MLS is here, and it isn't going anywhere. 12 out of 19 teams now have their own stadiums and Houston is breaking ground on their new stadium. If it is true that you are judged by the quality of your competition, then MLS is in good shape. MLS was has been recently linked with players such as Robbie Keane (who instead joined West Ham) and, even more recently, Nicholas Anelka, then MLS is doing something right.
Will Anelka sign? Maybe in a year or two. The problem is that there is no middle class in Major League Soccer. By middle class I mean players who aren't there to fill the stadiums but who are also not fighting for their contractual lives every day. To contradict myself and give an example, players like Logan Pause, who are blue-collar, single-digit capped players. The other example I would give is Kyle Beckerman. MLS could certainly use players like Keane and Anelka, but the future of the league lays in the ability for MLS to hold on to players like Stuart Holden and Ricardo Clark who both walked away from the Houston Dynamo for free. To keep these guys around, MLS needs to start paying deserving players. Much like Holden and Clark, MLS just lost two national team players in Robbie Findley (Nottingham Forest- English Championship) and Jonathan Bornstein (UANL Tigres- Mexican First Division. MLS won't be considered a good league until players only leave when MLS makes money. The American top flight gains nothing when they allow players like Holden, Findley, Clark, Bornstein, and many others walk away with nothing to show for it.
The future of MLS depends on the profitability of the league. Ticket sales, TV deals, and sponsorships are, on occasion, hard things for MLS clubs to come by. So when players are allowed to leave for nothing, these clubs suffer. The Houston Dynamo lost Stuart Holden (Bolton) and Ricardo Clark (Eintracht Franfurt). Instead of receiving transfer fees for the two of them, the Dynamo are left without a central midfield. This leads to a rebuilding of the product, and a lot of unhappy fans. The quality of the league needs to be progressing, not regressing.
Instead of letting American National Team players walk away for free, MLS needs to (1) sign them to longer-term contracts (assuming that they will actually sign these deals) and (2) be open to negotiating with other clubs for the purchase of MLS players. These players certainly wouldn't disagree to larger contracts knowing that if they perform they will be paid better by MLS, and that if they attract interest from foreign clubs the league will allow them to leave for a reasonable price.
This model will allow the league a better bottom line, a better reputation among foreign leagues, and happier players.
Word! If the MLS keeps letting good players leave after only being in the league for a little while makes them look like they are just a start up place for players to prove they can play at that level. I think MLS needs to finally make that big step up to becoming like European clubs. I agree that they should start making larger contracts, but that all means backing players with larger amounts of money. That will however help them make money if they can trade players to European clubs.
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