By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Jan 31, 2012) US Soccer Players -- In Tuesday's edition, Tony looks at the longer MLS season debate, an unexplored benefit of preseason training, Marco Etcheverry's new job, and contrasting styles of MLS management.
Can you name at least one non-MLS city which is very excited about MLS pre-season training?
Tucson, Arizona. Six MLS teams are headed to Arizona to train. Interestingly, the NY Times' article reports that preseason training is an economic boon for an area because people come from out-of-town to watch pre-season training/games. As such, Spring Training (baseball and soccer) defies the conventional wisdom that spending money on a stadium/sports team just moves money around an area (ie, people go to a sporting event rather than a movie).
Who's not a big fan of the idea of a longer MLS season?
Bruce Arena. As Manny Lagos also mentioned, players need to recover and revenue plays a role also. While it's a fair point that every coach wants to bring their own methods into play, and should be given every chance to succeed on clear terms with upper management, making a fetish out of a particular formation (see Gasperini at Inter earlier this season) or training technique (say, fitness) clouds the discussion. The best coaches, anywhere, find that blend between their ideas and the players they have.
What is former DC United icon Marco Etcheverry doing this Spring?
Coaching Team Siliguri in the new Indian Premier League Soccer. Santino Quaranta came out of his brief retirement and will play for Etcheverry during the seven-week league.
When will some teams understand that fans don't root for an economic plan?
For some, not soon, apparently. “[Adding a second designated player this season is] not in the cards at this point because between building the stadium, buying the franchise, the operating losses-the owners have already contributed a significant amount of capital,” said RSL Chairman David Checketts.
To be fair to Checketts, he acknowledges Javier Morales may eventually become RSL's second DP (Alvaro Saborio is one currently) and that RSL wisely wants to win and refresh the roster, which isn't easy.
But as Checketts knows better than most, while all those reasons he lists for not increasing payroll may be true, sports isn't about an business plan. No one is asking Salt Lake to increase their payroll to the $15 million figure Checketts brings up, but fans want a winning team that plays attractive soccer, not just to look at a balance sheet.
As a rebuttal, which MLS franchise understands that fans want to see winning, attractive soccer?
“On the field, we have one goal, and that is to win a championship,” said Kansas City CEO Robb Heineman.
I'm not saying Sporting Kansas City is the only franchise whose ownership focuses on what conditions are necessary for success on and off the field, but at least they know you don't go around talking about why you can't do something.
Buried in that article is a quote that “looking at season-over-season sales, we've already sold 1,000 more season tickets,” said Heineman. “We feel good about that, but we need to deliver at a different level.” Even if its just talk, how much better does that sound than what we're hearing out of more than a few MLS teams' management.
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