A Few More MLS Salary Statistics

I thought I'd briefly return to a topic that was big enough to get me to take a brief break from my recent three week blog vacation: 2011 MLS salaries.

Recall the following conclusions from my previous post:

• Median pay was actually down 13% from 2010 to about $80,000 per player per season.
• Median pay per match was down 24% when one accounts for the four additional games teams will play this year with the admission of the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps to the league.
• New York has led the way the last two seasons in terms of total team payroll after LA had led that category for the previous three years. LA did close the gap this year with the signing of Juan Pablo Angel as their third DP.
• No other team in the league spends even half as much as LA or NY.
• MLS crossed the 500 player barrier this year, which was driven by the addition of Portland and Vancouver as well as an increase in the number of roster spots for each team allowed by the league.
• Ultimately, the league spends as much on total payroll as Chelsea spent on the transfer fee for a single player (Fernando Torres). Since my last post, an additional comparison could be made - in 2011 MLS only spends slightly more than what Don Garber is seeking from the next expansion franchise (scroll down about 1/3 of the way in the linked article to see what I'm talking about).

This all made me think of three areas in the 2011 salaries worth exploring

1. The effect of designated player salaries
2. The effect of player position on median pay
3. The number of players on each team.

Designated Player Salaries

The designated player (DP) may present one of the more interesting contrasts within the league - they're meant to grow the status of the league in the minds of American sports fans while not breaking the bank. In some ways, MLS is trying to re-create the magic associated with certain NASL teams while not making the same fundamental mistake as the NASL -  having team expenses outpace revenues.

This results in a huge pay disparity between DP's and non-DP's. The graph below shows the sum of DP salaries in constant 2011 MLS dollars, as well as the share of total league payroll that DP's utilized (click on the graph to enlarge).

While DP salaries (and their associated share of total MLS pay) dipped in 2009, they regained their steady climb to a new high in 2010 of 38.4% of league salary expenditure. In the 2011 season there are 17 DP's in the league that earn a combined $28.5M per year and take up 35.6% of the total pay in MLS. This means the remaining 501 players have $51.6M to split amongst themselves (or an average of $103k per player).  If the DP's weren't afforded exemptions from normal salary cap rules, the average player pay would increase 50% to $155k per year. For a league that has cried poverty and has focused on improving the quality of play on the pitch it seems strange that they would allocate so much of the league salary expenditure to so few players. I've always questioned how the league expects to get measurably better in the eyes of the soccer-watching public if they're attempting to buy superstars instead of using the money to build teams.

Median Salary and Number of Players by Position

Another way to look at league salaries is to break out median salary by position. The graph below does just that, plotting the salaries of forwards, midfielders, defenders, and goal keepers in unadjusted dollars as well as the count of each type of player by season (click on graph to enlarge).

The graph clearly explains that midfielders and forwards are the best compensated in the league. However, that gap seems to be closing. While the number of players at each position has gone up from 2010 to 2011, it appears that the greatest gain was in the midfielder position. In fact midfielders only outpaced forwards by about 25 players through 2009, but midfielders have now become the greatest number of players in the league by nearly a 65% margin. Median pay within these two groups fell significantly in 2011, while defender pay remained constant and goal keeper pay was slightly reduced. The superior numbers and steeper pay reductions seen in the midfielder and forward ranks are what drove the magnitude of the overall decrease in median pay between 2010 and 2011.

Number of Players per Team

The increase in the number of players at each position is also showing up on each team's roster. The graph below shows the number of players per team over the last six MLS seasons (click on graph to enlarge).

From 2010 to 2011 teams have added an average of four roster positions. This should bode well come playoff time (along with the front loaded schedule for teams participating in Champions League), as I showed in a previous post that the difference in the number of games played over a season between first round playoff teams is a statistically significant determinant of the winner of the series. How much of a benefit this will be is yet to be seen. Not only do managers need to utilize the additional talent they have at their disposal when playing in US Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League matches, but the gain seen over the last season only gets the teams back to the roster numbers they had in 2008. That was the first year that the "extra matches" theory took effect in the first round of MLS playoffs.

Conclusions

MLS is certainly increasing its salary expenditures and consequently increasing the number of players on each team. This bodes well for the league that had reached a low in 2009 in terms of players and salaries in constant dollars. I am wondering how much longer the DP model can last in its current form - only two teams are able to spend the money to have anything beyond the token DP or two, and they're spending the money on top talent that is contributing this season. I just don't see MLS players putting up with such a pay disparity over the long term. Finally, I'll be interested to see how much the additional roster spots will help in the playoffs. I have made no attempt to hide my dislike for the whole concept of a playoff in this league, but the specific failure of successful teams to make it out of the first round due to apparent fatigue from participation in so many extra matches is especially frustrating for those of us who want to see long-term success rewarded. Additional roster spots may help with such fatigue, if managers are willing to take the risk of not playing their usual starting XI in knockout tournaments like the US Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League. I remain skeptical, and will make a comparison between the first round opponents at the end of the regular season and make a few predictions.