I am so tired of “understanding” Major League Soccer.
All the blessed ins and outs of the league’s financial life-support system. Allocation money, discovery claims, low salary cap and young players who make less money than I do. (And, lately, I don’t.)
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Yes, it’s all done a lovely job of keeping Our Little League alive in the bad-old economy. No, players have no guarantees in their contracts, any paycheque can be their last, and if they do get cut mid-season, no other team will sign them.
“It’s the only way it can be,” thunder the league’s defender-protectors, who can’t wait for a season when all sixteen clubs finish within a game of .500. How exciting will that be?
If that’s what you want, BigSoccer, why not save a ton of travel money, put sixteen logos in a bingo bin and draw your champion at random? Then the fans can all spend their ticket and travel money on booze and gummy bears, and no one will have to pay the players a thin, blessed dime!
I know, I know. Be happy that we have a league at all. I am. But I wanted so much more from the current CBA negotiations. I actually like the idea of salary caps in soccer. Just not with such stiflingly low ceilings.
Economy, economy, right, right, the economy.
My highest wish for MLS players, as the contract talks crest the cliff, is that they not sign a new deal. Leave the status quo and see what happens in another year. If you don’t feel better about things then, defer it again a year from now. Do anything possible not to sign a multi-year straitjacket until things brighten up economically.
I know, again … what difference does it make? A stunt like that is going to take so many years, might as well sign the three-year deal and at least have labour peace. Except you won’t, really, and I hate to see current framework “endorsed” for another three seasons.
If this league can’t offer up any way at all to increase the spread between the best and worst teams – a little, not a lot! – they might as well sign a huge advertising deal with an artificial sweetener company, and sew packets of Splenda on to everybody’s shirts.
I want a real soccer league, not one that just cleverly survives at the cost of real competition. The only way to guarantee that every game in October will be meaningful is to rig the whole deal so that nothing means anything.
Best hope now is that MLS annoys enough of its own teams past the point of endurance, and some of the ownership groups start assessing their options.
The Vancouver Whitecaps were made some promises about youth development and the signing of academy players. Doesn’t sound now like they’re going to get anything near what they wanted. Given how important that issue is to them – and to the future of Canadian soccer in general – it’s no wonder there are folks in their front office regretting the decision to move up to the “show.”
I know this column is way too premature. It’s born of frustration, and that’s rarely enough to overcome a snarling wall of facts. I just refuse to accept that the MLS model is the best that American/Canadian pro soccer can ever achieve. MLS is getting way too comfortable, and their slightly gilded little cage needs a good rattle.
For now, I hope the players don’t sign anything.
(And I’m off to see how many times the word “hippie” shows up on the BigSoccer message boards.)
Onward!