Agreed agreed agreed agreed! WAS: [nas] I need a ruling

I know such posts are generally frowned upon, and hopefully you folk know
I'm not prone to them, but this is so on point.

Europe has spent the past, what?, two decades trying to develop talent from
Africa - and it has been successful to a degree.

But Central and South America?  Well, South America to a degree - but how
much of that is cherry picking the national teams rather than doing what MLS
is doing?

And if it allows the US to develop a better pool in and of themselves....

Which, frankly, is the Key Log.  The size of MLS doesn't relate as much to
the number of investors willing to put money into it - it relates more to
the talent available.  Without the depth to have a 20-team league, you can
throw good money after bad all day and not get anywhere because people won't
show up to see crap soccer.  They barely show up to see what MLS puts out
now - which is solid, but ain't perfect.

Notice how Bradenton helped?

Well, it is about time that Bradenton and colleges not be the only places to
develop talent.  Those are limited venues.

So - a true reserve system (if they are willing to invest in it), along with
active scouting and development of Central (and to a lesser degree South)
American players would allow MLS to be something that the world doesn't have
an answer for yet.

And taking the 20-50 year view, at some point in there, US players would get
to the point where they are good enough that MLS would be The Place to play.

How sweet would that be?

I've heard the Scream of the Butterfly
Suwon, Korea, 6-5-02
http://flashpages.prodigy.net/klindstr/home.html

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jay Hipps" <jayhipps@wordsandgraphics.com>
To: <NAS@americakicks.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2004 9:20 AM
Subject: Re: [nas] I need a ruling


>
> On Thursday, September 23, 2004, at 05:00 PM, Brian Shea wrote:
>
> > To me, the bottom line is that the league is trying to
> > deepen the talent pool from all nations - a possible
> > raise in the SI limit, encouraging teams to get TIs
> > and looking at expanding the rosters to allow for
> > meaningful reserve play and more spots for Americans.
> >
>
> The other thing that's at work here is that the U.S. is establishing
> its place in the hierarchy of the world's leagues. MLS salaries don't
> compete with those in the top leagues in Europe but it's already been
> demonstrated that MLS can be a stepping stone to those leagues (Howard,
> Bocanegra, McBride, Mathis, Convey, etc.). Right now -- and I'll
> emphasize that I mean right now, today -- the money that can be made
> selling players is considerable relative to that of the league's other
> revenue streams. By expanding the rosters and adding reserve teams, MLS
> is making an investment that they expect to pay off in transfer fees
> down the line (as well as in higher quality of play and all the other
> benefits). Some guys are going to want to try things in Europe -- the
> league may as well make some money off of it.
>
> I think they're probably still hoping to be the biggest, highest-paying
> league in the world at some point, but until then this is a good way to
> go. The Dutch league has done real well with this sort of strategy and
> we have access to a whole different player pool than they do (US,
> CONCACAF, etc.).
>
> Cheers,
> Jay
>
>
> ---
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