MikeDatTiger
Registered
A lot of articles today are coming out about how stupid it is that MLS had to do a blind draw to assign Jermaine Jones to the New England Revolution. Most of the articles are focused on the need for transparency that MLS has lacked and now needs as the public pays closer and closer attention to MLS matters. I wanted to post how I think this deal may actually break the MLS's back in terms of single-entity.
I'm going to assume that most of the reports are true and that this is what happened: Jermaine Jones was interested in coming to MLS and wanted to go to Chicago. Jermaine Jones then apparently ginned up interest from New England in order to drive the price up in order to get closer to Michael Bradley money. This worked well for Jones, until it became clear that New England weren't going away and MLS had a serious allocation problem on its hands. Then MLS (& Chicago & NER) then agree to increase the price of the contract in order for Jones to drop his demand that he go to NER.
Forgot how the Fire got screwed; look at that sequence and appreciate what an incredible job Jones's agent did. MLS's single entity structure is specifically designed and justified on the notion that MLS wants to keep costs down by preventing teams from going into bidding wars on a player. Not only does Jones's agent still make a bidding war happen that drives the price up, he then uses the bidding war & the existence of the single entity to drive the price up yet again.
You see, in this case Jones's agent figured out that an objection to the allocation process could be a chip in the bargaining process to drive up the price. And that's where this thing is going to fall apart. Even if the Fire had won the blind draw, they still would have been out a couple extra hundred thousand due to the single entity allocation rules requiring them to allocate Jones, which necessitated that extra money spent to get Jones to drop his demand and sign. MLS's cost-saving single entity structure just cost them a lot of money.
Not only did single-entity fail to prevent a bidding war, it's now a tool to drive the price up even further!
Fans want to know the rules so they can evaluate GMs and play "how can we acquire player x" mind games that drives the dead time media in every other sport. Players want to be able to sign to teams in locations they prefer for teams with playing styles/needs that suit their career goals better. Now that single-entity is actually costing teams money, it's a matter of time before it's gone.
Because don't think the agents in charge of Mix Diskerud or Jozy Altidore or any number of other players linked to MLS weren't paying attention to this.
I'm going to assume that most of the reports are true and that this is what happened: Jermaine Jones was interested in coming to MLS and wanted to go to Chicago. Jermaine Jones then apparently ginned up interest from New England in order to drive the price up in order to get closer to Michael Bradley money. This worked well for Jones, until it became clear that New England weren't going away and MLS had a serious allocation problem on its hands. Then MLS (& Chicago & NER) then agree to increase the price of the contract in order for Jones to drop his demand that he go to NER.
Forgot how the Fire got screwed; look at that sequence and appreciate what an incredible job Jones's agent did. MLS's single entity structure is specifically designed and justified on the notion that MLS wants to keep costs down by preventing teams from going into bidding wars on a player. Not only does Jones's agent still make a bidding war happen that drives the price up, he then uses the bidding war & the existence of the single entity to drive the price up yet again.
You see, in this case Jones's agent figured out that an objection to the allocation process could be a chip in the bargaining process to drive up the price. And that's where this thing is going to fall apart. Even if the Fire had won the blind draw, they still would have been out a couple extra hundred thousand due to the single entity allocation rules requiring them to allocate Jones, which necessitated that extra money spent to get Jones to drop his demand and sign. MLS's cost-saving single entity structure just cost them a lot of money.
Not only did single-entity fail to prevent a bidding war, it's now a tool to drive the price up even further!
Fans want to know the rules so they can evaluate GMs and play "how can we acquire player x" mind games that drives the dead time media in every other sport. Players want to be able to sign to teams in locations they prefer for teams with playing styles/needs that suit their career goals better. Now that single-entity is actually costing teams money, it's a matter of time before it's gone.
Because don't think the agents in charge of Mix Diskerud or Jozy Altidore or any number of other players linked to MLS weren't paying attention to this.