MLS salaries show substantial disparity
The Major League Soccer Players Union released the 2007 salaries for all 359 players in the league on Friday, and perhaps the most startling statistic that the list provided was this:
At his current salary, it would take Galaxy rookie Ty Harden, who has played every minute of every game this season, 367 years to match the amount his soon-to-arrive teammate David Beckham will earn in one year.
Income disparity is a fact of life in MLS, and the yawning gulf between Harden’s $17,700-a-year salary and Beckham’s annual average guaranteed salary of $6.5 million is the most glaring example.
Put another way, at an hourly rate over a 30-game regular season, Beckham would be taking home $144,444 for each 60 minutes’ of work; Harden would get $393 an hour.
Despite that, Bob Foose, the executive director of the union, said he had no problem with Beckham’s hefty paycheck. “He’s making what he’s supposed to be making,” Foose said. “That deal is a market-based deal and that’s great. It hasn’t happened all that often in MLS where a player gets what the market holds for him.”
Beckham, who will finish his contract with Real Madrid in Spain on June 30 and arrive in Los Angeles shortly thereafter, is the highest-paid player in the league by far, according to the union’s figures.
His $6.5 million in average guaranteed annual salary is well ahead of Chicago Fire forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco’s $2.6 million, New York Red Bulls forward Juan Pablo Angel’s $1.59 million, Red Bulls midfielder Claudio Reyna’s $1.25 million, Galaxy forward Landon Donovan’s $900,000 and Kansas City Wizards forward Eddie Johnson’s $875,000.
They are the six highest-paid players in the league. What troubles the union, though, is that there are 57 players earning the league minimum of $12,900 and another 36 earning Harden’s $17,700 salary.
“From our perspective, it’s the level of the low end that’s the big issue,” Foose said. “It’s a big, big problem. A third of the league has to ask their parents for money to pay the rent.”
The league basically splits players into two categories: those on each team’s senior roster, where the minimum salary is $30,000, and those on the developmental roster, where the minimum is $12,900, or $1,075 a month.
Twenty-five percent of all MLS players are developmental players, Foose said. “There’s no way you can live on a developmental salary. In L.A., D.C., New York? No way.”
Even the senior roster figure is barely adequate, he added.
“We’ve gotten the minimum up to $30,000, which is good progress considering it hadn’t moved at all before the union,” Foose said. “But still, $30,000 is tough to live on for a professional athlete.”
The league’s players voted unanimously to release the salary figures in the hope that it would prompt, or even embarrass, MLS into moving on the issue.
“We’re lucky in MLS that the high-end guys [players] are every bit as committed to improving the lot of the low-end guys” as the union leadership is, Foose said.
The league’s improved financial strength based on television contracts, jersey sponsorships and the like should allow MLS to correct matters, Foose said. “There’s no reason, as far as we can see, that they can’t deal with that, and sooner rather than later,” he said. “There clearly is enough revenue....
“You could bring all the developmental players to the senior minimum for not much more than $100,000 per team per year, or about $1.5 million in total.
“It’s eminently doable.”
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Highest-paid players in MLS
*--* Rank Name Club Salary * 1 David Beckham Galaxy $6.5 million 2 Cuauhtemoc Blanco Chicago Fire $2.6 million 3 Juan Pablo Angel New York Red Bulls $1.59 million 4 Claudio Reyna New York Red Bulls $1.25 million 5 Landon Donovan Galaxy $900,000 6 Eddie Johnson Kansas City Wizards $875,000 7 Freddy Adu Real Salt Lake $550,000 8 Carlos Ruiz FC Dallas $435,000 9 Clint Mathis New York Red Bulls $410,000 10 Taylor Twellman New England Revolution $350,008
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* Average guaranteed annual salary, which includes a percentage of the signing bonus, if any, but not performance bonuses.
Source: Major League Soccer Players Union
