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MLS financial reality


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#1
LongLiveTheBeautifulGame

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Ajax sold Erickson, Santos sold Neymar, Hoffenheim will probably sell Firmino and Volland and make an absolute killing off it.

 

Clubs do this yet still compete afterwards.

 

Heck, Porto is the farm system for the entire world.



#2
hurricane1091

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That's lovely. The problem is we rarely get young talent, do you honestly trust this organization to bring in and develop new younger players? They can't even sign the right experienced players. Basically no starters are home grown or started here early.



#3
Eleazar

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i think we can develop young talent. i just think we need to develop more of them, and i think it's definitely possible.


RIP Guillermo Romulo, Alexander Francis Orig, Celenio Eleazar, and my Mom, Resurreccion Eleazar.

 

RIP Cesar Castello, Mike Vallo, Glenn Stampiglia, Bob Paquette, and Warren Lee

 

 

 


#4
break516beatz

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It shocks me more people don't grasp that. Ajax, Sporting Lisbon, Santos, all hugely successful. Every one of them sells players on the reg, reinvests, develops and pumps out a new crop. The Red Bulls should be so lucky.

Agreed, but if Garber and MLS really wants this league to be in the upper echelon of soccer leagues around the world then things must change in order to keep promising talent around instead of selling them because they can't afford them. 


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#5
BLewis1968

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Agreed, but if Garber and MLS really wants this league to be in the upper echelon of soccer leagues around the world then things must change in order to keep promising talent around instead of selling them because they can't afford them. 

 

Then you - and every single MLS fan - need to convince at least five and preferably ten people who've never seen an MLS game to start tuning in on the reg. These TV ratings are beyond unfortunate. National games drawing 200k? The Red Bulls have been at the top of that heap since singining Titi and they're doing 300k. That's wretched. When they start drawing a million eyeballs, they'll have the coin they need to pay players enough to turn down offers from France and Holland, if not England and Germany. Until then, the best they can do is keep more than they have, develop better than they have and scout/replace even more shrewdly than they have.

And to those those saying no starters are homegrown or started early, I'd contend the entire back line minus Olave falls into that category. Hell, even Roy Miller came cheap at the age of 25. Not a kid, but a good acquisition.



#6
ig101

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Then you - and every single MLS fan - need to convince at least five and preferably ten people who've never seen an MLS game to start tuning in on the reg. These TV ratings are beyond unfortunate. National games drawing 200k? The Red Bulls have been at the top of that heap since singining Titi and they're doing 300k. That's wretched. When they start drawing a million eyeballs, they'll have the coin they need to pay players enough to turn down offers from France and Holland, if not England and Germany. Until then, the best they can do is keep more than they have, develop better than they have and scout/replace even more shrewdly than they have.

And to those those saying no starters are homegrown or started early, I'd contend the entire back line minus Olave falls into that category. Hell, even Roy Miller came cheap at the age of 25. Not a kid, but a good acquisition.

Do you really think this is fans job?



#7
BLewis1968

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Do you really think this is fans job?

To recruit? No, I'm a very live-and-let-live guy, so I'd make the worst salesman in the history of sales or history. It doesn't make a difference to me whether they sell out, draw 15,000, or anywhere inbetween. I'm just pointing out its unreasonble to expect a guy to want to stick around making $60k if he can make four or five times that elsewhere, and uneasonable to expect the salary cap to quintuple unless the revenues skyrocket (they will rise significantly in 2015 w/ the new TV deal), and unreasonable to expect a deal much bigger than the aforementioned 2015 bump unless the ratings get better. Not a little better, not by a factor of 10% or 50% but more like 500%. 

That said, I don't think its the job of all fans to be reasonable, either. Some will be, some won't be. It is what it is.



#8
break516beatz

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Do you really think this is fans job?

It's not. I give the club money for season tickets, I tune in to see my team play when I'm not in the stadium, and I'll catch the occasional game on a national feed. On top of which, I brought a friend last year and this year into 101 and he's now an ESC member and buying his own season tickets next year. Why in the hell should I do more? I'm not on MLS's payroll in order to grow the game domestically. It's their job. 


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#9
Eleazar

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exactly.


RIP Guillermo Romulo, Alexander Francis Orig, Celenio Eleazar, and my Mom, Resurreccion Eleazar.

 

RIP Cesar Castello, Mike Vallo, Glenn Stampiglia, Bob Paquette, and Warren Lee

 

 

 


#10
iced1776

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It's not. I give the club money for season tickets, I tune in to see my team play when I'm not in the stadium, and I'll catch the occasional game on a national feed. On top of which, I brought a friend last year and this year into 101 and he's now an ESC member and buying his own season tickets next year. Why in the hell should I do more? I'm not on MLS's payroll in order to grow the game domestically. It's their job. 

I don't think he's literally blaming you personally for the TV ratings stinking out loud, he's just making a point that the league has a long way to go before its bringing in enough viewership to make serious coin on television revenue, and until that happens then its unrealistic to expect the league to pay young players enough to keep them from going abroad.  Its easy to say that its important that MLS doesn't sell players, but the reality behind whether or not that's financially possible or responsible is a different story.

 

The league is still making steps towards keeping talent here though, the young DP and retention fund rules make it easier for club's to keep their young talent if clubs choose to utilize them.



#11
break516beatz

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I don't think he's literally blaming you personally for the TV ratings stinking out loud, he's just making a point that the league has a long way to go before its bringing in enough viewership to make serious coin on television revenue, and until that happens then its unrealistic to expect the league to pay young players enough to keep them from going abroad.  Its easy to say that its important that MLS doesn't sell players, but the reality behind whether or not that's financially possible or responsible is a different story.

 

The league is still making steps towards keeping talent here though, the young DP and retention fund rules make it easier for club's to keep their young talent if clubs choose to utilize them.

I know it wasn't a shot at me directly. I was using myself as an example. I'm also a typical MLS fan -- someone who gives much of their disposable income to the club they love, who has brought non-soccer fans to games in the hopes of converting them into a fan, etc. The point still remains that it's not my responsibility (as a fan) to grow the league and to propel it to the upper tier of leagues around the world. There are people sitting at MLS HQ who gets paid money to figure that out. Unless they want to hire me to help in that, I've gone above and beyond what I should do to help. After damn near 20 years it's sad that they still, in a way, do not have a plan yet. It doesn't help that they sell off guys who are still growing in this league and can be household names. Yes, it's great guys like Zusi and Besler decided to extend their contracts here, but more must be done and it should be done now off the back of the popularity of this World Cup.


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#12
BLewis1968

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The issues are far too complex to go into in depth in a one paragraph post. Suffice to say I think a number of MLS fans have an expectation that is not in line with the financial reality. This league isn't even a billion dollar industry. For comparison the NHL is about $4 billion, the NBA about $9 billion. It simply is not capable of outbidding teams in say France or Holland for players, and frankly they're too smart to try. And that won't change until more people watch.

#13
BLewis1968

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Exactly what I was saying Iced

#14
GMoney

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The issues are far too complex to go into in depth in a one paragraph post. Suffice to say I think a number of MLS fans have an expectation that is not in line with the financial reality. 

 

 

Thank you for summing it up nicely.  It's not complicated when you look at the simple facts.


The New York Red Bulls previously kicked around Major League Soccer as the MetroStars with limited success. But after transforming under a new banner in 2005, the Red Bulls have become a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference. The club has made leaps of progress since its previous incarnation and now has its focus on bringing the league title to New York. Grab your New York Red Bulls soccer jersey and other gear here at MLSGear.com.


#15
adam22

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The issues are far too complex to go into in depth in a one paragraph post. Suffice to say I think a number of MLS fans have an expectation that is not in line with the financial reality. This league isn't even a billion dollar industry. For comparison the NHL is about $4 billion, the NBA about $9 billion. It simply is not capable of outbidding teams in say France or Holland for players, and frankly they're too smart to try. And that won't change until more people watch.

But, more people won't watch until the players (and level of play) is better.

 

If I'm an owner (or the league, which is the owners collectively), I can either:

 

-Keep getting marginal dividends and a slow but steady growth

-Take a financial risk by bringing in better personnel and hope the league explodes in popularity, thus hitting the jackpot

 

There's got to be a middle ground. Spend a little more to raise the floor (the talent level of the league's least talented player) would increase the continuity and fluidity of the game in a significant way. Bringing in stars is nice, but as we've seen does not sell tickets, and when your $5+ million dollar man passes it to some guy making 30k, you're bound to get a lot of frustrating moments.

 

This is totally hypothetical, not entirely logical, and certainly not exactly possible, but say you could raise the skill level of our bottom 5 guys by 20%. I honestly think that would make as big an impact on the overall flow of the game as a quality DP would.

 

We can be a selling league, but we can also get better in the process.






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