TFC Salaries, MLS will be hard pressed to kick their players

[Red CB Toronto]

With the discussions of Carl Robinson maybe moving back to play in England, I looked around online for info on football salaries in England and found this which was put together in 2006. With the 2.1 million dollar salary cap in the MLS, even competing for players from League One would be hard, also remember these numbers are for the British pound, which is about one and half times when exchanged for US money.

Using the current rate to exchange the British pound into US dollars, here are the average salaries for the top four leagues in England.

Premier:$1,048,138.3462
Championship:$303,167.8209
League One:$105,259.0812
League Two: 76,904.8254
MLS: $117,299

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/163676000-the-average-salary-of-a-premiership-footballer-in-2006-473659.html


AVERAGE BASIC WAGE
Premiership £676,000
Championship £195,750
League One £67,850
League Two £49,600
AVERAGE BASIC WAGE BY AGE GROUP
Premiership
Age 17-18 £24,500
Age 19-20 £95,000
Age 21-22 £390,000
Age 23-24 £582,500
Age 25-26 £653,000
Age 27-28 £899,500
Age 29-30 £806,000
Age 31-32 £586,000
Age 33+ £660,500
Average* £676,000
Championship
Age 17-18 £22,500
Age 19-20 £43,700
Age 21-22 £79,000
Age 23-24 £79,200
Age 25-26 £136,000
Age 27-28 £261,850
Age 29-30 £247,000
Age 31-32 £247,000
Age 33+ £195,700
Average* £195,750
League One
Age 17-18 **
Age 19-20 £18,950
Age 21-22 £52,000
Age 23-24 £61,650
Age 25-26 £67,600
Age 27-28 £71,750
Age 29-30 £69,300
Age 31-32 £87,000
Age 33+ £72,000
Average* £67,850
League Two
Age 17-18 **
Age 19-20 £16,000
Age 21-22 £32,350
Age 23-24 £43,650
Age 25-26 £46,300
Age 27-28 £47,300
Age 29-30 £50,500
Age 31-32 £52,000
Age 33+ £45,800
Average* £49,600
*all players aged above 20. **insufficient sample pool for meaningful average

[Shakes McQueen]

Judging by those figures I'd say we are pretty firmly in League One territory, with MLS' better players moving up into Championship territory.

I'd fathom that within another season or two, we will be firmly in Championship wage territory.

Ideally, I think MLS should have a wage average slightly higher than the Coca-Cola Championship. It would help the league attract more European players who aren't quite top-flight, but can make more coin playing in North America.

Football in North America is a long ways off from developing to EPL-like levels of financial and competitive success, so it isn't even worth talking about that. Hopefully by the time I'm in my 60's (approx. 40 years), I'll be able to enjoy good top-flight football in my home country. And I think even that might be optimistic - the game of football simply isn't grounded in culture here, the way it is in Europe.

- Scott

[Broadview]

Another factor to consider in all this is cost of living. I remember reading that one of the reasons Robbo took a pay cut to come play over here was because the UK is so expensive, a small pay cut can still net you a little more dough, or if not at least soften the blow financially.

[BuSaPuNk]

Yep that is true playing over there is really expensive on a player and his family. They need to raise the salary cap in the MLS to allow more spending to attract better players. Atleast so then we can compete with the Championship and Leauge 1.

[Fort York Redcoat]

Can we partner with Brighton?

Great research but it's only one source for our player pool even if it's managements biggest network base. I'm sure we'll see more Robbo's and Dichio's and even more Welsh's.

[denime]

MLS: $117,299 ,Yeah right.
I would like to know what is real average in MLS,one without Beckham.

[flatpicker]

that Premier league salary surprises me...
NHL average salaries are higher at $1,906,793.
I would have assumed the Prem would pay more than that...


I have a question though...
What currancy does TFC pay their players with?
Considering the falling Canadian dollar, if they are paid in U.S. $'s then there will be some extra coin being dished out by MLSE.

I base that on this article about Canadian NHL teams (obviously though, they are dealing with much higher salaries... I think MLSE wouldn't be too bothered by a few extra bucks for MLS salary)
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2008/10/23/f-nhl-loonie.html

[Don Julio]

MLSE hedges all their Canadian funds to avoid these fluctuations.

[rocker]

What currancy does TFC pay their players with?

TFC doesn't pay its players.
the league does.. so they are all paid in USD.

the only thing that TFC has to pay the players is per diem + appearance fees for events, which is not a lot.

[I_AM_CANADIAN]

The salary cap needs to be raised substantially if this league wants to become competitive.

[rocker]

MLS: $117,299 ,Yeah right.
I would like to know what is real average in MLS,one without Beckham.

i think his average is the average without Beckham.
he's taking the total amounts of the caps for each team and dividing it by the number of senior roster players. That equals about 117K.
Now, we know that there are some DPs.. and there are allocations that players are paid to knock down the cap number.

So the average salary for a senior roster player in MLS is probably higher than 117K.
But if you factor in the 10 development slots, that might take it back down.

It would definitely be nice to see it go up. Although we can't just compare to England. We need to compare to other countries too. We're not just trying to attract English players.
If the league could get to a point where it can suck up good players from cheaper leagues in central america and south america, then we may be better off than competing with England.
I think also that you will never see MLS totally compete with Europe, because there's a prestige factor when it comes to playing there. Unless MLS could start waiving shitloads of money at players, those guys will always choose Europe if the salaries are equal or even if MLS is slightly better. No sense chasing those guys and wasting money on them.

[GeorgeB]

about 10 representitives from AS ROMA (they were here to set up ties with Erin Mills SC)were at the last home gome and a friend of mine who is a coach for EM was part of the group that hosted them.apparently Canada and Australia are two international markets the big clubs want to have more of a presence in and they signed four 13 year old EM players and will train them in italy.one of the main reasons that they are attracted to Canadians is mostly their size as they are much bigger athletes than europeans plus very strong and agile to compliment that size.anyways, the Roma guys werent to impressed with the quality of play of MLS and compared it with Serie C .i wonder what the salary comparison is with SERIE A, B ,and C.

[VPjr]

about 10 representitives from AS ROMA (they were here to set up ties with Erin Mills SC)were at the last home gome and a friend of mine who is a coach for EM was part of the group that hosted them.apparently Canada and Australia are two international markets the big clubs want to have more of a presence in and they signed four 13 year old EM players and will train them in italy.one of the main reasons that they are attracted to Canadians is mostly their size as they are much bigger athletes than europeans plus very strong and agile to compliment that size.anyways, the Roma guys werent to impressed with the quality of play of MLS and compared it with Serie C .i wonder what the salary comparison is with SERIE A, B ,and C.

Everyone in the soccer world wants to get their hands on Canadian, American and Aussie athletes but the key is to get them early. wait too long and the learning curve is too huge. Our players simply don't get the proper training and don't have access to enough good coaches. That's why the TFC Academy is relatively useless (mostly a marketing ploy) unless it expands to incorporate 10-14 year olds. By 16, its largely too late for most players to make large development strides.

BTW, I know some people who are deeply involved in professional soccer back in Italy who have watched a number of MLS games over the years and they would agree with the MLS=Serie C comparison.

As for salaries, you have guys in Excellenza (which is essentially a youth development, semi-pro level of play) making more than then MLS minimum. Serie D and C pay more or less the same. Average salary level might be a shade below what MLS average is but there is far less disparity from best paid to worst paid in Serie C and D. there would be no one making $18K while others are making $300K. Most would be making 3000-5000 Euro a month.