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Hey MLS and soccer fans in general, just for my personal curiosity, what are salaries of average players in the MLS vs. some of the elite leagues in Europe??
I'm sure I could look it up given some time but thought it possible some of you guys might know more less ballpark numbers right off the top of your head.
Hey MLS and soccer fans in general, just for my personal curiosity, what are salaries of average players in the MLS vs. some of the elite leagues in Europe??
I'm sure I could look it up given some time but thought it possible some of you guys might know more less ballpark numbers right off the top of your head.
The roster size for an MLS team is 20 players and the salary cap I believe is 2.1 million.
You have developmental players making as low as 12,900 and you have others make 400K-500K
They also have the designated player rule that allows each team to sign up to one player that will not count against the cap which is where players like Beckham, Blanco, Ljundberg fall in.
The CBA is up in 2010 and we will likely see an increase in the cap and salaries.
I think the New York Red Bulls should keep their name, but relocated to Brooklyn or Queens.
Instead of the NY Cosmos, how about the New Jersey Cosmos and have them play in Newark.
why would the red bulls relocate to the nyc boroughs? the team is currently building a new stadium in harrison, nj, which is a suburban town that's situated directly across the river from downtown newark and about eight miles west of downtown manhattan.
the stadium site is also located across the street from a PATH station. the PATH is a heavy rail subway system that connects several northern nj communities with downtown and midtown manhattan. this means that you can hop on a train in nyc's financial district and arrive at the stadium in about 20 minutes. fans from more remote suburban areas can take nj transit's regional commuter trains to penn station in newark and then switch to the PATH to get to harrison (a 1 minute ride).
and there are several major highways that pass through or are in close proximity to harrison, including an interstate highway several blocks to the north of the stadium.
seriously, you can't beat that location. not only does it meet the criteria of being very close to newark (where you'd suggested placing a team) and manhattan and having excellent mass transit and highway access, but it is also located in the west hudson region of northern nj, which is one of the country's top soccer hubs.
west hudson and the adjacent ironbound section of newark boast a major community of soccer-loving immigrants from portugal and various south american countries, most notably brazil. and the soccer roots in this area run deep, going back to the days when the area was primarily scottish and irish.
some of the notable soccer products to come out of the area include tony meola, tab ramos, john harkes, and going way back, shamus o'brien. also, claudio reyna, who grew up in nearby springfield, went to the same newark high school as ramos, albeit a few years later.
check out this article on the history and importance of this area as a major hotbed for american soccer:
why would the red bulls relocate to the nyc boroughs? the team is currently building a new stadium in harrison, nj, which is a suburban town that's situated directly across the river from downtown newark and about eight miles west of downtown manhattan.
the stadium site is also located across the street from a PATH station. the PATH is a heavy rail subway system that connects several northern nj communities with downtown and midtown manhattan. this means that you can hop on a train in nyc's financial district and arrive at the stadium in about 20 minutes. fans from more remote suburban areas can take nj transit's regional commuter trains to penn station in newark and then switch to the PATH to get to harrison (a 1 minute ride).
and there are several major highways that pass through or are in close proximity to harrison, including an interstate highway several blocks to the north of the stadium.
seriously, you can't beat that location. not only does it meet the criteria of being very close to newark (where you'd suggested placing a team) and manhattan and having excellent mass transit and highway access, but it is also located in the west hudson region of northern nj, which is one of the country's top soccer hubs.
west hudson and the adjacent ironbound section of newark boast a major community of soccer-loving immigrants from portugal and various south american countries, most notably brazil. and the soccer roots in this area run deep, going back to the days when the area was primarily scottish and irish.
some of the notable soccer products to come out of the area include tony meola, tab ramos, john harkes, and going way back, shamus o'brien. also, claudio reyna, who grew up in nearby springfield, went to the same newark high school as ramos, albeit a few years later.
check out this article on the history and importance of this area as a major hotbed for american soccer:
Here is an idea. A soccer franchise for NYC only and a soccer franchise for New Jersey.
Instead of the NY Cosmos, how about the New Jersey Cosmos and have them play in Newark.
the owner of the mets, fred wilpon, has expressed interest in obtaining an expansion mls team and placing it in queens, right next to citi field. but considering that he just lost upwards of $300 million in the bernie madoff scandal, i'm not sure if that's going to happen anytime soon.
plus, do you know how difficult it is to build new stadiums in nyc proper? the only reason the mets and yanks were able to do so is because neither team had to pay for the land or go through the byzantine process that most companies do in trying to acquire city property. not to mention former mayor rudy giuliani, a huge baseball fan, made it a priority toward the end of his administration. i doubt soccer would get the same kind of preferential treatment from the mayor or anyone on the city council.
just look at the difficulty the jets and nets had in building new facilities. the jets got shot down due to competing political interests and the complexity and enormous scope of the plan (building a platform on top of a rail yard in midtown manhattan), and the nets might get derailed for the same reasons, not to mention the lousy economy. basically, it is exceedingly difficult to get anything done in nyc due to the political climate in the city and the extremely high cost of doing business - there are very few large parcels of land near mass transit and highways that are available for development, not to mention land values in the city are exorbitantly high. then you have to factor in the local trade unions, which are among the nation's strongest and inevitably drive up the cost of building anything in the city/region.
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Shouldn't the state of NJ have its own soccer team and NYC have its own instead of the 2 sharing one?
while i wouldn't mind seeing a second team in the nyc area, why does it have to be in nyc proper? the red bulls already represent the entire nyc metropolitan area, not just northern new jersey.
the primary difference between nyc and northern nj is a city vs. suburban one, rather than state vs. state. but like a lot of people from outside the region, you seem to believe that it's the latter.
did you know that half of nyc's suburban population lives in northern and central nj? it makes sense, since north jersey is literally across the river from manhattan. jersey contains as much of the region's suburban population as ny state, connecticut, and that tiny sliver of northeast pennsylvania combined. plus, the closest suburbs to midtown and downtown manhattan are actually in north jersey, not in ny state (to get to long island, you have to pass through queens, and to get to westchester, you have to pass through the bronx).
no matter how you slice it, the northern half of nj is a major component of the greater nyc area. so there's no need to make this "ny vs. nj" distinction when both are part and parcel of the same metropolitan area. it just so happens that the core city of the region - nyc - is located across the river in a different state from its western suburbs. but in the big picture, state/district/political boundaries aren't really important to the discussion.
because if they were, wouldn't we have to refer to the washington redskins, who play in landover, maryland, as the "maryland redskins"? how come no one makes a big deal out of that one? the bullets and the capitals also played in landover for many years - why didn't anyone complain about them retaining the "washington" name while they were in the suburbs?
for that matter, would the proposed st. louis mls expansion team have to be called the "illinois soccer team" since the stadium site is located in the southern illinois suburbs (across the river from the city proper)? would it not "count" as a st. louis team just because it happens to be in a suburban area across the state line from st. louis city?
and as far as suburban teams are concerned, the pistons play thirty miles outside of detroit - same state, but waaay out in the suburbs. why don't we call them the michigan pistons rather than the detroit pistons? same with the cowboys - they haven't played in dallas proper in almost forty years. and their new stadium in arlington is going to be a good twenty miles from downtown dallas. why don't we refer to them as the texas cowboys since they don't play in the city?
yet i never hear people making a big deal about those teams. why? because it's all about representing the metropolitan area rather than the city proper exclusively. to think otherwise is to miss the big picture.
Vancouver is in and it looks like Portland will be in as well as long as their vote for stadium funding goes okay today. They need 3 of 5 city commissioners to vote yes and apparently two have already indicated they will be voting yes, one no, and two are unsure. So odds are that one of the two will vote yes.
I am really disappointed that St. Louis isnt going to get in. I was really looking foward to a place to have less than an 8 hour road trip for.
Vancouver is in and it looks like Portland will be in as well as long as their vote for stadium funding goes okay today. They need 3 of 5 city commissioners to vote yes and apparently two have already indicated they will be voting yes, one no, and two are unsure. So odds are that one of the two will vote yes.
I am really disappointed that St. Louis isnt going to get in. I was really looking foward to a place to have less than an 8 hour road trip for.
If KCMO/KS can get a team, St. Louis should be able to have one too. What do you think a good name could be for an MLS team in St. Louis?
Portland and Vancouver sound like good places for soccer. Each one is a similar distance away from Seattle. Portland and Vancouver can represent their states/provinces.
Does anyone think a team in Providence RI could work?
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