2010 MLS Salaries: No overall movement, Forwards the best paid

I am taking a break from the World Cup this evening to provide some commentary on the 2010 MLS salaries that were released earlier this week. Much has been made of the fact that the injured David Beckham still tops the list with a $6.5 million salary. What is more important to examine is what has happened with MLS payroll from 2009 to 2010 with the new collective bargaining agreement, and to understand which types of players are paid more than others. This is a continuation of a series of posts I made back in March.

It should be noted again that the salary data is not normal. Thus, I use the Mann-Whitney test to compare the 2009 and 2010 data sets to see if there are any differences in their medians. In the case of the team payrolls, the medians are:

• 2009: $2,823,007
• 2010: $2,759,648

Putting the data into the Mann-Whitney test yields the results below.

Mann-Whitney test results for 2009 vs. 2010 MLS team payroll

The results of the test show that the wide prediction (CI) for ETA1-ETA2, with the resultant negative value for the bottom end of the window, means that there is not a statistically significant difference between the payrolls in 2009 and 2010.

After determining there is no difference between the two years, the effects of position on player salary was examined. The MLS players union data was grouped into three bins - F, D, and GK. Any intermediate positions marked with an "M" were binned into the corresponding F or D groups. This yielded the following median values (player position salaries were also non-normal):

• Forwards: $96,000
• Defenders: $78,038
• Goalkeepers: $69,833

Figures 2 and 3 represent the results from Mann-Whitney tests using the F, D, and GK data.

Figure 2: Mann-Whitney test for Forward vs. Defender salaries

Figure 3: Mann-Whitney test for Forward vs. Goalkeeper salaries

As Figure 2 indicates, pay for forwards vs. defenders is higher and by a statistically significant measure, with the predicted gap at $6000. The same is true for forwards vs. goalies per Figure 3, with the predicted gap growing to $8208. It turns out that a test of defenders vs. goalkeepers shows no such statistically significant difference.

To me, it makes sense that goal scorers like the forwards get paid the most money. They not only win games, but also put butts in the seats. What's a bit shocking to me is how goalkeepers end up being the lowest paid position. I would think that the few number of them on a squad and their critical nature in a match would lead them to be better paid than defenders. Perhaps its a quirk of MLS's salary structure, but I would invest more in goal keepers than average defender salary.

On a personal note, it's sad that many technical professionals or people with advanced degrees in our nation make more money than an MLS defender or goal keeper. The attractiveness of MLS is that their players are not spoiled brats like our other professional leagues. Still, we can accomplish that goal while also upping league pay and quality of play.