Player development - what are the rules?

RSLChango · 05-09-2006, 10:39 AM

I read in the Trib but I can' t remember where, that the MLS had voted to approve rules allowing teams to keep players they develop. Did they actually approve a set of rules or was it more like a resolution so that teams could start moving in that direction?

As an editorial side note: this may be the most exciting thing to happen in the MLS since it began and will bring serious benefits to MLS communities over the years.

prk166 · 05-09-2006, 10:55 AM

Good question. I didn't think the league had resolved this issue yet. I think they'll go that way. The trick is that they need to share a lot of revenue to ensure the league does well. But they still need to find ways to give individual clubs incentive to gain some profit for themselves.

More importantly, they may need to go this route to continue to encourage overall investment in the league. Surely Chivas would like to use Chivas USA as a way to find and develop young players. And if anyone like Chelsea is mulling over a team in Philly or something like that, I'm sure they'd like to see something like that worked out.

RSLChango · 05-09-2006, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prk166

Good question. I didn't think the league had resolved this issue yet. I think they'll go that way. The trick is that they need to share a lot of revenue to ensure the league does well. But they still need to find ways to give individual clubs incentive to gain some profit for themselves.

More importantly, they may need to go this route to continue to encourage overall investment in the league. Surely Chivas would like to use Chivas USA as a way to find and develop young players. And if anyone like Chelsea is mulling over a team in Philly or something like that, I'm sure they'd like to see something like that worked out.

I think that perhaps the most important benefit is that it could build grass roots support for the club. If you have 100 kids playing in the youth teams, you get their families and friends support as well. Granted not all of the kids will be local but lots of them will.