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Originally Posted by Eleazar
So why is this?
It's true that MLS doesn't exist in a country that hates soccer any longer, the sport is popular and particularly so with younger people. The league is stable and isn't playing in borrowed stadiums anymore. So shouldn't it be growing by leaps and bounds?
I'm not trying to bash MLS when I say this, but I watch the Premier League every weekend and I pay extra for services to do so. I've been following it since 2008 or so. The reason I don't have any interest in MLS is because the level of play is so much lower.
Even people who follow MLS seem to realize it, during the WC you'd see US Soccer supporters bemoaning the fact that we had MLS players in the 11 because they don't belong on a stage like that.
What is their reasoning for not raising the cap or doing other things that could bring more talent into the league?
Why are salaries like the English 3rd tier in a country as large and wealthy as this if the fan interest is there?
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There are a few reasons.
MLS missed out on the golden age of crazy TV contracts...their popularity blossomed in a sports media universe where ESPN is on its heels and everyone is trying to figure out how to make streaming work in the right way. They are not the NFL so they don't get to print their own money.
The ghosts of the Cosmos still walk the halls of MLS headquarters. They simply do not want some team to go buck wild be in MLS what the Dodgers are in MLB right now. Some super team that gets some sort of wild backing that hurts the overall competitiveness and therefore the overall growth of the league. MLS is like NFL where they are very "the sum of our parts" oriented when you think of how much focus is on the shield.
Wages have grown but again they don't want it to get out of control Teams that want to spend money get to spend money. There are 3 and about to be 4 designated player spots which allow you to spend as much money as you want on someone with their cap hit being limited. That has struck a balance that has for the most part been very successful to reward teams who want to spend money but as I said before not let one or two teams wildly outpace the rest of the league.
It is not true that they have not raised the cap it gets raised all the time in lines with the CBA they have with the players. Should it be more? Should it be done differently? Hey there are a lot of smart people that have different and good ideas of how things should be run. I think there needs to be a lot of focus on the back end of the roster so that MLS teams can have more depths to do better in North American tournaments. MLS stacks up really well with Liga MX top to bottom but at the very top Mexico still has an edge...even though it seems to decrease each year.