There's been an interesting convergence of stories on the MLS front this past couple of days. Losses in the CONCACAF Champions Cup here, player-transfer controversies there.
There was always going to come a day when the unique way this league does business was going to have to be rethought. That day is coming sooner than commissioner Don Garber ever expected.
Various news items:
- The New England Revolution drop their first-leg CONCACAF qualifier, losing 2-1 away to Joe Public of Trinidad.
- Chivas USA get dumped in their CONCACAF opener, 2-0 at Tauro FC of Panama.
- USL-1 sides do better. Montreal dusts Real Esteli of Nicaragua 1-0 at the House of Cheese, while Puerto Rico Islanders gut out a 1-1 draw with Costa Rican contenders LD Alajeulense.
- Toronto FC is only allowed to spend $500,000 on players from the $3-million-plus they bagged on Maurice Edu's transfer to Glasgow Rangers.
- MLS blocks New York Energy Drink from paying $200,000 for Atlanta Silverbacks' youthful Senegalese striker Macoumba Kandji.
This last story, though seemingly small and straw-like, may leave Garber's camel with a badly broken back. Huddle up folks, it's time to have a little chat.
Major League Soccer is a single-owner entity. The league owns all the teams – and all player contracts. It enforces tight spending restrictions, both in the form of a salary cap and veto power over player acquisitions. This is not unique, by the way. The National Lacrosse League started this way, but threw it out a decade ago.
The basic theory is simple – protect the league economically. MLS, in its present form, cannot turn into the Wild West money-spending wingless, rudderless jumbo jet the old NASL became, just before it pancaked itself to death back in the '80s.
With almost all teams either playing in or planning small, soccer-specific stadiums, the league is cementing itself into a modest economic future, counting on its financial checks and balances to keep spending under tight control.
Ah, but there comes a day when little MLS must leave the protective feathering of Garber's loving nest, and compete – on its own – against a ravenous global soccer world of rich, remorseless predators. That day, I humbly submit, is now.
The product on the field is stagnating, and the rest of the world is circling the smell.
In the case of Toronto FC: GM Mo Johnston is accumulating young talent at a prodigious rate. TFC's roster is bursting with talented under-23s ready to bloom into valuable soccer properties. He's doing this, knowing full well most will be gone to bigger clubs before they reach their full potential. As it is, he's got lots of trade leverage – plenty of players other teams are interested in.
Except: Maurice Edu departs to Rangers for $5.75-million. But the league owns the contract, so they get the money. Two-thirds is ear-marked for the team, but – as mentioned above – only half a mil can be spent on talent. Okay, the rest might turn into a grass field at BMO – but what happens if speedy young gadget-back Marvell Wynne follows Edu out the bank vault door? That's gotta be another couple of million – but how many grass fields can one team build?
Sooner or later, Mo Johnston is going to make Toronto FC filthy, filthy rich. But the thing they most desperately need – prime, established on-field talent – is the one thing they won't be allowed to buy.
Now, the New York/Atlanta thing. Small club Atlanta owns potentially big talent Kandji, and NY needs him bad – especially after losing U.S. international Jozy Altidore in a $10-million sell-off earlier in the season. Atlanta wants $200,000 – and people, that is a modest, modest request on the global scale.
