The Cost of Doing Business

Want your blood to boil?


Here's a list of transfer fees MLS paid to bring in top talent for the league:

Fee Player From To
$4,000,000 Hernandez, Luis UANL Tigres Los Angeles
$2,000,000 Graziani, Ariel Morelia Dallas
$1,400,000 Etcheverry, Marco Colo Colo D.C. United
$1,000,000 Valderrama, Carlos Atletico Junior Tampa Bay
$800,000 Hong, Myung-Bo Pohang Steelers Los Angeles
$500,000 Nowak, Peter 1860 Munich Chicago
$300,000 Comas, Alex Atletico National New York
$250,000 Diallo, Mamadou Lillestrom Tampa Bay
$250,000 Galvan Rey, Sergio Once Caldas New York
$200,000 Moreno, Jaime Middlesbrough D.C. United

And a list of fees MLS received from transfering an MLS player to another team:

Fee Player From To
$3,600,000 Howard, Tim New York Manchester Utd
$3,000,000 John, Stern Columbus Nottingham Forest
$2,500,000 Beasley, DaMarcus Chicago PSV Eindhoven
$2,000,000 Ralph, Damani Chicago Rubin Kazan
$1,900,000 Lewis, Eddie San Jose Fulham
$1,700,000 Friedel, Brad Columbus Liverpool
$1,500,000 McBride, Brian Columbus Fulham
$1,500,000 Convey, Bobby D.C. United Reading
$1,300,000 Bartlett, Shaun New York Zurich

Notice anything? The Columbus Crew have had three of their players sold, bringing the league transfer fees of $6.2 million dollars. Yet not once have the Crew received help in transferring a player of the same value on the market.

Now, granted, one could assume that the league would hae been helping pay the transfer fees incurred had the Crew landed Zurawski. Still, the inequity of these figures cannot be ignored.

My solution? Let each team retain a set portion of their transfer fees in a "savings account" the league sets up that they can use at their discretion. After all, the Crew received McBride perfectly by chance as the first pick in the inaugural draft, so they don't have a right to all the money. Besides, the league does own the players. Still, one could argue that Columbus did an excellent job identifying and cultivating the talent in McBride, John, and Friedel. Some of that money should stay at home to compensate the club.

Also, Jaime Moreno has to be the biggest steal of that list as far as what the league paid, vs. what it got in return. Damn, I hate DC.