MLS salaries came out last week and once again reminded us of how low-paying this league can be. Brad Guzan, for instance, makes just over $100,000 but would have made quite a bit more had he been able to go to Aston Villa.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber recently told us that higher salaries is the only way to compete with foreign leagues in terms of keeping players home.
"It's always a challenge for us to keep our American players. The only way that's going to happen is if we can raise our revenues and can afford to pay our players what they are getting overseas -- not necessarily what they are worth but what the market is overseas."
I took a look at the salaries and had more from Garber in my weekly PE column.
2 comments:
Expect wages and the salary cap to be increased considerably pretty soon. It was brought up in a recent meeting but shot down for one reason:
The collective agreement with the MLS Players Union is due to expire soon and will require negotiations.
It's widely believed [and rightfully so] that the Union will ask for a significant raise. The owners didn't want to put themselves in a position where they raised the cap considerably and then a year later the Player's Union asked for another substantial raise.
Luis, Nice article. I have a couple of questions about what Garber meant. When he says "one way to entice players to stay stateside is to boost the level of play"... "and hopefully creating a league they'll want to continue to play in." ...I don't get it. These guys are professionals, they are not amateurs looking for a good game. How is having a good competitive games/league going to entice someone to play. From your list of Galindo, Emilio & Toja only Emilio stands out as having made a choice for the MLS. Galindo was given the opportunity for a WetFoot/Dryfoot change and my guess is Toja fully understood he could market himself better to Europe from the U.S. than from Colombia. . ..I'd agree with Garber that the early years probably sucked up a lot of cash, and I still wonder whether there is a market for high priced talent, but certainly Beckham proved that fans can be found if marketed correctly, despite the skill on the field.
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