Wednesday, September 12, 2007

DP thoughts

New Chivas USA President and CEO Shawn Hunter was involved in helping push the Designated Player rule forward and was a key member of AEG when David Beckham agreed to join the L.A. Galaxy.

I asked Hunter on Tuesday about his thoughts on obtaining a designated player slot at some point after the end of this season.

"Antonio may have a different view but my personal feeling is, this club is in a perfect spot. This club does not have to have a designated player. It can acquire a designated player only if it will make the team better. All of the metrics have to be there: it has to make the on-field team better; it has to be good for the brand and obviously it has to be good for all the other pieces - ticket sales, sponsorship. Because this team has done a good job of building a nucleus of very young talent, this team is probably I think in a better position to sit back and make a very judicious move than any other team in the league."

Antonio Cue followed with a somewhat supportive response.

"I agree with most of what you said but we will be looking at options and opportunities in the future, that's for sure."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

We'll get a superstar when we average 25k a season for at least one season.

Anonymous said...

Ummm, don't they have to acquire a DP spot first? They traded theirs away, or don't they remember that?

Anonymous said...

save the money and give the players a raise...it's pathetic what they earn as "professionals!"

James said...

L.B.,

Using my knowledge as a hockey fan, this is what I can.

Here is the basis for what will be my answer.

When El Cazador was with the Colorado Avalanche, the team had just relocated from Quebec. Like Chivas, the team's core was moslty young players (including Joe Sakic and Petr Forsberg), no players that were consider superstars yet. The Avalanche acquired future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Patrick Roy. Roy brought instant illegitimacy to Colorado and the Avalanche became a perennial playoff team. Within three year, if I am not mistaken, the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.

In Phoenix he had a team that had just relocated from Winnipeg, the Jets. It was a similar, but without potential the superstars that Colorado had. Midway through their first season they acquired Jeremy Roenick, a terrific player. Roenick brough instant credit to the Coyotes and the Coyotes a player it could sell the team around.

So...

I think that El Cazador knows the value of getting a big name player. I don't know if Chivas will be able to do so for next year, but at some point before the start of the 2009 season Chivas will have a big name player. This is purely a speculative guess, of course.

My guess, they'll sign Giovani dos Santos. Just kidding.

L.B. said...

Great analogy to Hunter's previous stops.

Patrick Roy was a huge addition. I don't think the Avalanche would have been successful without him in goal.

Phoenix also went from decent to good but they had too other big teams to contend with (Detroit, Colorado) and never reached the next level.

I'm torn, though. I get the sense Antonio Cue wants to get a DP slot and bring in a big name player but Hunter obviously doesn't want to commit to that right now.