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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The money trail


So we have a new team (Seattle), another new team in two years (Philly), actual superstars (Becks, Blanco and Co.), actual revenue from smaller stadiums and Beckham crowds, and new international leagues. So where's all the money going? Not to our players, our younger, less experienced players that is. The so-called developmental player contract is a measly #12,900 with a few more earning $17,000. It gets more ridiculous when excellent players like Colorado's goalkeeper Condoul (from Ghana and in their national team) make only $33,000. This is per year! All this while Becks is earning 6.5 million with Blanco around 2 ro 3 million. Clearly there's a disparity here. Now I'm no commie and I love capitalism, but I would hope that salaries for some of the younger/less experienced guys would at least start at Condoul's salary. Even DC's new breakthrough (albeit only against Jamaican opposition) player McTavish makes $33,000! I know there's a salary cap (gulp) and other important factors such as team revenue, attendance, and so forth. But still, let's bump it up at least another 10K! This is especially true considering the upswing in team sponsorship through stadium naming and jersey sponsoring (Best Buy, Xango, Glidden, etc). Surely some of that revenue could go to our players. Another thing to consider is that this is the primary reason a lot of our youngsters or benchers tend to leave the league for second or even third rated teams in the UK, Norway, and even Austria because they simply pay more money. So let's make expansion and Beckhamania help out the true heart and soul of the game--our players.

1 comment:

Alastair McCandless said...

Money, its a sin
So they say
But if you ask for a rise
its no surprise
they are giving none away

- Communist Rock Ballad