Gblock;1167863 wrote:david beckham who i believe is the highest paid or close to it ...salary $6,500,000
Kwame brown salary...$6,750,000
case closed
Do you make up things for fun and hope people listen to you? Hardly anything you've said on here has been true.
David Beckham is the second highest paid soccer player in the world (behind Messi). He makes roughly $26 million a year. Yes, he may have $6.5 million coming from the LA Galaxy alone, but his total contract was worth $250 million.
In order to understand how the MLS and players are paid, you have to understand that it's a single structure. Unlike most other leagues and teams, all the money is basically pooled together and players get paid. So, there is a set amount coming from each team that is allowed by the salary cap...but the contract also includes more coming from the MLS. This is completely different than any other league does things. So, the MLS has the second highest paid soccer player in the world...not bad eh?
LJ;1167869 wrote:They have been in the bottom half of attendence 7 out of 15 years. That is bad. A team that has won a championship and is a yearly contender should not be bottom half in attendence that often. Esp as of late.
10/14 the year they won the Cup? Miserable
Still bottom half the year AFTER? Even more miserable
It is miserable. I fault the Crew's marketing schemes [or lack thereof]. There's no reason why the Crew cannot do better.
Wooball;1167884 wrote:Is it really that hard to figure out why the Crew don't draw that well? Ohio is a Football state, followed by basketball and baseball. Like Fly4Fun points out, Columbus doesn't have the large population like some other MLS cities. And when you look at the large large Hispanic populations of the MLS cities in the South/Southwest, and hipsters in the west/northwest it becomes clear Columbus will be in the bottom 3rd of attendance for MLS.
Columbus has enough of a population to draw from. Especially considering that there are large population areas they can still draw from. It is completely plausible to think that people travel from Toledo, Cleveland, and Cincinnati to Crew games.
LJ;1167917 wrote:I disagree. With being a charter team, the first soccer specific stadium in the country, being an annual contender and actually having a decent marketing team, their attendence has been falling. That shows that people in Columbus get bored with anything that isn't OSU football over time. The CBJ never saw a big jump in attendence from going to the playoffs, because people got bored with them (now compound the fact that they are a loser).
This city does OSU football in the fall, dabbled in some sellouts and decent weekend attendence at OSU bball games, and then Clippers baseball waiting for football to start again. Everything beyond that is secondary. In order for an NBA team to work here, they would have to win a lot, and win fast. Otherwise, people will get bored and see a fall in attendence like almost everything else. I just see it ending up like another CBJ.
Total truth there.
Sykotyk;1168040 wrote:First, you have one chance to make a first impression. Columbus started in cavernous Ohio Stadium before getting their own stadium (they year they were first in attendance). The problem is every year new stadiums are opening that cause other teams to jump ahead of Columbus. And they're much nicer stadiums than Crew Stadium. Crew Stadium is as bare bones as you can get. Red Bull Arena, Livestrong Sporting Park, and the new BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston are astronomically better. It's like an NFL team playing at Stambaugh Stadium compared to Browns Stadium.
There's no contest.
Plus, these new teams are coming in when soccer is 'hip', the Crew joined MLS when soccer was purely a joke. And the product on the field wasn't good at all. That's changing.
Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver have had teams for decades. Montreal has their own stadium and will do well. Toronto does well despite a horrible team every year. FC Dallas' stadium is in Frisco miles away from the metroplex (I've been there, nice stadium, horrible location).
This is actually the case for several stadiums. Chicago Fire's stadium is not in a good location. I would even say that Crew Stadium's location sucks. For the first half of their inaugural year, Vancouver's location sucked and they still got 18,000+ at every game -- a stadium was finished midway through their first season in the MLS.
Classyposter58;1168155 wrote:Okay but those 6 that are in larger stadiums skew the numbers greatly. Bottomline is in TV ratings and merchandise dollars soccer is dwarfed by everything
Same can be said for any sport and any team. But...you must not know that out of the 6 that play in non-soccer specific stadiums, only the Sounders really do anything astronomical in terms of attendance. Also, it can be said that LA Galaxy's current structure hurts the attendance averages because they are limited to 7,500 in attendance for some of their games due to their agreement with Cal State Fullerton (I think). LA usually only operates at 75-85% capacity when they play at The Home Depot Center, so they have room for growth but numbers are hurt when they are limited to 7,500 in attendance.
I'll continue to say it, soccer is growing. It's gaining in popularity. It's gaining in support. It's gaining in finances. It's only going to get better. There are two lower-tier leagues (NASL and USLPro) that are doing fine -- some even get 10,000 fans to support them. I will admit that soccer is probably not the best spectator sport on television right now. Many people, soccer fans included, do not enjoy watching a lot on television. At the same time, the television networks aren't bending over backwards to help the MLS out at all -- it's almost painful to hear ESPN or whomever talk about the nothingness that is happening in the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB...especially in their non-championship seasons. There is so much money piped towards those sports -- and they do have the right to get a lot of it. There's simply no need to cover what is covered though. ESPN could do more...if they wanted. They don't have to show the 2007 World Series of Poker when there is an MLS game going on. But, you can bet they would change things if there was an inkling of time to talk about Peyton Manning's neck.