Comments on: Second Opinion: The Trade

By: Jake L.

Jake L. — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:15:14 +0000

Question for Dave – what’s your beef with the foreign players? As somebody who gets most excited about FCD’s foreign acquisitions and players who’ve played at some pretty big international teams, you sound low rent or sour grapes with how critical you are, especially on the broadcasts, about the guys who weren’t lucky enough to be born here. Tell me one player on this team who’s better than Pablo, and you have the nerve to talk about his occasional faux pas? No offense, but Drew Moor had more than his fair share of defensive lapses, but I guess because he’s American so he’s better than Pablo? That’s the only explanation because what you’re saying is so ridiculous with all of your little digs. You sound really biased and make me root for the SI’s even more.

By: Buzz Carrick

Buzz Carrick — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:40:30 +0000

Jones, the money doesn’t expire. but the position in the order drops down below any added this winter. So FCD’s #1 will be 7th or 8th this winter.

By: jonesing

jonesing — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:43:22 +0000

From the MLS rules:

“A club receives allocation money for (1) poor performance during the preceding MLS regular season; (2) the transfer of a player to a club outside of MLS for value; (3) roster purposes due to expansion status; and/or (4) exceptional circumstances as approved by the Competition Committee.

Each year the MLS Competition Committee determines the allocation amount to be made available to each team. Allocation money can be traded by teams. Allocation money does not count against a team’s salary budget and can be used:

• To sign players new to MLS (that is, a player who did not play in MLS during the previous season).
• To re-sign an existing MLS player, with League approval.
• In connection with the exercise of an option to purchase a player’s rights or the extension of a player’s contact for the second year provided the player was new to MLS in the immediately prior year.

Allocation money cannot otherwise be used to buy down the salary budget number of players already under contract to the League, nor can allocation money be used to buy down the budget number of a Designated Player. ”

Does it expire? Well the rules do not specifically say, but this sounds like MLS does expire it somehow, “Each year the MLS Competition Committee determines the allocation amount to be made available to each team”.

By: El Andy

El Andy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:29:40 +0000

Teddy… spot on

Tim… lol

By: timkvfp

timkvfp — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:03:00 +0000

I have a friend that works at McDonald’s and he has no clue what allocation money is.

By: Teddy

Teddy — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:50:23 +0000

I echo some of 2pony’s sentiments, although I am okay with non-domestic born America citizens playing in MLS (Cunningham, Ihemelu). What I am not okay with is bringing in third-rate foreign “talent” to play as second-rate MLS players (Rocha, Saragosa, Guarda, Torres). Neither MLS nor US domestic talent benefits from those guys playing here. MLS benefits from second or third-rate foreigners like H. Moreno, Schelloto, Van den Bergh, and others who are first-rate MLS talent. FCD has been a bastian for over-paid and played no talent ace clowns for far too long.

By: historian

historian — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:22:32 +0000

I have a friend who works in Kansas City, and he said allocation money has no expiration date.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:34:29 +0000

My belief is the BusDriver is comfortable with what he knows, thus the resurgence of FC SMU. I agree with Dave that where the “best product on the field should be the sole reason for a decision” but BusDriver did not change the end product. FCD is not any better at this time.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:26:47 +0000

I’m a new follower of this site, but I have some information to share that I hope some will find helpful.

I have a friend who works for FCD who explained allocation money to me. As I you probably know, allocation money is salary money that is granted to teams in certain situations to allow them to exceed the salary cap. For example, FCD received allocation money when Cooper was sold to 1860 Munich.

All allocations have an use-it-or-lose-it expiration date. According to my friend all of the allocations that FCD sent to Colorado were just about to expire, so they had little value to FCD. However if a team trades an allocation the new team gets an extension on the allocation expiration. Therefore the allocations have significant value to Colorado.

Due to the Cooper sale (and perhaps other reasons) FCD reportedly still has a “truckload” of allocation money available. I don’t know much allocation money FCD has available, but my impression is that is it alot more than the “significant” amount they traded to Colorado. The key is FCD needs to use this money to bring in another quality player or two.

So if you think that Drew for Ugo straight up is a good deal, then the trade was a good deal. FCD didn’t overpay. The reality is the 2nd round pick and the allocation money that FCD included in the deal had little to no value to FCD.

Hope this helps.

By: Aljarov

Aljarov — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:29:59 +0000

Great coup Buzz – glad you took the time to write for the site Dave.