Tired of listening to every financial consultant under the sun parroting on & on about how monumentally screwed we all are on CNN? So am I. Partially because it's true and really, really scary and partially because I'd rather distract myself by listening to Jeff Agoos tell me about capitalism and soccer. Click to continue reading...

I'm starting to feel like European clubs are picking MLS clubs to partner with as part of some sort of soccer homesteading scheme. You know, claim some territory in the New World before your neighbor does...that type of thing. Chelsea have The Galaxy, FC Dallas is the Lucky Pierre with Tigres & Atletico Paranese, Arsenal are locked up in love for days with Colorado, Red Bull are but aren't mobbed up with their Austrian cousin in Salzburg, Chivas USA is the stepchild of Chivas Guadalajara and Real Salt Lake are down like clowns with Real Madrid. Click to continue reading...

Time Magazine has just published it's list of Best and Worst Sports Executives of 2008 and Don Garber came in at number 14, four places above Roman Abramovich and his scary self. Some of the other footie luminaries who made the list where Sir Alex at No.2, EPL boss Richard Scudamore, and Inter Milan capo Massimo Morretti. Click to continue reading...

Vodafone chief executive Paul Donovan is being linked with the job at Arsenal - to replace already-departed Keith Edelman. Edelman had held the job since 2000 and was instrumental in steering the club through its move from its old home Highbury to its new Emirates Stadium at Ashburton Grove. According to The Daily Mail, Donovan [. Click to continue reading...

Can he walk on water, no? But by some metrics he seems to have gotten pretty damn close to being able to turn MLS water into box wine. Which isn't all that bad so long as you don't try and compare it to Tuscan Chianti.

There's an article on Soccernet today about how even though this season Beckhamania is not at the Purple Rain Tour heights that it was last year, our David is still bringing the message to masses. Click to continue reading...

You know how you know MLS is doing really well now? Because when you read about it in the Wall Street Journal or Forbes or when you see it discussed on Fox Business it always seems to be about sponsorship deals or something else positive. It used to be that everything you mentioned in the financial press mentioned the contraction of Miami and Tampa. Click to continue reading...

Remember that photo? It's from back in October of last year when Seattle was still in the rumor phase of it's expansion bid. Some guy who was commissioned by Adrian Hanuaer did a few mock-ups like the one above that were the talk of the blogosphere for a few days in the fall that now seem more than a little bit prescient: XBOX 360 Live will be Seattle's front of kit sponsor for a cool $4million a year. Click to continue reading...

The rumors are true: Sports Business Journal says that VW will be the DC United jersey sponsor. Great stuff for DC...but isn't this enough Teutonic taint for one club? Still, $3.7 million will buy you many van loads of mid-priced Argentine talent. Plus, they're uniform colors won't clash with the logo at all. Click to continue reading...

There is a running joke amongst NYC's downtown music community that "it's not a party until [former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist] James Iha shows up". Seriously, the guy is somehow at every bar in the LES and East Village every night of the week. It's as if he's found a way to defy the physical world and be everywhere at once. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal have cleared up their backlog of games enough to sit atop the Women's Premiership, 4 points ahead of Bristol despite having played 5 less games. The Gunners extended their lead with a 5-2 win at Liverpool maintaining their 100% record. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal have cleared up their backlog of games enough to sit atop the Women's Premiership, 4 points ahead of Bristol despite having played 5 less games. The Gunners extended their lead with a 5-2 win at Liverpool maintaining their 100% record. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal have cleared up their backlog of games enough to sit atop the Women's Premiership, 4 points ahead of Bristol despite having played 5 less games. The Gunners extended their lead with a 5-2 win at Liverpool maintaining their 100% record. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal have cleared up their backlog of games enough to sit atop the Women's Premiership, 4 points ahead of Bristol despite having played 5 less games. The Gunners extended their lead with a 5-2 win at Liverpool maintaining their 100% record. Click to continue reading...

Forgive me for the late start today. Yesterday was my birthday so I took most of the evening and night off from even looking at soccer stuff online, same went for getting in touch with a few sources about certain things. Anyways, back to business, it appears that FC Dallas has re-sign Roberto Mina on loan, [. Click to continue reading...

For reasons that even I don't understand I seldom link to the Red Card blog out of Chicago. I don't know him, but I like the guy Luis who writes it and would like to drink my weight in Old Style with him next time I am in Chicago.

Maybe we can get the Fire's media relations dept. Click to continue reading...

FYI this week marks the one year anniversary of TOR. What began as way for me to have a dialog with other like minds has become...well it still is just a way for me to have a dialog with other like minds. It's just that there seems to be more of them these days. If I haven't told you in the comments, via email, late night text message or phone call, thank you very much for reading and keeping me entertained. Click to continue reading...

In the last few years there has been precious little in the way of American soccer on DVD...and Miracle Match does not count. MLS looks to remedy that by teaming up with The Tasteful Channel aka A&E to release it's DVD's. The first product of this new joint venture to hit your DVD player will be a revisit of this year's MLS Cup.

All this is excellent as the home video market is one that the league has been passing by, Pharcyde-style. Click to continue reading...

Don't ask me why but you might begin to think that we've got a court reporter on staff with all of the transcripts floating around this blog this week. Today's long-assed read is from the Herbalife Q3 Earnings conference call. I'll link to it here just so no one thinks I'm making this stuff up but I wouldn't encourage you to read it unless you have some cash tied up in it. Click to continue reading...

Folks, if working in the music biz in this day and age has taught me one thing, it is that you have to diversify. Record sales alone will not keep your Hummer gassed up; you need to tour, get a sneaker endorsement, a clothing line, a ring tone deal and a line of custom dog collars just to keep yourself in Cristal.

The same can be said for the business of soccer, or at least I'll assume it because inexplicably MLSnet is operating the online shop for Guns n' Roses. Click to continue reading...

Anyone see some potential here?

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you...but I am. That is Revs forward Taylor Twellman in what appears to be an advert for Tommy Hilifiger. I say "appears" because it's not a real ad, just something I made (amazing what you can do with Paint) over the weekend after checking out the previously mentioned/mocked Men of MLS photo spread. Click to continue reading...

A few weeks ago Soccernet ran a story on the low-dough nature of MLS Developmental salaries. I've already given you my 2 cents on the topic so I won't regale you with repetition. What I will do is give you a look at an actual developmental contract complete with bonus structure, extension options etc.

One thing I should point out is though this is an authentic contract, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Click to continue reading...

Everybody knows that MLS ain't La Liga, not on the field or in the bank account. That's not a dig, that's just how it is. The fiscal prudence that has been shown over the past 12 years is the reason our league has survived that long and I'm all for it.

A big part of that has been keeping the purse strings tight when it comes to player acquisition, with Developmental Players making up a good chunk of the workforce. Click to continue reading...

Football has changed massively over the last ten to fifteen years from being a sport to being a multi-billion pound industry. With such huge finances at stake the pressure to get results is similar to that of running any other global business. Yet those CEOs have the ability to run their business as they see [...] Click to continue reading...

So much for not disclosing the financial terms of this deal. Amigo Energy is shelling out $7.5 million over 4 years for the front of Houtson's kit. God damn, that seems like a lot of money to me. The league is getting about that from ESPN a year though, so maybe it's not.
Houston so far hasn't given the impression that they are looking to bring in a big name DP, but that's a good piece of scratch to go shopping with if you were. Click to continue reading...