When Vancouver enters the league next year there is little doubt that finding quality Canadian talent to fill out the roster will be a priority. Although the ‘Caps are still in talks with the league to figure out what exactly their Canadian requirement will be, it’s likely that there will be some adjustments to the domestic requirements to assist Vancouver in the early days.
Bob Lenarduzzi inferred as much to us when he last spoke to It’s Called Football last month.
Many Canadians continue to hold onto the dream of having Canadians counted as domestics league-wide, but American labour law complicates that. Essentially, the business of MLS can’t give preferential treatment to one foreign national over another when hiring. There may be a loophole in NAFTA, or other free trade agreements, that would allow for Canadians to work freely in MLS, but such a change would probably require some political adjustments. It’s unlikely that MLS has the political clout to make that happen.
So chalk that dream up as technically (maybe) possible, but highly (no, highly) unlikely.
So, how do you deal with the competitive disadvantage? In MLS’ case they have lowered the amount of Canadians that are required. That’s a simple solution, but it doesn’t actually address the biggest issue at play. Although it’s clear that the Canadian talent pool is much thinner than the American pool, there is still more than enough Canucks out there to fill two MLS teams.
The problem is money. Canadian players have not been inclined to give home country discounts. Actually, because they are a scarce, but required, resource they become overvalued. That’s a problem in a cap league.
Currently there are 14 Canadian players in MLS. Of those, eight are with Toronto. The 14 players make an average salary of $186,522.31, representing a median of $131,570. The league median is just $88,000.
When you separate Toronto’s Canadians the situation becomes even more pronounced. TFC’s eight Canucks make an average of $256,431.68, representing a median of $177,433.68. In Toronto, Canadians are paid like Brazilians (within the context of MLS anyway).
Canadians playing for other MLS teams are pretty much in line with players in the rest of the league. They average $93,309.82 and have a median of $81,635.71.
Reducing the amount of Canadians you need does take a bit of the edge off, but it does nothing to address the inflationary issue (unless you completely eliminate the need for having any domestic players, which would be a situation that would likely satisfy neither Canadians nor Americans). The two teams still need to find players and it’s still going to cost them a bundle.
So, instead of lowering the amount of Canadians required, why not acknowledge the reality of the artificial marketplace the domestic requirement creates for Canadian teams? There is a way to do that under the current single entity system—allocation. In particular, special allocation earmarked for Canadian players.
If you give both Canadian teams a special Canadian allocation that is only to be used to bring back Canadians from Europe then that, to me, would be a better way to address the “Canadian problem.” Perhaps the Canadian allocation can be drawn from a fund that is only generated by the Canadian teams to make it fair.
I understand that such a system might exasperate the inflationary concern since Canadian players would be aware of the rule. My counter argument to that is that they are already aware that they have the Canadian teams by the you-know-what anyway.
I can appreciate that there is a certain American fan out there that would be opposed to any sort of adjustment for Toronto and Vancouver. You’d be surprised at how much I share that sentiment. However, if parity league-wide is a goal (and most of those opposed to special Canadian rules, are also wildly in love with forced parity), then you have to recognize that this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Under the current rules, the Canadian teams are up against it.
But the problem isn’t a lack of players. It’s a lack of (cap) money.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
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16 comments:
Hmm I assume that figure includes JDG's DP deal right? A better way to look at it might be to compare cap hits if possible since that's the most important number.
Also, you might want to compare the quality of the players signed. The money paid to JDG and DeRo is higher but that's because they are very good players not necessarily because they are scarce.
Ali Gerba = $177,433.50
Jim Brennan = $193,250.00
Those are the type of players that I'm talking about.
Too complicated and doesn't have a sense of being fair.
Just have a couple fewer required spots for Canadian players (given the differences is available players to choose from) and allow a couple more slots for US born players. Simple and fair solution, that contributes to the development of the game in Canada and the US.
Also, I agree with PPP. It's not a scarcity issue; it's a quality issue. JDG and DDR are paid more b/c they're worth more. Gabe Gala is not paid a premium, nor was Lombardo, Harmse, etc.
It is not a premium paid because they are Canadians.
If you want to attract ANY player from Europe, you have to ante up.
A premium is paid to lure ANY player from Europe. Not just Canadian players.
oops, posted same comment twice. didn't think the fist one went through.
How would the union be okay with this? It basically rewards people for being Canadian. No way U.S. players would be fine with that.
Sorry, Duane, not entirely buying this problem as one of the market, strictly speaking.
First off, there do seem to be some Canadians willing to return to MLS (Hainualt, Johnson, Jakovic) at a reasonable price, but Mo's UK tunnel vision prevents him from bringing them to TFC and they go elsewhere.
Second, most Canadian players overseas who are MLS calibre can make more over there--the Americans that stock MLS rosters, for the most part, are not guys who played overseas and came back, they are guys who can't or haven't yet tried to go abroad. As you said, there isn't the talent level in Canada yet--but just because there are enough quality Canadians in the world to stock 2 MLS teams, those players are on different career arcs to most of the Americans in MLS. Until TFC academy can produce, and TFC scouts can recognize and sign (and until MLS has bigger rosters) young Canadian talent, this will continue to be a problem.
To follow up on #1 above.
Hainault: 55K
Johnson: 64K
Jakovic: 108K
Where the F was Mo when these guys were available?
Gerba either has a great agent, or Mo is stupid, or both.
How does hockey get away with unlimited roster slots for Canadians? or do they?
A more long term solution is to allow unrestricted academies
@3:03
Other leagues have no restrictions on foreign players; therefore there is no advantage to one national over another. MLS could go that route, but it would need to open things up fully -- i.e. no domestic/international spots at all
Duane, do you know the leagues rational behind not allowing unrestricted academies? In my view they are part of one of the MLS's chater goals (to improve quality of domestic player pool)
I get the whole parity thing, but academies are more infastructure-you don't see the league blocking grass or nice stadiums
@4:35
Money. The NCAA develops players for free, so why pay for it?
Also, philosophically MLS owners haven't wrapped their head around the idea of developing players to sell on to bigger leagues. That concept if foreign to North American sports fans, but key to any development model in football.
Plus, if they went with an academy system then things wouldn't be exactly, perfectly equal for every team (My God, New York is bigger than Columbus and can attract more players to its academy. We must protect the precious Crew) and then THE SKY WOULD FALL!!!!!
So why did Bobaduzzi et al get rid of the one man in Canada (Thomas Niendorf) with a proven track record scouting and developing Cdn talent into potential pros?
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