I may in a way be a few days late on this discussion but during the off season there is really a never bad time to talk about anything. Most of you saw the Frank Dell’Apa article about the coaching salaries in the MLS and how much of a disparity there is between a couple coaches and the rest of the league.

For year’s we have been curious about what coaches make but never realy had any numbers to prove they were underpaid or not. Now we have some idea and can talk about them in a way that we do with the player’s salaries. I will run down the numbers at the end of this post, but it was interesting to find out that clubs spending the least on a coach were getting the best results in the past year, while clubs that over spend saw little value in the process.

Obviously New York had to overspend in some ways to get Bruce Arena to coach for them. Even after Bruce led the US National team to a bombing-out-type results in the last World Cup, he was still expected to be a pretty high-paid coach no matter where he went. New York knew that and paid him nicely. Too bad the results on the field for his club didn’t show up to be the same level as his pay.

Now reasons like injury and some poor management moves are to blame on that.

But as the salary cap increases, the coaching salaries should reflect that kind of change. Biggest reason is because the higher-priced talent that comes in the higher-priced coach needs to be hired to handle those kinds of stars.

Looks at the Galaxy. “Sexy-football” coach Ruud Gullitt’s contract is something short of ridiculous by MLS standards of yesterday. A three-year contract, tallying over $4 million is really a stretch for a guy that has hardly seen success across the pond and hasn’t even seen a second of a regular season game in the MLS. But due to the Galaxy having David Beckham, they also needed a coach that was on a similar level in terms of name and price. Gullitt was in a way that man, though some will probably still wonder if it was the right move at the time until they see results next year.

But look at clubs that reached the MLS Cup, Houston and New England. Both underpay their coaches by a lot when comparing them to the Galaxy and the Red Bulls. Both Dominic Kinnear and Steve Nicol are the league’s most successful coaches in recent years yet they make in the $250,000 range and $175,000 range, respectively.

In the case of Nicol, once his contract finishes up next year, he will have earned in seven years what Gullitt will have made in one.

Kinnear is actually really near the top of the coaching food chain in terms of pay but everyone else seems to be slightly inverted in a way of looking at performance-to-pay. For the most part it is due to clubs being unclear about what they want in a coach, having no clue either way about a coach, hiring the wrong guy, or just a poor technical direction.

As the league has grown so has the paying scale for coaches. It will continue to grow as the league expands and brings in more top-flight players. The demand is starting to increase for better coaching around the league. You can always tell a club that is good because their coaching level equals their talent level. Clubs that are bad either have a bad coach and bad talent or just a bad coach overall.

We can again turn to David Beckham for changing the league. However with the coaching its now Ruud Gullitt that is also helping shape the league for coaches and their pay. Assistants will soon be paid a year what most head coaches get paid, while head coaches will earn a healthy living like Gullitt.

It will be some time before we actually see that day but it is coming real soon I believe. I think the day of under-paying a coach like Nicol is soon to be over. Getting to a MLS Cup final, a US Open Cup final and winning in the SuperLiga should amount for something and soon enough it will for coaches.

MLS Coaching Salaries (according to the Dell’Apa article):

Rudd Gullit (LA) = $4 Mil over 3 years = $1.33 Million a year.
Bruce Arena (NY) = $600,000 a year, $1.2 Mil buyout.
Dominic Kinear (Hou) = $250,000
Frank Yallop (SJ) = $210,000
Juan Carlos Osorio (Chi) > $200,000
Mo Johnston (TFC) > $200,000
Jason Kreis (RSL) > $200,000
Sigi Schmid (Clb) > $200,000
Curt Onalfo (KC) < $200,000
Preki (CUSA) < $200,000
Tom Soehn (DCU) < $200,000
Fernando Clavijo (Col) < $200,000
Steve Morrow (FCD) < $200,000
Steve Nicol (NE) = $175,000

This is kind of a big deal to some so this will get posted and talked about in some length. But today, sources say that the MLS and the USSF are able to lighten the restrictions on foreign based players in the league.

Weeks back I heard rumors of the MLS ditching the current four senior international/three youth international player system and going to a system of just seven international players per roster with no age requirements.

The new proposal with the USSF will now include an extra player to make the tally to eight foreign players regardless of age. An announcement about this is expected to come in a matter of weeks. We should see this go into place unless something weird happens at the last second, but other wise expect this deal to go through.

This doesn’t mean that more foreign players will start to fly into the States to play in the MLS this winter. No, it more less means to me that clubs will have a better power of being able to sign younger, more affordable talent from around the world. So in that case, this is a very solid move on both the MLS and the USSF to go through with something like this.

Plus, with the addition of more clubs in the MLS in the coming years, this was something many called for the MLS to go to. It’s helped out a lot during the last couple rounds of expansion with Chivas, Salt Lake and Toronto in my book.

Also, DC United’s Tom Soehn, Kansas City’s Curt Onalfo, Real Salt Lake’s Jason Kreis and FC Dallas assistant Marco Ferruzzi attended a scouting combine in Argentina today to take a close look at approximately 60 player. After last seasons sucess of South American players it is no secret that more clubs will look closer at more talent from south of the border. Something that I called for months ago by clubs to do instead of getting out wasted talent from Europe looking to retire in America.

I think you can expect a hand-full or more of players from South America make their way up to the MLS in the coming year, doubling the tally that moved up here this past season.

Seems as though we are already taking pre-season soccer here, just weeks after the MLS Cup. Today the MLS announced that next February the two-time defending champion Houston Dynamo and the LA Galaxy will take part in the Pan-Pacific Championship against a club from Australia and Japan’s Gamba Osaka.

The four game tournament will highlight the following matches:

Wednesday, February 20
Gamba Osaka (J.League) vs. Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS) (6:00 p.m.)
Houston Dynamo (MLS) vs. A-League representative (8:30 p.m.)

Saturday, February 23
Third-place match (6:00 p.m.)
Pan-Pacific Championship Final (8:30 p.m.)

I guess in a way this is a pretty good thing. From a PR standpoint it puts the face of the league (the LA Galaxy) and the league’s best club (Houston Dynamo) against clubs from the other side of the world (Japan and Australia).

It sounds like a nice little get away for both MLS clubs to be playing in Hawaii in February. A nice pre-season test for the Galaxy who will probably be picking up more games between now and then for the Beckham world tour. As for Houston this just adds to the busy schedule that will be there for them to begin next season. I just hope both show up in this competition and make it interesting.

MLS owners recommended a 2008 budget that increases the league’s salary cap 4 percent to $2.3 million a team. The decision came after a prolonged debate at a recent board of governors meeting that saw a divide among owners over what players should be paid as the league expands.

The latest proposal is expected to be accepted by the competition committee in the coming weeks.

Club owners weighed two options for player salaries for 2008 during the meeting. The first would see the salary cap rise to $2.3 million a team, while a second would see it increase to around $2.5 million.

Sources said the Kraft family (owners of the New England Revolution) and Hunt Sports Group (FC Dallas and Columbus Crew) favored a modest increase in the salary cap consistent with previous years’ growth of 4 to 5 percent, while New York Red Bulls representatives favored pushing it beyond $2.5 million per team.

Historically, owners like the Hunts and Krafts have wanted to control player costs and minimizing expenses to foster steady league growth, while owners like AEG (Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo), Jorge Vergara (Chivas USA) and Red Bull have favored spending more on players to improve the quality of play and increase interest in the league.

Most players in the league have a 5 percent increase written into their contracts, so a 4 percent salary cap increase keeps pace with that and means that most teams won’t have to cut players to remain under the cap.

This has been an aged old debate for years now in the MLS. No one wants the league to turn into the old NASL days and quite-frankly it really never will because of that fear. League owners have set the MLS up to not become a re-birth of the NASL.

I am in both camps really. I want steady growth for the league but I also want quality of play to increase as well. I think a moderate increase each year will do both.

This league is still very young and is competing very well already with leagues from around the world. I think in time the league will be up there in terms of landing star players and not costing the entire league like the NASL did.

The MLS is doing the right thing by adding just a little bit at a time. Sure the minimum wage needs to go up, and it definitely should (12,000 or so a year does not cut it no matter where you live). But that is still a debate for another time and day.

The MLS released the complete list of players available for today’s 3:00 p.m. ET waiver Draft, to be conducted via conference call.

Below is the order of the draft and the available players.

The MLS Waiver Draft Selection Order:

1. San Jose
2. Toronto
3. Salt Lake
4. Los Angeles
5. Colorado
6. Columbus
7. New York
8. Dallas
9. Chivas USA
10. DC United
11. Kansas City
12. Chicago
13. New England
14. Houston

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Finally some good news for Red Bull fans. They will finally start work next week on a soccer stadium that is now slated to open up in the summer of 2009 instead of the early projections of next spring.

Either way, now that the Red Bulls have parted ways with AEG, they now have a potential stadium that looks cooler than any other in the league right now in my opinion.

Take a look for yourself…

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Plenty of news going around the league here. Some here are things I found last night but wanted to hold off for this post this morning. Mainly this is a lot of little stuff that I wanted to expand on but not give each their own individual article.

I will start with something I found on Soccernet, that I wanted to write up in my own opinion. Steve Davis wrote about five things to watch out for this off-season. All excellent and most are what I was going to say anyways.

1. Player Movement – lots of talk between now and up until the beginning of the season about who will stay and who will go. Some big names are potentially moving while it will be interesting to see what South American (and maybe European) talent comes over to play next year after the success of the 2007 season.
   • Jozy Altidore – to – Madrid: This story has legs but I really kind of hope it doesn’t happen for the youngster. I can understand his desire to move across the pond but I think it is too soon to a club that he will just warm the bench for. I don’t even believe he would be a “super-sub” type of player there just yet
   • Michael Parkhurst – to – Fulham: Another interesting story here. Parkhurst going to the most American based club in Europe, Fulham. A move that would be welcome by those who aren’t Revs fans. A move that I hate to see happen but wouldn’t be totally upset by it because I know its only a matter of time for him.
   • Juan Sebastian Veron – to – DC United: DC has been after this guy for months and will continue to do so I think until they land him. Expect this guy in a Black-and-Red jersey next year.
   • Jamie Moreno – to – retire: Likely to happen I think.
   • Christian Gomez – to – somewhere other than DC: He wants a bigger contract and will probably get it elsewhere, especially if Veron is on his way in.
2. Expansion – Davis had his as expansion and ownership, I will leave this at just expansion.
   • Philly – We will have to wait for another couple weeks to see if Philly can get money from their state government to build a stadium before we will know if they will be in the MLS in 2009 with Seattle or not.
   • St. Louis – Some are concerned that enthusiast Jeff Cooper (who is leading the charge in the ‘Lou) isn’t rich enough to get this city a club by 2009. Some want him to get a little more cash in his own bank before he really gets behind a MLS club. I can totally understand that too, if he doesn’t have enough cash to compete with the LA’s and New York’s just yet then he needs to hold off until he can.
   • 15 clubs in 2009 – if we hear nothing by the end of December on Philly we may end up with only 15 clubs in the 2009 season. I honestly don’t think this will happen. Either Philly or St. Louis will get a club. Its just a matter of which one right now.
   • 18 clubs by 2011 or 2012 – I think getting that 16th club named by the end of this year will really go a long way in figuring out who else will join to make this an 18-club league. I see another New York club joining, and maybe, just maybe another Canadian team. More than likely it will be another New York and then Philly or St. Louis (which one that doesn’t get in this time around).
3. San Jose rumblings – no pun intended here, but expect San Jose to still shake things up here in the coming weeks and months. With the SuperDraft around the corner I can expect more deals to be made as Yallop builds his club.
4. SuperDraft – I am really curious about this upcoming SuperDraft. I really expect a lot of interesting deals to be made with some clubs like Dallas and LA having so many picks.
5. Allocation Money Spending – This sort of goes with the player movement, but I am going to do a follow up on this later on here. Some clubs have more money through allocation than others. San Jose will get some for being an expansion club. LA, Toronto, Columbus, Colorado, and Real will all get the “you suck” money for missing the playoffs. It will be interesting to see this stuff get traded around as well.

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