With the new NBC contract, record attendance and improved quality of play, 2012 is poised to be a breakout year for the league. He are 10 ways to make it better:
1) INCREASE THE SALARY CAP TO $5,000,000 PER TEAM : Record year for attendance, more sponsorships than ever before and new TV contracts. It’s time to to bring the salaries up and make the quality of play even better. It will also allow the MLS to keep more of their US nationals in the league.
2) INSTALL A MINIMUM SALARY FLOOROF $3,000,000 PER TEAM : Start getting the cheapskate owners (You know who you are) to start investing in their product on the field. The better your team, the higher your attendance.
3) INSTALL A SOFT CAP/LUXURY TAX SYSTEM : The LA Galaxy and New York Red Bulls come to mind here. They are ready, willing and able to spend more than most teams in MLS. So, let them do it! Let them have multiple susperstars on the team if they choose. However, if you put in a 10% luxury tax, then the strive for balance is still there. This will ensure that the problems that caused the NASL to fold do not occur.
4) INCREASE THE DESIGNATED PLAYER RULE TO 4 PER TEAM : This is not your daddy’s MLS anymore. Good players are willing to come here and play. The league missed out on getting Nicholas Anelka because he only wanted to play for the Red Bulls and the team did not have a DP slot available. Let’s fix that mistake. Each DP should count $500,000 towards the salary cap.
5) ALLOW A TEAM TO SELL OR TRADE ONE DP SLOT : To protect the league from being too top heavy, make the price $500,000 per team or 2 international slots. Also, the selling team must reinvest 50% of their revenues in player investment. Therefore, the salary floor goes up to $3,250,000 for a team that sells it DP slot.
6) STANDARDIZE KICKOFF TIMES : Most of us are tired of figuring out when the next game for our teams are being played. Make all east coast games kick off 7:30pm on Saturday’s, Midwest at 9:00pm, and West Coast at 10:30pm. Have one Sunday night marquee game at 8:00pm and one Monday night marquee game at 8:00pm.
7) SEASON BEGINS FEBRUARY 25TH AND ENDS OCTOBER13TH : 34 weeks to play 36 games and give the teams 2 weeks off around the All-Star break. This will allow for only 6 midweek games every six weeks which you can spread out over the season. This leaves plenty of room for the teams to have mid week friendlies during the summer, US Open Cup qualifiers, Champions League qualifiers and International dates without depleting teams (See New York Red Bulls 2011).
8) CREATE A US SUPERCUP GAME TO START THE SEASON : The winner of the Supporters Shield should play the winner of the MLS Cup to kickoff the season for the US Super Cup. Should the team be the same, then the US Open Cup winner should take it’s place. If it is still the same, then the MLS Cup runner up. Marquee matchup to start the season and let it be a stand alone night.
9) PRODUCE A WEEKLY “INSIDE THE MLS” SHOW : Shown every Tuesday night at 10pm, a half-hour show would recap the previous weeks game, preview the upcoming week, and have an interview with the MLS player of the week. Pitch it to NBC or ESPN.
10) SPECIAL HOLIDAY DOUBLEHEADERS : The NFL has Thanksgiving, NBA Christmas Day and NHL New Years Day. Utilize Easter Sunday, Memorial Day, July 4th or Labor as a showcase matchup day doubleheader.
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