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On the eve of what could be the Los Angeles Galaxy's first MLS Cup title since 2005, the man who
led LA to its last championship looks ready to return to MLS.
Steve Sampson is set to be hired by Chivas USA as head coach, sources have told SBI.
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How is this guy one of the best regarded soccer writers in America? He's sure as hell not a good
interviewer:
SI.com: Without being too self-conscious about it, I wanted to ask you what you thought
of my book, The Beckham Experiment?
I mean, honestly. And check out the picture Wahl posted on twitter:
Does Wahl not look creepy as fuck, and does Don Garber not look as though he's contemplating
calling the police?
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Since I did one for VCU, I thought it was only fitting to have one for DC United. Tom Soehn has
decided to step down as Head Coach after 3 seasons, a total of 7 seasons with the club. The DC
United job is a very unique situation.
The first thing that will make it hard for United to draw in a coach is the stadium
situation.
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In case anyone else didn't notice, we've got the most expensive team in MLS going up against the
least expensive team in MLS in the Cup final this weekend. From one of my posts earlier in the year
on team wage bills:
1. LA $9.4 million
15. RSL $1.86 million
Of course that's with designated player salaries.
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Took some time this weekend and added tags to the blog. So now you can look for articles by topic
as opposed to just searching or looking by time frame. It should make it easier to find some topics
and see what I write about the most. I hope to finally get my act together with tags moving
forward.
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So we are still midway through the interlull, but there is still a quite a bit of Perth Glory news
about town.
But before we get to that, just a bit of an update of what the Glory are up to this week.
First of all, FP just got word that the coach Dave Mitchell will be holding a press conference on
Friday as part of his "midseason review".
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Yesterday the first news from the MLS collective bargaining negotiations leaked out, courtesy of
Tripp Mickle. Sport Business Journal put the news behind the paywall, but thankfully Jason Davis
scaled it so I don't have to:
Though the league has proposed a salary cap increase, the players have labelled it a
"joke".
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WVHooligan 09 November @ 10:22 AM EST
We all know the Collective Bargaining Agreement is coming close to it's end and the MLS Players
Union and league front offices are set to battle it all out. Well today we got some rough news from
the Sports Business Journal (subscription based link, sign up for a free trail if you haven't) that
the players union is already talking strike if things don't improve.
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Anfield Talk 03 November @ 04:40 PM EST
While Michel Platini's plans for reform in European soccer may, at first glance, appear a serious
threat to English soccer club Liverpool's future in European competition, the club's long-term
future may be significantly brighter once the new measures are put in place.
Liverpool were one of the clubs namechecked by Platini when discussing his reforms in an interview
with the Daily Telegraph newspaper, saying: "If Liverpool pay €60 million (interest) every year
to the banks, it's a lot of money.
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Regular readers will remember that in my last post on the salary cap, I referenced a BA Duane
article in which he talked about the split in the owners group:
With Portland and Vancouver coming into the league in 2011 and Philly next year the new
wave MLS clubs (along with the larger of the original markets) could start gain more
power.
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The dispute between several clubs in the USL's first division and the league's administrators
has reached the end-game this week, and Triangle Offense is reporting that the breakaway Team
Owners Association is submitting its application for recognition as a league to the US Soccer
Federation.
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It's all gone pear shaped north of the border. And I mean, totally. Toronto FC is melting down.
Montreal and Vancouver have been kicked out of USL. Bloggers are furiously trying to find the USL
teams a home and curb stomp TFC management.
Richard Whittall has coped with the crisis by succumbing to complete, barking madness:
This might put me on the business end of a very detailed flaming post, but why doesn't
MLS consider a radical move: a wholesale ideological change in direction away from purchasing
"ready-made" talent, either overseas or within the league, and toward investment in superb
managerial and coaching staff?
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Anfield Talk 27 October @ 02:59 PM EST
Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots NFL franchise, has once again
spoken out about the possibility of buying into a Premier League soccer club, with Liverpool his
favoured destination.
Kraft, who watched Liverpool's 2-0 win over Premier League Manchester United on television before
seeing the Patriots beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, owned by the Glazer family, again expressed his
interest in a Premier League move, but confirmed he would not enter a league where success is so
dependent on finance.
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Let me present a very simplistic formulation. Let's assume that in order for MLS to receive higher
television revenues, it must draw in more supporters. Let it also be resolved that, for those fans
to show up at MLS games and commit wholesale to the league, the quality of the on-pitch product
must get better.
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DC United saw their season come to a close after this weekend with their draw at Kansas City and
FC Dallas winning at Seattle. The time has come to decide what the team needs to do next season.
This is the second season in a row United has not made the playoffs with winning the Supporter's
Shield the 2 years prior.
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This is why I don't subscribe to 24th Minute. Every time I go over there I see something that makes
me want to stab my eyes out. Most of the Canadian blogs, actually. Which is kind of sad. I mean,
most of them can write. It's just what's going on up their heads that's the problem.
Anyway, BA Duane with a rumination on the follies of the New York franchise, with commentary by
yours truly:
Just as Canadians hate that everything here is Toronto focused (and, say, that USL-1
championship final is overshadowed by TFC's attempt to sneak into the playoffs), Americans don't
much like to have it pointed out that it's important to have a presence in the New York
market.
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Anfield Talk 23 October @ 02:17 PM EST
Robert Kraft has acknowledged that he still harbours an interest in buying Liverpool.
The American businessman owns gridiron franchise New England Patriots, but admits that the global
dominance of the round ball game makes the Premier League appealing.
"Yeah, in the right situation.
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Ok, I can see how the FA would be REALLY honked off if Chelsea stole a young player from another
club. I can see how the club that he was supposedly stolen from would be very upset. I can see
how bad this looks for Chelsea. I'm also a realist.
Chelsea, so says the French Soccer Club Lens, "illegally induced" this kid named Kakuta to sign
with Chelsea's youth program.
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Do you have a question for The Don? Do you also have a desire to have your voice heard on live
television? Yes? OK. Then read and remember this. I will not be calling in but instead I will be on
my couch with a bottle of Glenmorangie taking a drink every time a caller mentions single table,
changing the schedule, expansion, raising the salary cap and "saving MLS".
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Just picked this article up from USSoccerPlayers.com from the pitchinvasion.net twitter feed, and
it's an interesting read. The opening line certainly corroborates what I've been sensing in my
recent foray into the cultural side of North America's professional league:
"In August, Major League Soccer ticket sales dipped over 4% overall and dropped double digits up to
34% for six franchises while nationwide sales for international matches skyrocketed.
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There have been a few stories rattling around the blogosphere lately about how the cratered economy
has decimated fans' ability to pay ever-spiraling ticket prices for professional sporting
events.
Yesterday the always biting Field of Schemes linked to Wright Thompson's experience in the absurd
seats at Yankee Stadium, and highlighted an interesting statistic from the piece:
A recent poll discovered an unsettling trend emerging for the first time.
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Should I like the rich guy for wearing semi-normal clothes?
Or hate it because it's awful.
Hate it.
Don't hate the links:
- Avram Grant to Portsmouth. Name drops N.Y. [Goal!]
- FC Dallas 2, at San Jose Earthquakes 1. [MLSnet.com]
- Norwich goalkeeper goes AWOL.
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The first few comments I received when I kicked off this little experiment immediately went into
the relegation/promotion question. It goes without saying that structurally, R/P is a non-starter
for Major League Soccer; private investors spent a lot of time and money insuring the necessary
infrastructure had been put in place before securing their MLS club, with the agreement said club
would always play at the highest professional level.
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Don Garber is in England, speaking with the creme de la creme of European football, "spreading the
gospel" of the business side of American soccer. Garber's focus is financial restraint, cost...
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Hey everybody, thought I'd let you know that I will be interviewing Fire Head Coach Denis
Hamlett tomorrow, so if you have a question for him now is the time to ask. Try and get them in by
12:00 and I'll do my best to get them answered for you.And in other MLS-related news, League
Commissioner Don Garber is in London to talk with the leaders of English soccer about introducing
more financial responsibility into the European game.
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Don Garber will address the "Leaders in Football" conference
Over the next two days, many of soccer's most influential executives from around the world will
meet in London, England for the annual "Leaders in Football" conference. Included in that group are
three representatives from the United States: Don Garber, MLS Commissioner and CEO; Sunil Gulati,
USSF President; and Tim Leiweke, President and CEO of AEG.
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I haven't checked the numbers myself, but some other pedantic nerds over at BigSoccer used the
maths and the latest list of player salaries to figure out how much teams were spending. I give you
the list in order of ascending wage bill by team:
Salt Lake $1,861,029
Kansas City $1,907,213
New York $1,981,937
San Jose $2,035,803
Dallas $2,192,327
Colorado $2,208,967
Seattle $2,289,712
Chicago $2,308,326
New England $2,317,903
Chivas $2,369,294
Columbus $2,435,820
Houston $2,455,840
DC $2,770,707
Los Angeles $2,837,439
Toronto $3,241,416
So the guys in Toronto are complaining about having their hands tied why?
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The MLS Players Union has updated its list of 2009 salaries. Its current as of the roster freeze
date on September 15th.
There are 8 Rapids added and 5 removed since the last release on March 15th. We finally get the
number for Palguta and Holody, it moves Moor, Noonan, and Valentino from their former teams to
Colorado, and it adds the salaries for Baudet, Diz, and Jamie Smith.
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The 1998 Chicago Fire MLS Cup and US Open Cup championship team included many talented hard
working players with good character including Piotr Nowak, Frank Klopas, Lubos Kubik, Chris Armas,
Diego Gutierrez, CJ Brown and Jesse Marsch.
Last week we discussed the keys to assembling and retaining good personnel for a successful
front office.
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Via BigSoccer, Tom Anselmi touched on the growth prospects of MLS in a radio interview. Of interest
to my salary cap readers, he's pretty happy with the current level of play in MLS, and he sees it
rising slowly over the course of 10-15 years, although not to a Top 3 level. He also talked about
needing to continue to control costs.
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AMSL Hard at Work
It's not often you get honoured with your name in a post title.
How did we get here exactly?
Well, last Sunday morning, as part of my weekend gig writing the Sweeper at pitchinvasion.net, I
attempted to reveal what I thought were the underlying ideological fault lines in the on-going
salary cap debate in Em El Es between Ben Knight and Fake Sigi.
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Maybe it *is* the socialist fluoride up in the Canadian water system that does this to their
writers up there - I don't know. Richard Whittall, the chap from the Pitch Invasion cartel who
linked up a few readers to the salary cap debate (respect, etc.) apparently lives in Toronto and
has his own blog.
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I honor the place where my ridiculous headline, an overly broad blog aggregator and your curiosity
lead you to a discussion on the MLS salary cap.
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Richard Whittall over at Pitch Invasion draws an interesting conclusion from the salary cap debate
that's been going on, characterizing yours truly, among others, as American Exceptionalists:
For the former group—let's call them MLS Exceptionalists (includes Dan Loney, Fake
Sigi and Bill Archer)—MLS should be the embodiment of an exceptional American Soccer
identity.
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Big Story
Flying in the face of traditional cross-border political alignments, the debate about MLS salary
caps heating up in the soccoblogosphere this weekend seems to have Canadians playing the role of
Whiggish free-marketers on the one hand, and Americans playing protectionist, Tory nationalists on
the other.
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