MLS boss Garber talks about Houston stadium, international players/competition and profit

MLS Commissioner Don Garber had a few things to say about just about everything in the league when he talked with the Houston Chronicle. Overall, he likes where the league is at and the direction it is heading. As far as specifics, there were not a lot, but what few there are, are very interesting.

Since the interviewer is from Houston, the Dynamo topped the conversation list with their long sought stadium deal being the major issue. All though he didn't have any new news to spread, Garber was encouraged by the city's decision to purchase land for a stadium. He did point out that the recently finished Philadelphia deal took three-years, however said they will not wait 6-7 years for a stadium in Houston.

He also said that Houston will not see a MLS Cup or All-Star Game without a stadium saying, "...we have so many stadiums coming online in so many cities, my commitment to those cities and those owners who have made great commitments to build those stadiums is to bring them our premier events." I guess DC will not be seeing another MLS Cup for a little while.

As far as a possible sale of the team slowing down stadium talks, Garber doesn't think it is true. In addition, he would like to see an ownership group made up of locals takeover the team, but it is not a necessity since a number of other teams are owned by folks not from their market.

On the non-Houston related front, Garber thinks that at some point MLS will need to reevaluate all the international competitions that currently crowd the schedule, but in the mean time these games are needed to bring in more of the 'Hispanic or Latino community.' However, one tournament the league likes but appears unwilling to jump into is the Copa Libertadores. "It would be great to compete in Libertadores. Right now our focus is to win (CONCACAF's) Champions League and make it to the FIFA Club World Cup." This seems to be the club level argument of the Gold Cup/Copa America discussion from last summer.

All this is interesting, but the biggest two pieces of information, for me at least, have to do with Garber's take on developing American players and profitability.

When asked about all the foreign players coming to MLS and how this may hurt the league's goal of growing homegrown talent, the commish said, "We can't sign a player who might not want to play in MLS or is not worth what he thinks he's worth to play here versus going to the second division in Norway, for example. We have to make business decisions that are right for our product, right for our television partners, right for our sponsors and right for our fans."

The first part is obvious, if an American doesn't want to play in MLS then he is not going to play here. The second part seems a bit, um, condescending. Seeing how a large number of players that have signed overseas in recent years are players make less then $100,000 a year in MLS, it is hard to argue that they are not worth more. A good argument can be made that MLS is a more competitive league then Norway or other second/third tier European leagues, but when it comes to money, MLS is still behind. Instead of admitting this and saying that it is something the league needs to work on in the future, Garber attacks the players. Not the classiest way to go.

But let's end on a good note. He takes down the 'money-losing business' argument so many soccer detractors use against the league perfectly by pointing out that they are still in an investment mode and pointing out how many people are looking at buying into the league. If MLS were failing, why would people put money into it. To make it a little simpler to understand, you've got to spend money to make money and we are still spending money.

Pope in as a director of Players Union

Former US international Eddie Pope has been hired as the MLS Players' Union Director of Player Relations. This is a very important position, as the Union gets ready to renegotiate their contract with MLS at the end of the 2009 season.

Bringing in Pope is a smart move as he is one of the most respected players in US history as well as a very intelligent person.

Ricardo Clark's season is over

MLS's Commissioner Don Garber gave Houston's Ricardo Clark the rest of the season off for his kick to FC Dallas's Carlos Ruiz this past Sunday. Clark will also get some time off at the start of next season, as his total suspension is 9 games. The Dynamo have three remaining matches and, at most, four playoff games, which means Clark will not take the pitch again till the third game of 2008 at the earliest. In addition to the nine games, Clark was fined $10,000 plus he cannot take place in any exhibition games for his MLS team where admission is charged. However, he can take part in international matches such as the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Garber said of this decision, "In taking this action, Major League Soccer is sending a signal that it will not accept reckless and dangerous behavior on its fields. If there is a repeat of this kind of behavior by any MLS player, even firmer sanctions can be expected in the future."

Clark will appeal the decision through the player's union.

Interestingly enough, Carlos Ruiz, who looked like he might have knee Clark in the back right before he got Clark's boot, will only serve the two game suspension he was already going to serve (one for the red card he got on the play and one for yellow card accumulation).

The lack of Clark in the lineup is going to be a big blow for the Dynamo as he has done a large share of their heavy lifting through out the season. His skill at developing plays is not an easy one to replace, especially with Houston still getting over their injury issues.

As far as the fine itself, I can't say that it is insane as Clark really went wild with the kick. The one thing that does seem a bit much is the $10,000 fine as that is a little over 5% of his total gross salary for the year. It would be different if Clark had a history of this sort of thing, but the way it stands now, it does seem a little heavy handed.

So, if Houston and FCD end up facing off in the first round of the playoffs (a very likely event), do you think this event will be in many of the players’ heads? Also, could this have an impact on Clark's call-ups to the US MNT?

Beckham salary backlash

From the moment David Beckham signed his $250 million deal it was obvious there would be some sort of backlash by the other 300 some players in the league. Sure enough, it is here.

The MLS Players Union is objecting to the league only paying $12,900 a year to 57 developmental players and $17,700 a year to another 36 developmental players. It goes without saying that this is not a lot of money, but Ivan Gazidis, the league's deputy commissioner, says the union should not complain as they agreed to those wages.

Gazidis goes on to point at that, "The kinds of salaries that are being paid compare favorably with those in professional baseball's minor leagues."

As the LA Times points out, this is true:

The $12,900 figure breaks down to $1,075 per month, which is more than the $900 a month earned by Class-A baseball players, Gazidis said, while the $17,700 figure equates to $1,475 a month, close to the $1,625 earned by double-A players.

The problem with this argument is these players are not playing in the lower USL division, instead they are part of the top pro league. Yes, they might not be getting pitch time, but they are still part of the full roster and can, if needed, be called into first team action.

In addition, these numbers hurt the league as they are the ones that detractors always point to when talking about soccer (how many times have I read something that has the line 'in a league were a number of players earn less then $13,000 a year.').

I do understand where MLS is coming from in that there are more things to spend money on then there is money to spend, but player wages are not the place to cut costs. Bumping all these salaries up to at least $20,000 a year would not cost much (about $550,000 a season) and would reflect well on the league. It still is not much, but at least it would be twice the income described as poverty in the US.

"Who makes the most in MLS?" Brought to you by Becks millions.

Major League Soccer's Players Union has released this year's salaries. It should come a no surprise that the team with the largest payroll is LA thanks to David Beckham, who is the top earner in the league.

Anyway, here are the team numbers:

Team	Base Salary	Guaranteed Compensation
1. Los Angeles Galaxy	$8,056,188.83	$9,179,948.56
2. New York Red Bulls	$4,334,615.50	$4,896,656.83
3. Chicago Fire	$4,185,825.50	$4,464,612.50
4. Kansas City Wizards	$2,429,925.00	$2,625,050.00
5. Real Salt Lake	$2,168,437.25	$2,602,531.00
6. Toronto FC	$2,174,290.00	$2,497,378.50
7. Colorado Rapids	$2,322,113.75	$2,431,763.75
8. FC Dallas	$1,992,803.75	$2,385,628.75
9. DC United	$2,171,178.00	$2,328,503.00
10. Houston Dynamo	$2,184,349.00	$2,260,349.00
11. New England Revolution	$1,992,948.00	$2,087,948.00
12. Columbus Crew	$1,807,199.19	$2,064,349.19
13. Chivas USA	$1,757,875.08	$1,893,125.08
Totals	$35,584,945	$44,717,850

Chivas USA has a very small payroll, but it is actually less then what is reflected in the chart now that $291,250 Amado Guevara has left the club.

Here are the top ten paid players in MLS:

Player	Team	Guaranteed Compensation
1. David Beckham	LA	$6,500,000
2. Cuauhtemoc Blanco	Chicago	$2,666,778
3. Juan Pablo Blanco	NY	$1,593,750
4. Claudio Reyna	NY	$1,250,008
5. Landon Donovan	LA	$900,000
6. Eddie Johnson	KC	$875,000
7. Freddy Adu	RSL	$550,000
8. Carlos Ruiz	FCD	$435,000
9. Clint Mathis	NY	$410,000
10. Taylor Twellman	NE	$350,008

Again, no shock that Beckham is making the most. Actually, Becks will make more this season then the total salaries for Chivas USA, the Columbus Crew and the New England Revolution combined.

Now lets look at pay by position.

Forward

Player	Team	Guaranteed Compensation
1. Cuauhtemoc Blanco	Chicago	$2,666,778
2. Juan Pablo Blanco	NY	$1,593,750
3. Landon Donovan	LA	$900,000
4. Eddie Johnson	KC	$875,000
5. Carlos Ruiz	FCD	$435,000

Midfielder

Player	Team	Guaranteed Compensation
1. David Beckham	LA	$6,500,000
2. Claudio Reyna	NY	$1,250,008
3. Freddy Adu	RSL	$550,000
4. Clint Mathis	NY	$410,000
5. Ronnie O'Brien	TFC	$258,750

Amado Guevara of Chivas was in fifth till he left the league.

Defender

Player	Team	Guaranteed Compensation
1. Pablo Mastroeni	CR	$298,000
2. Eddie Pope	RSL	$265,000
3. Greg Vanney	CR	$236,667
4. Jimmy Conrad	KC	$206,000
5. Ivan Guerrero	CF	$187,500

Goaltender

Player	Team	Guaranteed Compensation
1. Shaka Hislop	FCD	$220,800
2. Ronald Waterreus	NY	$200,000
3. Joe Cannon	LA	$192,000
4. Pat Onstad	HD	$168,000
5. Matt Reis	NE	$150,000

I guess if you want to get rich in MLS, being a goalie is not the way to do it. Interesting that Hislop is FCD's backup keeper. Their started Dario Sala earns almost half of what Hislop does at $119,875.

If you want the numbers for all the players, take a look here.

MLS's economic health

With the first kick just a bit more then 24-hours away, the LA Times takes a look at the league's finances.

On the economic front, there is not much new here for those who fit into the category of 'MLS nuts.' They rehash the leagues slow growth campaign, the influx of new owners, the TV contracts and the success of building soccer specific stadiums.

All it is great to read such news, I found the comments of Bob Foose, the executive director of the MLS Players Union, much more interesting:

"From when we started negotiating four years ago, it's a very different landscape," Foose said. "There clearly is a lot more revenue coming in … [but] they're still much, much too secretive with us on those numbers … so it's hard for us to get an exact picture of where things are."

This comment is not really much of a surprise since MLS management is a secret society on par with Skull & Bones and the Freemasons. But it is interesting how it builds to comments about the 2010 union agreement renewal, specifically in terms of the much-celebrated single entity system.

The MLS Players Union, however, views single entity not as much as a fiscal option but rather as an almost insidious device.

"Thus far the league has exercised and gotten used to exercising complete control over everything," Fosse said. "That's a big problem for the players and something that is going to have to change in the next deal" in 2010 when the union agreement comes up for renewal.

Fosse is speaking to the future of the league. The single entity system was needed to get this thing off the ground and keep it floating, but the days of needing this extra support are coming to an end. It might still be another 10-years away, but it will happen.

With the cost of buying into the league increasing, new owners will want more control. At some point the possible money they can make on their own will out weigh the benefits of staying joined at the hip and the system will dissolve. But between now and then, the league needs to step up and treat their players right.