By Dario Camacho - MIAMI, FL (May 11, 2012) US Soccer Players -- In February, San Jose announced that they had signed forward Chris Wondolowski to a new contract. As always in MLS, the monetary terms weren't disclosed. The length of the deal, however, was made public. Wondolowski will be with the Quakes through 2016. Later this season, the MLS Players Union will release their annual player salary list and we'll get to see the difference between what Wondolowski made last season ($175k) and his new deal. What we already know is that Wondolowski isn't a designated player, so his salary remains within the regular cap.
Fans that value goals might be forgiven for asking a very simple question. Can they give Chris Wondolowski a Designated Player contract already? The scoring machine in San Jose has already shown this season that once again he is a rare commodity in Major League Soccer. A conduit of offense, and by his current pace, potentially a record breaking one. With 11 goals through ten games, Wondolowski is on a tear, surpassing the injured Thierry Henry as the League's top goal scorer.
Since the 2010 season, Wondolowski has scored a total of 45 goals and led the League in that category in each season. He has surpassed all other strikers in MLS, and his recent National Team call-ups have restated the obvious: the man is special.
Yet, if by luck or curse, he plays in a League with not only limited funds, but a limited spending mentality and an even bigger aversion to free agency. It doesn't help matters that he plays for the MLS version of a small-market club, one that plays in the smallest stadium in the League. Then there's the broader MLS idea that when you spend, you spend on talent from other leagues.
The central villain in our story is Major League Soccer's response to free agency. In the formative stages, this was a league designed so clubs wouldn't compete with each other for contracts. Even with designated player exemptions, discovery players, and increased cap space, and occasionally paying a transfer fee, free agency is something for other leagues. Without that, a player like Wondolowski can't shop his services at the end of a contract. Far from it. Under MLS's archaic contract system, the reserve clause remains in play. Wondolowski is tied to the Quakes until they choose to move him to another club. San Jose will never face the scenario common to other sports where they'll need to compete on contract terms with their MLS rivals.
MLS has done a lot of work in recent seasons to move away from their reputation as a sports business model as much as a soccer league. They've never talked about money, yet they've managed to sell fans on cap discussions and what their team may or may not be able to do in the broader marketplace while still keeping the central tenant of single-entity in place. That non-competitive model means players already in MLS need demand from outside the League to change their situation.
The tightly controlled walled garden that is MLS doesn't mean a team can't choose to reward a franchise player. That happens, and it's not necessarily the big teams with larger budgets making that choice. Shalrie Joseph is a designated player because New England recognized his value to them. Again, in isolation they chose to reward their player. DC United didn't, with their most impactful player and league MVP Dwayne De Rosario not at the top of their pay scale.
The only two Americans currently on designated player contracts are Landon Donovan for obvious reasons and Brek Shea because Dallas wanted to keep him rather than see him sign with an overseas club. Where does that leave players like Wondolowski? For the most part in check, held down monetarily, and without much sway as to their actual worth. Bidding wars between teams, jostling for the services a potent striker, won't happen any time soon.
San Jose is its own island for his services, negotiating with Wondolowski and his agent but well aware they'll face no pressure from any of the other teams in the League. Since 1996, this has created a skewed playing field where value becomes difficult to assess. To Wondolowski's credit, he makes it easy. He scores goals when other players, some costing their clubs considerably more, don't.
Wondolowski met his burden of proof. He's a striker that scores more than anybody else. Yet he's caught in a system where value will always be relative to a single club. It's not a new problem for career MLS players who lack the international flair to force a better deal. Even then, players that leave the League, prove themselves elsewhere, and then return aren't necessarily treated with the same status as other international players signing on with MLS. Domestic quality, even to the scale that Wondo has reached, isn't held to the same standards
It's a free pass of sorts for those players entering the League as designated players, but one that shuts out, or even doesn't acknowledge the contributions of players created within MLS. This has developed a culture within this league that favors talent that has yet to prove itself over those that have.
Frankly, that needs to change. A balance must be met, if only to reward talent that consistently thrives in MLS. It also sets a standard for the League and its potential recruits. Showing a path from developmental or college player, through MLS success, and ultimately arriving at Designated Player status is a major statement, a recruiting tool for players to tie their futures to MLS. After all, that's what the League has said it wants. Players making the MLS choice early and sticking with it.
That's why there's a place for results oriented Designated Player contracts. There should be room for international stars in all rosters, but the scale tends to be one sided, and often players entering with the promise of that international flair don't pan out. This is a tough league, and it should reward the players that strive and ultimately succeed within it.
Dario Camacho made the move from regular commentator as Pesmerga7 to columnist. He writes weekly for US Soccer Players. Follow him on twitter at DarCam7.
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Well, as MLS matures, I think there will be some changes to salary cap structure that will make it easier to reward players like Wondolowski. Wondlowski lost the Golden Boot last year because he didn’t have as many assists and DeRosario. Fine, those are the rules, but for the past two years he has been on the top of the scoring charts and that is not an accident and on his current pace he could top Roy Lassiter’s 27 goal season by a country mile. A long term deal is nice, but if Wondolowski is not scoring in two years, you can be sure he will be shipped out and surely he is smart enough to know that.
All players want a guaranteed contract and all clubs don’t want long term deals. The solution seems to me to be to find some way to incentivize performance–performance bonuses is the way to go.
You fail to mention that MLS does not exist in a vacuum like the NBA, MLB, NHL, or the NFL. Wondo could of let his contract run out and taken his services anywhere in the world. Like a number of Americans have done. But MLS is stable and offering better contract these days, and the money isn’t quite what it use to be in places like Denmark, Norway, Germany, and Sweden. So you can understand why he took the deal.
MLS is afraid of FA because it could overvalue the decent American player. Creating a bidding war for mediocre talent. The way the EPL does with English player transfer fees and wages. You could end up ruining MLS by clubs spending too much cap room for decent American players and driving out the better foreign players that the league have been able to get on the cheap.
You have to be very careful. MLS is being very smart about this. I don’t believe you get it.
Sean, You also fail to mention that even if MLS would declare free agency under single-entity its still impossible. Single-entity is a pipe dream under MLS’s corporate structure it was set up that way. All teams are own by the league and franchised out to owner/investors who pay a franchise fee to operate a franchise. This is a major difference from the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB. In these other leagues each team operates as a single independent economic unit (an independent company). Where as MLS teams are nothing but subsidiaries of the parent company. This is a crucial part of the MLS setup.
Go ahead an leave DC United and try to get a contract with the Chicago Fire. It doesn’t matter not only are all contracts in MLS own by the league, but Chicago is not going to go against what the parent company wants it to do. Why? Because they all have the same economic interest. So even with free agency in place the different franchises are not going to offer contracts that in the end hurt its parent company. MLS would have never been founded if they didn’t show investors how this setup would allow the league to be viable.
A look into the beginnings of MLS convinced the right people that single-entity would allow them to keep domestic players salaries down essentially, because players wouldn’t have much of a choose you have three: 1) play in MLS; 2) play in the lower divisions; or 3) play somewhere overseas. The Galaxy’s Bill Gaudette choose number 2 for many years and those like Lee Nguyen of the Revolution chose number 3 rather then except MLS’s low ball wages. But not with stability and slow growth the league does offer better wages, however it will never offer true free agency.