MLS Public Salaries

1. Thierry Henry – New York Red Bulls – $4,350,000
2. Robbie Keane – LA Galaxy – $4,333,333.33
3. Tim Cahill – New York Red Bulls – $3,620,000
4. Landon Donovan – LA Galaxy – $2,500,000
5. Marco Di Vaio – Montreal Impact – $1,937,508
6. Obafemi Martins – Seattle Sounders – $1,725,000
7. Danny Koevermans – Toronto FC – $1,663,323.33
8. Kenny Miller – Vancouver Whitecaps – $1,132,492
9. Fredy Montero* – Seattle Sounders – $856,000
10. David Ferreira – FC Dallas – $730,000
11. Dwayne DeRosario – D.C. United – $645,333.00
12. Federico Higuain – Columbus Crew – $604,000
13. Chris Wondolowski – San Jose Earthquakes – $600,000
14. Shalrie Joseph – Seattle Sounders – $599,333
15. Sherjill MacDonald – Chicago Fire – $527,115
16. Kleberson – Philadelphia Union – $495,000
17. Darren O’Dea – Toronto FC – $456,250
18. Alvaro Saborio – Seal Salt Lake – $453,333
19. Kalifa Cisse – New England Revolution – $445,000
20. Diego Valeri – Portland Timbers – $400,000
*On loan to Millonarios (Colombia).

I. MLS ROSTER COMPOSITION

A Major League Soccer club’s first team roster is comprised of up to 30 players. All 30 players are eligible for selection to each 18-player game-day squad during the regular season and playoffs.

Salary & Budget:

Players occupying roster spots 1-20 count against the club’s 2013 salary budget of $2,950,000, and are referred to collectively as the club’s Salary Budget Players.
----- Roster spots 19 and 20 are not required to be filled, and teams may spread their salary budget across only 18 Salary Budget Players. A minimum salary budget charge will be imputed against a team’s salary budget for each unfilled senior roster slot below 18.
----- The maximum budget charge for a single player is $368,750.*

* See section entitled Allocation Money below, under Player Acquisition Mechanisms, for details on buying down a player’s budget charge.
** Age of player is determined by year (not date) of birth.


Players occupying roster spots 21-30 do not count against the club’s salary budget, and are referred to collectively as the club’s Off-Budget Players (maximum of 10 per team).
----- All Generation adidas players are Off-Budget players.
----- Players occupying roster spots 1-24 will earn at least $46,500 in 2013.
----- Players occupying roster spots 25-30 will earn at least $35,125 in 2013.
----- Clubs may sign up to two Homegrown Players contracts above the minimum salary and similar to Generation adidas player contract amounts.


Age Designations:

Any player making $35,125 must be under the age 25 (does not turn 25 or older in 2013).


Domestic/International:

In 2013, a total of 152 international slots are divided among the 19 clubs. Each club began with eight international slots, which are tradable. There is no limit on the number of international slots on each club’s roster.
----- The remaining roster slots must belong to domestic players. For clubs based in the United States, a domestic player is either a U.S. citizen, a permanent resident (green card holder) or the holder of other special status (e.g., refugee or asylum status).



The three MLS clubs based in Canada – Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC – began with eight international slots, but their domestic slots may be filled with either Canadian or U.S. domestic players.
----- MLS clubs based in Canada are required to have a minimum of three Canadian domestic players on their rosters.
----- Players with the legal right to work in Canada are considered Canadian domestic players (i.e., Canadian citizen, permanent resident, part of a protected class).


NOTE:The terms Homegrown and Generation adidas are used to describe mechanisms by which players are acquired. They are not roster designations. All players’ roster slots are determined by their compensation and/or age as outlined above.

MTL - Nesta, Alessandro - D - $305,000.00

RedOranje wrote:

MTL - Nesta, Alessandro - D - $305,000.00

Danny Koevermans – Toronto FC – $1,663,323.33

VendettaRed07 wrote:Henry earning those dollars with those two goals tonight!

Its kind of crazy how little most MLS players get paid. I mean only 8 players out of hundreds make over a million a year?.. Teams need to be able to spend more or else I don't see the quality of the league improving much any time soon. With Athletes having the choice of so many other leagues in america that are far more profitable the MLS will have a hard time getting much home grown talent unless they make a better situation for aspiring young people.

But on the other hand, I think they need to sort the league out first and fix most of the things holding it back first before they open the wallets on players.

I see it like a Field of Dreams scenario.. If you build it, they will come. They need to fix the stadium qualities, locations, and the schedule. Then I think the league will be an ideal place that can attract a lot of talent. But for now it would be wasting money that could be better spent improving other aspects of the league not just adding more temporary star power.

No teams should be playing in NFL stadiums. Turf shouldn't be acceptable. Every team in the league should have a soccer, if you will, specific stadium. Back to The Red Bulls, they aren't going to play Henry against the revolution on saturday because they play on hard turf and they see it as an injury risk. The league needs to help invest getting teams to play in profitable locations in their own stadiums.

Some teams should be moved around to maximize accessablity and exposure. Cities like San Franciso, New York, Boston, ANY in Florida like Miami, Orlando, Tampa etc.. could all use teams and would do wonders for the sport. Chivas, San Jose, The Revolution + expansion could all be moved around to help improve things

And Also I think the last big hump to get over would be the schedule. This isn't really a big deal now. But as the level of talent increases in MLS this is something that has GOT to be addressed. Because of its clash with the international schedule, players who go off to the Euro or World cup, or even stuff like the Domestic gold cup, or whatever goes on during the months when most other leagues in the world are on break, star players in the league could miss anywhere up to two months of playing time. That cannot happen.

Imagine if that happened in any other US league. Like if the NBA took place during the Olympics, and Durant, Lebron, Carmelo, Cp3, Wade, and the rest all left for a huge period of time like that?.. People would be furious and the results that happened during that time would feel cheap and unfair. Not too mention no one would care about watching anything during that time either.

I know I'm going off here and this is getting to be a pretty long rant, but lastly I think they really NEED to switch the schedule to start in august and end some time in spring, and have a winter break in January, don't play a game that month. Basically copy what the Scottish Premier league used to do. It would work out for the best because the NFL playoffs happen then so it would make a lot of sense to not even try to compete with that month, and when its over and dies down, MLS can hype up its return for all those people who are disappointed the NFL season is over and give them something to watch.

Catracho wrote:

VendettaRed07 wrote:.

I don't think you know what you're talking about...

VendettaRed07 wrote:

Catracho wrote:

VendettaRed07 wrote:.

I don't think you know what you're talking about...

Probably not.

the OP brought up a lot of interesting questions, and I just had trouble keeping my thoughts organized I guess.

Basically, I just think that Turf sucks, playing in NFL stadiums sucks, the summer schedule sucks, the locations of most of the teams sucks. Better players would be more willing to go if those things were changed.

Throwing money at it now won't change much other than how much your going to play older players who are just trying to cash in on one last pay day, and even if you develop young star american players you'd loose them to europe if current trends continue.

VendettaRed07 wrote:

Catracho wrote:

VendettaRed07 wrote:.

I don't think you know what you're talking about...

Probably not.

the OP brought up a lot of interesting questions, and I just had trouble keeping my thoughts organized I guess.

Basically, I just think that Turf sucks, playing in NFL stadiums sucks, the summer schedule sucks, the locations of most of the teams sucks. Better players would be more willing to go if those things were changed.

Throwing money at it now won't change much other than how much your going to play older players who are just trying to cash in on one last pay day, and even if you develop young star american players you'd loose them to europe if current trends continue.

Berbatov wrote:

Danny Koevermans – Toronto FC – $1,663,323.33

That .33 makes the salary so much more worth it.

RedOranje wrote:

VendettaRed07 wrote:

Catracho wrote:

I don't think you know what you're talking about...

Probably not.

the OP brought up a lot of interesting questions, and I just had trouble keeping my thoughts organized I guess.

Basically, I just think that Turf sucks, playing in NFL stadiums sucks, the summer schedule sucks, the locations of most of the teams sucks. Better players would be more willing to go if those things were changed.

Throwing money at it now won't change much other than how much your going to play older players who are just trying to cash in on one last pay day, and even if you develop young star american players you'd loose them to europe if current trends continue.

But you didn't actually address ANY of the questions I posed bar the very first one...

And without getting too far off-topic and retreading the same old discussions the summer schedule is in place because of the issues winter weather cause to playing and travel, especially for the northern clubs. Moving clubs around would only serve to alienate the current fanbase within MLS and destroy community ties that have been/are being established... and it would be madness to move clubs away from stadiums built specifically for them. Turf is an issue, but given that FIFA are FORCING the next Women's World Cup to be played on turf it does not appear an issue that will be addressed any time soon.

Now, could we please actually address the actual questions asked rather than retreading the same old discussion points we've already covered in multiple other threads? Not that I expect too much from non-European, non-meme thread though...

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Btw Red not quite sure what you mean by an example to follow.

As far as salaries are concerned in Serie A they are revealed every year, I believe the gazzetta complies it though. A salary cap like that would be impossible to implement in europe though as the competition between countries is too high .