FRISCO, Texas -- Major League Soccer announced the implementation of the Designated Player Rule -- the mechanism for bringing in high-profile and high-cost players -- following Saturday's Board of Governors meeting at Pizza Hut Park.
The initiative allows teams to sign one player whose salary will fall outside of the team salary budget and whose cost above the salary budget charge will be the financial responsibility of the club. The Designated Player Rule will be in place through the 2009 season, at which point its future will be reviewed.
"We could see some players that were bandied about brought into the league by those clubs that believe those players are going to deliver some value to them locally and to their fans," said MLS Commissioner Don Garber. "It's something the teams are going to talk about. You're not going to hear the league talk about any of those particular players."
Starting in 2007, a Designated Player's salary will count $400,000 toward his team's salary budget; that amount will be paid for by the league. Any portion of the player's salary above $400,000 will be paid for by the club. While the league will continue to sign all players as a part of it's single-entity structure, teams will be responsible for choosing players they want to assign Designated Player status.
Teams won't exactly be able to go as far as they want to sign a particular high-priced player. All signings must meet with league approval, though teams will certainly have a lot of leeway in bringing in players.
"(Garber) has to put his signature on it, and the league office has to approve it," said Deputy Commissioner Ivan Gazidis, "but I do think that there will be some out-of-the-box thinking and some interesting signings by some of our ownership groups. I think our predisposition is going to be to approve that type of thing."
Currently there are several players in the league whose salaries are above the maximum. Those salaries are paid for in full by the league, something that will continue for the 2007 season. Starting in 2008 those above-the-maximum players, like the Los Angeles Galaxy's Landon Donovan and FC Dallas' Carlos Ruiz, will be considered Designated Players.
Gazidis said that while some may think the focus of the rule is on bringing in international stars, it could be better used to keep home-grown players in the league.
"If those players are important to their teams, this provides an opportunity for teams to keep those players," Gazidis said. "It's not necessarily just about the world superstar players. This could also be about the player a team wants to keep, the player a team identifies overseas who isn't yet known ... but turns out to be the next Christian Gomez or even the next Marco Etcheverry."
Designated Player slots can be traded, though no team can have more than two Designated Players on its roster. If a team has two Designated Players, the second will be charged at $325,000 toward the team's salary budget.
Also on Saturday, the league approved an initiative to increase a club's share of transfer revenue generated by the sale of one of that club's players. The league has committed to reinvesting that revenue into replacing the departed player. Gazidis used former Chicago Fire midfielder DaMarcus Beasley as an example.
"Candidly, it's usually not possible where there's a big transfer fee to get an adequate replacement for the player that you've just lost," Gazidis said. "The net of all of that is DaMarcus leaves the league, there's a replacement in Chicago. He's probably not as good as DaMarcus and our product takes half a step backwards."
The league also clarified the structure of the 2007 schedule. Each of the 13 clubs will play every other team twice (home and away) for a total of 24 games. The remaining six games will be played between teams from the same conference (three home and three away).
In the Western Conference, one extra intra-conference game -- compared to the East -- will be played, with preference given to rivalries. The Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA will play each other four times, as will Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids and FC Dallas and Houston Dynamo.
The league also committed to investing more in scouting at the league level, including establishing a worldwide scouting network and increased the expansion allocation budget for Toronto FC. Also, for the first time in league history, 100 percent of MLS matches will be broadcast live on TV in 2007.
Jason Halpin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
Garber on Desig. Player: 
Nov. 11 show archive: 
