If I were... I'd...

[youllneverwalkalone]

If I were... Jason DeVos or Paul Peschisolido, I'd... organize a Canadian Professional Footballers Union. There are roughly 50 truly professional Canadian footballers who could afford $5,000ish, before tax, in annual dues to hire an advocate. Who? Not sure, a John Catliff type maybe. Perhaps Pesch himself.

An advocate is needed because being an International Footballer can be very good for your wallet, if not your heart.

The advocate would sit on a board with Kerfoot, Saputo, MLSE, one representative from the CSA, and one or two independent members like, say, Dave King.

Kerfoot, Saputo, and MLSE would sit on the board because International Footballers are also worth more money to them, and as more Canadians play in MLS, they will want more control over the release of players on FIFA dates.

The representative from the CSA would be there because the CSA would surrender all risks and rewards for the marketing and scheduling of the men's national team to the board. In return, the CSA would receive a nominal percentage of any proceeds from the qualification/invite to a major tournament in recognition of the Associations efforts to grow the game at the grassroots level.

The independent members would be there because you need them. Badly.

Additional responsibilities of the board would then include:

-raising sponsorship for the MNT, including public resources such as grants or having the CBC broadcast as many fixtures as possible

-scheduling fixtures on all FIFA dates, with recognized FIFA opposition, home or away with no exceptions

-hiring a competent manager, assistant manager, coach, scout, physio and medical staff

-ensuring good relations between all players, their respective clubs, and the national team

-arranging first class travel accommodation to all matches for all participants

[youllneverwalkalone]

If I were an accoutant, I'd run some numbers:

(No Reality of my Surroundings LP fans in the house I see. Not even Red Hat???)

From the 2006 CSA Financials, with rounding and adjustments noted below:

Revenue

Sponsorship 1,500,000 <1>

Sports Canada grants 1,400,000 <2>

National team gate 750,000 <3>

Merchandise 350,000 <4>

FIFA Grants 300,000 <2>

4,300,000

<1> Sponsorship, likely due to 2007 WYC, spiked to 2.75 million -assume at return to 2005 levels

<2> Assumed these would still be available to the MNT

<3> Though in 2006, likely attributable to U20 friendlies, increase consistent w/ having two new venues (BMO/Saputo)

<4> I've never seen any merch, but we'll take them at their word

Estimates by yours truly

Expenses

Experienced Manager 500,000

Assistant Manager 200,000

Coach 100,000

GK Coach 100,000

Doctor 100,000

Club Liason 100,000

Marketing Director 100,000

Physio 100,000

Gofer 50,000

Travel & Accomodation 1,620,000 <1>

2,970,000

<1> 18 man squad, 12 dates per year, $7,500 per head

Excess of revenue over expenditure = $1,330,000

[youllneverwalkalone]

Sorry that's hard to read. And an oversimplification as there is no overhead and some grants maybe hard to obtain just for the MNT. Not too mention I've abandoned the youth teams and the women.

On the other hand, $750k in gates? How lame is that. The last CSA ticket I bought was at least $30? 6 home dates per year, 10,000 people, $30 per head, you have $1.8m right there. Or you could sell the places out with a top opponent.

What I didn't get to do at lunch is show that youth soccer fees of $5,354,334 could either go back to the kiddies or could be used by a competent organization to further the game in Canada.

I should also factor in some of the excess $1.3 million as part of the visiting team's fees as it didn't occur to me that we'd need to fly our guys home from Europe as well.

[VPjr]

You don't get much of a coach for $100K. I would think DM even gets more than that. John Carver probably gets more from TFC.

Simoes et al wanted $1 million + and we didn't think highly of him in general

Trappatoni just got $4 million per from IRELAND......

Lets not even discuss what Capello is getting.

To get a decent Head Coach, you must allocate $500-$1million per year. That's why the Sponsorship figure MUST go up. $1.5million is laughably low. That is a really telling number in my opinion. It tells you what corporate Canada thinks of the CSA and the program it runs. When you offer no value to sponsors, you get nothing in return.

[youllneverwalkalone]

quote:Originally posted by VPjr

You don't get much of a coach for $100K. I would think DM even gets more than that. John Carver probably gets more from TFC.

Simoes et al wanted $1 million + and we didn't think highly of him in general

Trappatoni just got $4 million per from IRELAND......

Lets not even discuss what Capello is getting.

To get a decent Head Coach, you must allocate $500-$1million per year. That's why the Sponsorship figure MUST go up. $1.5million is laughably low. That is a really telling number in my opinion. It tells you what corporate Canada thinks of the CSA and the program it runs. When you offer no value to sponsors, you get nothing in return.

I allocated 500k. I was thinking Dasovic would get about $100k for his trouble. I would call Dale Mitchell's current position: manager. My understanding was that Simoes wanted 1m split between himself and his team. I tried to do this roughly.

But, I fully agree more sponsorship revenue is required/should be expected. Maybe Dale isn't the greatest manager, but I'd have no problem with him or Hart as assistant if we were filling all the FIFA dates as prep.

[VPjr]

oops...I misread...sorry my man

Simoes' package was supposedly a bit more than $1 million but I have no idea how that would have been split amongst his troupe of coaches.

We definitely need more games for prep but if DM is not using those dates properly and playing a style that doesn't properly suit the players he has, then more prep might actually be counterproductive. However, in general more prep is better than less.

In retrospect, I sort of wish they kept Hart on as coach. He at least had the good sense to let the players call most of the shots as head coach and they basically dictated tactics themselves at the GC, or so I've been told. He apparently chose to work with the guys to play a style that they were most comfortable with. It worked pretty well too.