news…

1) If one is going to bust the bank, one would do better to spread the mythical 100 mil over a greater area – 10 10 mil players instead of 1 100 mil player. Only that will raise the level of play in MLS. Not one player, be he young or old. And a player of limited use like Becks ain’t the one to bust a bank over.

2) Stars do not make a league. It takes 3-4 nearly nameless, faceless players for every so called star to do the grunt work on any team. Regardless of the pay scale of the spearcarriers, a team in any sport is more characterized by the ones doing the running, fetching, providing – giving the massive egos the space, time or opportunity to perform. Soccer moreso than most…

3) The salary of an Exception Player is a vital point no matter where the money comes from. Just because it doesn’t come from the league, it still has to come from somewhere and eventually the team, and the league, are going to have to scrounge up the lucre to make good. It doesn’t matter if Red Bull pays a player for, let’s say, endorsements – it’s still going to have to generate a return for Red Bull. The money is going to be real, not the etheral purse of neverending fullness that Chang implies is Out There. Signing Becks or any of the Legion of the Fat and Happy, is going to have real pockebook consequences for MLS.

4) Another reality check – any of the Legion of the Fat and Happy are not going to come to the US of A to play for the ML of S and set up housekeeping in lovely Kansas City. Or Salt Lake. Or Dallas, or Chicago or New England. Or, god help them, Columbus. No, they are coming to MLS with visions of Rodeo Drive, Broadway or Pennsylvania Avenue not sweltering in Houston. Figo is not going to sign if he has to live in Kansas, or Utah. Or, god help him, Ohio. Thus 90% of the teams are going to be left high and dry in the sweepstakes to land a member of The Over The Hill Gang and forced to trade their allocations for pennies on the thousands of dollars to the already endowed. MLS cannot afford that. This salient fact is every bit as relevant, and eeriely similar to the demise of the NASL, than the actual salary outlay. The Premiership is beginning to taste the bitter fruit of this kind of pyramid scheme. Scotland is already suffering from it. For MLS it is even worse – they need every fanny they can fathom in the seats, that includes the hicks from the sticks not just the glitz from the ritz.

5) Becks earning power is slipping even as I type (not to mention what little real skill he possessed). And the jump, or drop, to MLS is not going to do anything to cushion the fall. His exposure is going to plummet and Becks has always been more about exposure than skill. The imagined jersey sales that Chang conjures are not going to even approach the neighborhood of what Becks, or any player, is going to generate with Real Madrid. And the tours of Asia are even more of a mirage. LA, let’s say they “win” the Becks Sweepstakes, is not going to be able to just pick up and win the Pacific Rim like Real, it’s going to take actual toil, something that MLS in general and the Gals in particular, have a real hard time with. The Galaxy is not going to draw anywhere near the numbers of Real or Barca or MANU, even with his One-Footedness in a Galaxy shirt. The real draw has been a cast of thousands with, oh yeah, whosits Beckham along for the ride. Beckham + Roberto Carlos = Big Bucks. Beckham + Chris Albright = not so much. Very not so much.

6) Finally, having one one demensional over hyped pretty boy making more than the entire payroll of nearly the entirety of the league is not going to be as well accepted as Chang blissfully fantasizes. And his Kevin Garnett analogy is not at all relevant. For one thing KG may make more than the rest of his team, but he hardly makes more than the rest of the league or even individual players from other teams, which would certainly be the case should the One Trick Pony be saddled up and ridden in MLS. KG has been in the NBA for many a year, there’s been more than ample opportunity to recoup the truckloads of cash dumped on him by league and franchise alike. The T-Wolves have also not been able tap mysterious well-springs of magic money outside the cap that Chang and others imagine MLS has to foot One-Foot’s expected salary. And to further drive a stake in the KG analogy, just how many championships have Minnesota won with just one overpaid primma donna? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

The whole thing, like much of what passes for higher math in MLS, just doesn’t add up. It may make sense if the league is looking for some kind of blip on the radar but as far as making some kind of lasting impact – skillwise, financially or in public relations – it’s got damned little chance of actually working.

Can you say “Lothar Matthaus” boys and girls?

I thought you could…

MLS = argh.

But if Beckham’s signing generates windfall profits for his club, then Beckham would/should demand a higher salary. If he’s worth X, why would he only ask for Y (where X is much greater than Y)? If he can’t get something closer to X, then he needs to fire his agent.

The analogy/comparisons to NFL, NBA, and/or MLB are absolutely ridiculous. Kevin Garnett was signed out of high school, Peyton Manning was a PROVEN college quarterback at Tennessee (and now arguably the BEST quarterback in the NFL), and Lebron James was a man at the age of 18….bottom line is, the aforementioned, as well as many others were signed at ages (young enough) that would allow their frachise/league to recoup the costs 100 times over (not to mention the popularity of that league compared to MLS).

MLS’s idea of signing former stars at the end of their careers seems silly to me. Let’s face it, Beckham was NOT good in the World Cup, he rarely proves to be a difference in any game (outside of hitting a free kick), and I can’t see him doing anything other than using MLS as a retirement gig (literally).

I want to watch MLS for the quality of the game, and bringing in Beckham along with other “aging” stars just isn’t going to do it for me.