Quote Originally Posted by James17930 View Post
Older DPs can only be paid a maximum of 1 million? No way they do that. Not possible. As much as it's good to go for younger DPs, they can't completely neuter the chance to bring in big name players from overseas. That would be commercial suicide.

Not necessarily. Under the proposed changes, teams can still sign older DPs, as long as the team has one that is under 23.

Quote Originally Posted by OgtheDim View Post
That story was a trial balloon put out by 2 ownership groups, who were both mentioned by the writer.

Vancouver

Dallas

The balloon was made of lead. Almost universally panned by journos & fans. The only people who would like this are cheapskate owners and there is no way in Hades that NYC & others who want to spend money hamper themselves in this way.


IIRC, there was talk put out by owners prior to the the last 2 CBA's about changes to the DP system - both times, nothing changed. The strategy seems to be to create friction between the DP's at the table & the non-DP's.


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We have heard consistantly from TFC that they are working to get a new DP - we heard strong rumours from decent sources that Ballotelli was under discussion (and rejected ultimately). If people think for one moment that this league is going to not let a team get Mario Ballotelli because some cheapskate owners don't want to spend money on a 3rd DP....

......, then if this is what that product strategy committe wants to do, then they will do it.

A few more points from that article from The Athletic that should be mentioned:


- this so called (influential) product strategy committe is co-chaired by FC Dallas co-owner Clark Hunt and Whitecaps co-owner Greg Kerfoot being an influential voice in that group - these are 2 lower spending teams

- also included (per sources) are Seattle owner Adrian Hanauer, Portland owner Merritt Paulson, LAFC part-owner Larry Berg, Red Bull global head of soccer Oliver Mintzlaff, City Football Group chief Ferran Soriano, Galaxy president Chris Klein, Atlanta president Darren Eales, and Sporting Kansas City owner Mike Illig - a mix of high spending and low spending teams

- it is this group that votes on whether to recommend proposals like those regarding changes to DP rules to the MLS board of governors, who then typically rubber stamps their recommendations.

- there is some concern that with these changes, it takes away automony from teams. Executives want to run the clubs they see fit. If one wants to sign three expensive 30 year old DPs, then they should be able to.

- these discussions, which are been done internally in the league, for changes to the DP rules are separate from the ongoing CBA changes. It appears that as per the current CBA, the owners can make these changes outside of collective bargaining. They are expected to hang onto this power though the negotiations.

- changes to the DP slot were also discussed late summer of 2018, but were ultimately not adopted. The fact that it is been discussed again 18 months later may mean there is a league wide appetite for restricting that third DP slot.

- whether changes are made or not remains to be seen.