The arms race begins in MLS

Let the Major League Soccer arms race begin.

When MLS changed its roster and salary rules this spring, allowing teams to sign up to three high-salary players, the change figured to trigger a frenzy of summer spending. The early indications are that the loosened purse strings have had the desired effect.

It isn't just that teams are making major signings, such as New York‘s acquisition of Thierry Henry and the Los Angeles Galaxy‘s pursuit of Ronaldinho. The added wiggle room created by allowing teams three marquee signings instead of just one is leading to more teams looking to add multiple DP targets.

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The New York Red Bulls already had goal-scoring Colombian star Juan Pablo Angel when they introduced Thierry Henry, giving the team arguably the best forward tandem in MLS. The Red Bulls aren't stopping there, with Mexican international Rafael Marquez looking like the team's third Designated Player.

Chicago landed Mexican star Nery Castillo, a player looking to turn his career around and a player MLS couldn't have dreamed of signing three years ago. The Fire don't appear to be stopping there, with rumors emanating from Chicago that the Fire will add a second Designated Player by the end of the month.

The Los Angeles Galaxy could pull off the biggest Designated Player score to date, with Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho in the Galaxy's sights. Los Angeles already boasts MLS poster boys David Beckham and Landon Donovan, but the new DP rule could pave the way for the Galaxy to boast a trio with the type of star power not seen in America since the days of the Cosmos.

The potential arrival of so much star power comes at just the right time for a league looking to capitalize on the interest in soccer created by the World Cup. As much as MLS has tried to keep spending down during its first 15 years, it has become clear that the league had to loosen the purse strings to start filling its new stadiums and to compete with other leagues for the services of players such as Henry, Marquez and potentially Ronaldinho.

MLS: June 23-25

 

Thursday, June 23
Home		Road
Seattle	4-2	New York	Recap
Saturday, June 25
Home		Road
DC United	2-2	Houston	Recap
San Jose	0-0	LA Galaxy	Recap
Philadelphia	3-2	Chivas USA	Recap
FC Dallas	4-0	Portland	Recap
Sporting KC	2-1	Vancouver	Recap
Real Salt Lake	3-1	Toronto	Recap
Sunday, June 26
Home		Road
Chicago	1-1	New York
Seattle	2-1	New England	Recap
Columbus	4-1	Colorado
MLS Scores | Table | Fixtures

 

And what about the concerns that the new rules will turn the league into a league of Haves and Have Nots? It’s no surprise that the aforementioned teams are from the three biggest markets in the country. MLS has implemented a system that essentially taxes teams that sign three Designated Players and distributes that money to the teams that don’t have multiple DPs.

That’s good news for teams like Philadelphia and New England, who have yet to sign a Designated Player. The word out of Philadelphia is that the expansion team is focusing on player development rather than splashing millions on big names who aren’t likely to be around long.

That approach sounds prudent, and until teams with Designated Players start winning titles, it could wind up being the smart way to go for smaller market teams (no team with a Designated Player has won an MLS Cup title in the two years since the DP rule was adopted, and only Angel‘s Red Bulls in 2008 and Beckham's Galaxy in 2009 have reached the final).

Signing Designated Players isn’t without its risk. You need only look at the Seattle Sounders, who are having serious issues with Swedish star Freddie Ljungberg in just his second season in MLS, for an example of a Designated Player signing gone wrong. You could also look to the Chicago Fire, who spent millions to have Cuauhtemoc Blanco for two seasons only to have him depart after last season with no titles and very little in the way of a long-term impact.

That’s what many smaller market teams are fearful of when it comes to spending big money, and why some of the league‘s better teams are choosing to stick with the established methods of roster building in MLS. While teams like New York and Los Angeles load up on DP signings, teams such as Real Salt Lake and Columbus can build winning teams through the draft and through shrewd signings like Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Alvaro Saborio.

It is getting more difficult for those teams though, especially with players like Henry and Ronaldinho now considering MLS. Where in the past, teams had to pin their hopes on one Designated Player signing, having three DP slots makes it that much more likely that a team can provide a serious talent boost and make itself stronger more quickly.

That fact is going to eventually force the league’s thriftier teams to start spending to keep up. It won’t be easy for every team in MLS to land a player like Henry or Ronaldinho, but it is clear foreign players are looking at MLS as a more favorable destination, so signing quality foreigners should only become easier for teams across the board.

Not every team has the luxury that Philadelphia has of being a new team with a rabid fan base packing a new stadium, a fan base that isn’t quite demanding a winner just yet. For the Union, it makes sense to wait to sign a Designated Player. The same can’t be said for teams such as Houston, Colorado and FC Dallas, who have tickets to sell, and playoff and title aspirations, but who could find themselves struggling to deal with stacked teams like Los Angeles and New York.

MLS had no choice but to start letting teams spend more freely, and the early evidence suggests that the move came at just the right time. If all, or even some, of the stars linked to MLS come aboard, the league’s profile will continue to grow, and if the team’s free-spending teams find success thanks to this new financial freedom, we could be in for a prolonged arms race that should only make the 15-year-old league better.

Ives Galarcep is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the U.S. national team and Major League Soccer.