a problem that is exclusive to MLS, and some even argue that it is a ‘modernized’ approach, I still feel it is a shrewd way of crowning a champion. At least the MLS has taken the step to award the Supporters’ Shield to the team who has the best record during the season, which directly qualifies that team into the CONCACAF Champions League.
Also there is the problem of foreigners. Now, by no means are there too many or too few – this isn’t where the problem lies. The problem lies in that the foreign talent (by talent, I do wholeheartedly mean talent and not just “talent” in the way it is usually thrown around when describing foreign players) is generally way too old to be playing at a consistent and first-rate level. So why do they keep coming? It seems as if teams are more interested in the possibility of cashing in on a semi-known name than they are in the general performance of the club. Though, this shouldn’t come as a complete shock considering the MLS contains a team that goes by the name of the Red Bulls, of all things. Granted, the MLS has nowhere near the lure to bring in an at-peak proven performer, especially with the financial limitations that are placed on each team, but just because you can only lure in the old-timers doesn’t mean you should actually go ahead and lure in the old timers. That’s akin to buying a cheap sedan, even though you really wanted a more expensive SUV.
The most concerning problem is that there is very scarce media coverage given to the games. Matter of fact, I can not name you one personal friend of mine who sat down and watched the MLS Cup Final between the Galaxy and Real Salt Lake. It’s not that the lure of David Beckham strutting around on a pitch wouldn’t attract the females, it’s that no one know when the game was, where it was being televised and, more trivially, didn’t even know about the game in the first place. The MLS needs to start a rampant effort to get their games televised more often by ESPN and other local networks if they want to thrive in the future. Not only that, but they should really consider consulting a public relations and marketing group in an attempt to make people aware that the league exists in the first place. By no means should they attempt to overdo this. Remember that the worst product when marketed extremely well will ultimately fail just as much if not more so than it would’ve without the backing of a good marketing campaign.
Then there are the fans. Teams like Seattle and Toronto aside, the fans in the MLS fall either on the dead-quiet side of the fence or the obnoxiously loud, cowbell-jamming side of the fence. A cowbell is not atmosphere. And there are two good reasons why it shouldn’t be at a football game. 1. This is a spectator sport not an audition for Blue Oyster Cult. 2. Christopher Walken was kidding when he said he had a fever and the only cure was more cowbell. So please drop it. It’s annoying to listen to on TV and even more so in person. What’s wrong with chanting and singing like every other fanatical being in the world? I’m not saying instruments are bad to bring to games. Sure, go ahead and bring your drum or for you jazz cats, your trumpet. Cowbell? Leave it at the farm please.
But there’s no POSSIBLE way I could end this without bringing up the fields and stadiums. What the heck were these people thinking when they organized for an association football team to play at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands? I have seen head-on train collisions that were easier to watch than a team playing in front of an overwhelmingly empty stadium. They aren’t the only ones, of course, but considering the massive proportions for seating that Giants Stadium has, they are the most guilty culprits of such a horrible decision. Then there’s the four synthetic pitches in use by MLS teams. Despite all the criticisms of these surfaces teams continue to play on them even though they are known to cause erratic ball movement and an increased risk of injury to athletes. Is the ability to drain out water after rain really that much more important than the two reasons against the use of synthetic pitches? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
I’ll end this by stating that there is a lot of work ahead for the MLS, and while I won’t go as far as to say that the involvement of some former NFL henchmen is hurting, I do think MLS would be better served by former EPL henchmen instead.
Paulo Pincaro is an up and coming football analyst who previously wrote for the LusoAmericano newspaper based in Newark, New Jersey and can be contacted via email at: PauloPincaro@gmail.com
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To whoever gave my post, what I’m going to assume was a 2-star rating. Please, if you’re going to belittle my work, then have the heresay to offer up some critcism or throw in some debating material. I realize I’m touching a hot button issue because MLS fans don’t take kindly to someone who doesn’t avidly watch or cheer on an MLS team commenting on their beloved league, but if you’re just going to post a 2-star rating and then leave through the back-door, I think that just shows you have not many arguments or criticisms to make and are simply a bit full of yourself and your ridiculously set-up league.
Going to give this a 5.0 for a number of reasons. It seems like the overwhelming response worldwide to the MLS is “get bigger or whatever.” But the league is still in its infancy. They get under $50,000,000 in TV contracts whereas the NFL, EPL, MLB, etc all get in the high 9 figures if not billions. Clubs are more concerned about staying in the black/solvent than buying million dollar superstars. To have achieved what they have (nearly a 15,000 fan/game average) in 15 seasons whilst playing in often unattractive venues for the game is rather laudable. Arguably with the right willing ownership groups, Miami would never have folded.
The last thing on the MLS’ mind should be removal of the salary cap. Free market might be the only way they can compete with Europe long term for players, but that point hasn’t arrived yet. In fact, models such as the NBA and MLB are precisely what the MLS needs to avoid, as the financial metrics at their very simplest are completely unsustainable. Free market sports (especially here in the US and then at the highest levels of world football) are in for a very significant crash if they continue at their current cost growth pace.
There are many more aspects to focus on for the league and the USSF: youth development, sport-specific stadia, etc. Surely the cap needs to increase somewhat, as to even attract players within our own nation (or indeed to come from elsewhere), the league minimum salary and indeed all league salaries need to be improved. Right now league minimum is minor-league baseball-like. But that doesn’t come until there is more notoriety. Sure you could take the gamble and go big or go home, but it’s more about building something here.
As sad as it is to say, it is not the MLS’ fault that the vast majority of American soccer fans are snobs of the game. An overwhelming majority support Manchester United or Chelsea or Real Madrid or Barcelona. Many I believe don’t even know there is a professional league in England below the Premier League (Championship, League 1, etc). Building such a grassroots base, especially in major media markets like New York, will certainly be tough as fans in these places want, even demand instant results or instant notoriety.
As for Red Bull NY (Note that the name is one of my biggest pet peeves: they’re not the “Red Bulls” and in fact I think the team needs to stop referring to them as such. They are Red Bull New York, like the sister club SV Red Bull Salzburg.), where else where they going to play? A high school stadium? Hofstra? Giants Stadium surely isn’t the ideal venue, but they’re moving into a venue which I think will instantly become the class of the league. One of the biggest problem in MLS development is the lack of fan protection from the elements in the new soccer-specific stadia. Red Bull Arena’s all-seater all-covered format is sure to bring in some on-the-fence fans purely out of the comfort of being in the dry attending the match. Ties played in the wet at Giants Stadium were often poorly attended (8,000ish vs Houston last season in particular), that won’t be the case anymore. As for the league as a whole, synthetic pitches will be likely until everyone has their own stadium. None of the new soccer-specifics have artificial surfaces.
That being said — the primary thing to take away from this comment is the following: MLS needs to focus on small goals at present: youth academy/structure (including USSF discussions with the NCAA) and getting every last team (except maybe Seattle who could basically sell 75% of Qwest Field it seems if they wanted to) into a SSS.
Why do we see lifting the salary caps as a huge problem? How’s about instead of taking over clubs in England we have owners take over clubs here. Not only is it a smaller investment, but it pisses off less people in the long run, all while adding much needed funds to the teams.
Another reason I see this as a completely invalid logic (that the salary cap doesn’t need to be removed, mind you I didn’t say it needed to be removed, but the current level is ridiculous, bump it to at least 10 million), is that there are poorer leagues out there. Case in point, Portugal. Outside of 5 teams, no one is getting anywhere NEAR 15,000. And we’re definitely not getting any TV-deals that are worth substantially more than the MLS, and yet we are capable of bringing in good players even to the worser-off clubs.
As for RBNY. Point taken, but at the same time, not. I realize having a team from New York is a top priority (keep in mind that there is a current effort on-going to get a team into one of the five boroughs)/was a top priority. However, perhaps they should’ve waited until they had the money to invest into properly setting it up before they went ahead and just… set it up. It would’ve caused much less headaches than the situation with Giants Stadium. I too feel that the new stadium will be a success, mainly because the stadium has the added benefit of being blocks away from a PATH station, making it easily accessible to by people from New York City. However, there is one simple thing that needs to be done. And that would be to clean up the surrounding area. The stadium is nice and all, but it just looks out of place sitting among rusted abandoned factories and basically, in the middle of what would other-wise be considered a junkyard.
With regards to the fanbase. I agree that that will be an uphill battle, but I don’t see why it’s of importance whether or not they know of a league lower than the EPL. The point is, these are on-the-fence soccer fans who are the easiest targets, so if you’re not even aiming for them 9and by all means the MLS doesn’t aim for anybody really), you’re not going to get them. And while the argument that people demand noteriety and success is a valid one, you are quickly forgetting that the only team doing NYC justice at the moment is the Yankees. The Knicks suck but they are still people in seats. The Mets? Horrifying awful, yet still with fans. I haven’t been following hockey too much, but the last time I checked it the Rangers were in third place in their division (which is not impressive when it is out of five teams). I don’t think we need to talk about the Giants, and the Jets were lucky to have gone as far as they did in the playoffs.
I think it’s such a different demographic sport by sport. The Knicks draw fans because it’s still trendy to be seen at the Garden at a basketball game. It only happens because they’re the Knicks. Look at Charlotte, Seattle, and a number of other clubs, even big clubs, in the NBA. Charlotte moved (got a new franchise which also struggles numbers wise, but moved nonetheless), Seattle moved, even the Dallas Mavericks are struggling to fill seats. Dare I even get started on the Pistons. The success of the Knicks is purely on appealing to coolness, not the league or the quality of product.
The Mets will always do well enough, as this is a baseball hotbed, the northeast. A season without baseball to talk about is utter crisis mode for many American sports fans. And even still, the Mets shrunk their ballpark (moving into Citi) and by the end of the season tickets could be had even on Stubhub for 99 cents a pair, so the situation wasn’t that great.
The Rangers I agree with are an anomaly, but in many ways are a testiment to how the NHL reaches out to and prioritizes fans and is bolstering their coverage and reach via quality peripheral coverage (web content, twitter content, etc.)
I think the reason they can’t have ownership groups with free roam is because of how quick the general American sports fan tends to become disinterested. This is also the reason for the playoffs, and the same reason the Mets had 99 cent tickets available for all of September. Once the typical American fan knows their team is eliminated, good luck drawing them to the venue. If you unleashed the cap, an organization like Red Bull could essentially “go nuts” and make RBNY the dominant force with no possible reply. The American fan is not ready for a situation like the Big 4, they can’t fathom that competition isn’t even or at least has significant penalties for breaking the rules (the Yankees and their luxury tax payments). This is the same reason the playoffs still have 8 of 16 teams — it’s not too difficult to get in to the second season, and with draws being prevalent and earning points, 12 or 13 teams have a shot right down to the wire. You’ve seen over the last two seasons what can happen by a mediocre team getting into the show (RBNY’s miracle run to the Cup final and RSL winning it all).
Perhaps I’m not giving American sports fans enough credit, but having been to a number of matches of all sports here, I can distinctly say that “fandom” here doesn’t carry the same connotation that it does elsewhere in the world. Maybe a few hundred fans carry the chanting load at a football (soccer) match. There are maybe a handful of superfans per game at baseball or hockey games, playoffs aside. It’s really one of the most disappointing things about American sports. Once you’ve watched European sports you’re immediately disappointed at the level of fan passion here, and that is one of the difficult things about soccer catching on. It is very much a sport and a world phenomenon built on fan passion. It may very well be that simple fact that is lacking here which is needed to take the MLS to the next level in the end.