Comments on: Kenny Cooper Sr: Speaking the Truth

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:55:02 +0000

J-League used a Brazilian model. Garber is arrogant enough to think he has all the answers and even using USL as a substructure is beneath him. Player development sucks in MLS. The only Americans that truly develop to their potential either do so in college or the PDL or simply get out of the league in time.

As far as the 10% fee, MLS thrives on a complicit soccer press whose sold a bill of goods that if they attack MLS, soccer will fail and agents who mislead their clients essentially committing malpractice. Good for Guzan and Cooper– they must have good agents and smart parents.

By: WonsanUnited

WonsanUnited — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:45:16 +0000

MLS really needs to look at the J-League as a model for their own success. J-League clubs can only have 5 foreign players, with at least one of them having to be from the AFC. The J-League has developed so much great talent over the past decade or so. Younger players don’t skip going to the J-League to play in Europe like they do here because they can make a decent wage (also cultural differences). Average attendance is close to 20,000 in Japan and they don’t even have any big name foreign stars.

By: ERT 145

ERT 145 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:57:50 +0000

MLS is a total joke. It went from having so much potential to help American soccer to a league that looks down on American players and is more concerned about creating a perception about its superiority rather than actually helping grow the game.

It’s teams and players are exploited to make money in meaningless friendlies and the rules resemble the NFL more than any soccer league abroad. MLS has better players but I personally prefer the different tiers of USL, starting with Super Y on up for local entertainment while I watch European football on TV for big time entertainment.

I hope MLS enjoys those .1 and .2 ratings. That’s what a big league is about, isn’t it?

By: Jack(Vegas)

Jack(Vegas) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:33:52 +0000

This post only seems to confirm that MLS is primarily concerned with short term profits and it will be interesting when all of the unintended consequences actually hurt the league more than the intended consequences help. It will be interesting to see how the next CBA negotiations go because that will decide if MLS takes a step backward and forward.

By: Kartik Krishnaiyer

Kartik Krishnaiyer — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:32:04 +0000

Bill– Good question. I think alot of money stays in SUM from the Mexican and Barca friendlies and also Interliga. Remember, nobody actually owns a team but 1/15th of the league and they get a piece of that. As far as Dallas, they are actually the most profitable team other than LA, believe it or not. They’ve kept their costs down and they rent out PHP for HS Football all the time making tons of money off what is the biggest sport in Texas.

By: gmonsoon43

gmonsoon43 — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:46:36 +0000

Could players take legal action against the league for its transfer policy? It just seems that if it is a FIFA mandate that a player gets 10% and the league holds players ransom(saying you can’t transfer unless you give back your 10%) it seems they would have a case. Just a question for those with more legal knowledge than myself.

Also, Cooper’s transfer makes the MLS look really bad. First it made very public knowledge of the 10% issue. The second part that made the MLS look bad is how the news came out about how Cooper had to ask ManU to be let go for free because the MLS refused to pay a transfer fee for him.

By: Adam Edg

Adam Edg — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:45:39 +0000

I am also curious about the friendlies against international clubs. These seem like giant money makers. Surely the participating teams get some of that, right? Then again, this is MLS where the league managment feels they are entitled to every dime. I understand that the league wants to keep itself viable, but they will never truly succeed if clubs and owners are hampered by such a communist approach. Why should Seattle, Houston, and LA be held back by Columbus, Salt Lake, etc? I mean, I am all for keeping teams competitive, but this is the one sport that we really face international competition (I guess hockey too to some extent with KHL). Shouldn’t the league be letting the big clubs with drawing power keep more of their outside money so that they can compete more effectively on the international stage?
Guess that is why the NPSL used to use “A league run by teams instead of teams run by a league” as its tagline…

By: bill

bill — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:34:14 +0000

Katrik,

I totally agree with you on this one but i have one question. It’s obvious to me that we can’t raise the cap for one reason; cashflow. I want the league to pay these guys what they are worth as badly as you do but how? MLS is still a todler crapping it’s pants in the sandbox compared to most leagues in this world. Unfortunately the league is still in the crawling stage and just can’t operate with increased wage expenses. How do you pay a guy even 200k at Dallas when your franchise is drawing less than 10k people to each game? These stadiums are great and are critical to the league’s growth but the notes associated with them are undoubtedly the first priority of the league and teams’ front offices. Only when the stadiums are close to full consistantly will we see an overhaul in player compensation. It jut boils down to simple dollars and cents. Now, if you could find out how much the league pockets from these friendlies with super clubs and also the return in the world football challenge that would be interesting. To me, that is where the league will make up for lack of attendance while also promoting the game at the same time.

By: quakesin2knever

quakesin2knever — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:55:53 +0000

“Hopefully by then they pay Americans what they’re truly worth.”

They are paid what they are worth right now. They are being paid what the market demand is. Last I checked, games where Blanco or Beckham were playing sold way more tickets and had way better ratings than games Kenny Cooper was playing in.

“While this may be a recipe for financial survival”

I think you just answered your whole post right there with that last comment. This is all about financial survival. American players will get paid more when the league starts making more money.

For the most part our players are a stoic bunch. Maybe we need a couple of Terrell Owens type players to spice things up. Like this whole David Beckham stuff is getting MLS in the news a lot. No such thing as bad publicity.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:15:16 +0000

Well I think the owners and commissioner of MLS know what they are doing. It is in their best interest to make the league successful and I believe they know better how to do this than any players or media folks do.