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| Friday, September 14, 2001 24:15 EST |
Owners wrangle with big issues
By Jeff Bradley
[ESPN The Magazine]
With the MLS owners' meetings wrapping up at the Anschutz Ranch outside of
Denver on Wednesday, 10 General Managers and 10 coaches (and probably a
couple of coaches in waiting) anxiously awaited word on the key issues such
as:
What's the salary budget (cap) going to be? Is it going up, down, or staying
the same?
Which teams get allocations?
How much will be spent on allocations?
Will players who defected for foreign leagues be replaceable?
Who will find the 12 new youth international players, and whom will they
play for?
Will each team be able to go out and find their own youth international
players?
And that's probably only the beginning.
"We've been told by the league to be patient," Dallas GM Andy Swift said.
"And we'll have answers to those questions prior to the New Year."
Some questions, however, will have to be answered before New Year's Day.
Players such as Mike Petke, Steve Ralston, Ted Chronopoulos, Greg Vanney,
have yet to sign new contracts, and their present deals expire at midnight
on New Year's Eve. There are also players like Leonel Alvarez, Raul Diaz
Arce and Preki, whose options have not been picked up. They'll either have
to come to terms on new contracts, or move on.
These are times MLS is glad it has the longest offseason in professional
sports. This year, it seems they're going to need all that time to get
things sorted out.
In tight space
In Dallas, Swift says he'll speak to MLS VP Mark Abbott "in the next 24
hours" to let him know what head coach he would like to hire. Swift is down
to four candidates: Chicago assistant Mike Jeffries, Colorado assistant Rene
Miramontes, Dallas assistant Ed Puskarich and SMU coach Schellas Hyndman.
Jeffries is also a candidate for the Colorado head job. Expect the Burn to
hold a Tuesday press conference.
When Miami plays a friendly match with D.C. United, the Fusion will be
taking a look at former Slovakian international midfielder Josef Majoros.
The 30-year old Majoros most recently played in his home country for Art
Media and in 1998 was voted Slovakian Player of the Year.
On Wednesday evening, Ben Olsen said Nottingham Forest and MLS were still a ways apart on a transfer fee and he is certainly going to be playing for DC
in the CONCACAF Champions Cup regardless. But by Friday morning, Forest
manager David Platt was quoted as saying the two sides were getting close.
Stay tuned as it appears Olsen is headed for a full-time gig in England. As
for his experience in the First Division, Olsen says, "I am enjoying the
style although the running I have to do because of lack of possession is
maddening. Actually, running's my game anyway. Who am I kidding."
According to a source, Alexi Lalas is willing to play in MLS at a lowball
salary ($50,000 is the number being thrown around), so long as he can play
in Los Angeles. "I'll just say that Alexi left the game ... it wasn't because of
money," said agent Richard Motzkin, "and if he comes back, it won't be
because of money, either." One cynical player told me he wouldn't doubt
Lalas had the whole scenario planned out a year ago, to which Motzkin
replied, "That's giving Alexi way too much credit. He never thinks that far
ahead."
Ante Razov is hoping to make his debut for Spanish second division club
Racing de Ferrol on Saturday. He started training with his new club this
week.
Did anyone else think Houston's Robertson Stadium was the star of the show
last Sunday night when the U.S. women played Mexico? Except for the pitch
conditions, Robertson looked terrific on the tube with a crowd of 11,000 in
the stands.
The movie version of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, the greatest book ever
written on what it means to be a fan, is now on the shelves at Blockbuster.
I checked it out this week and can give it neither a thumbs up nor a thumbs
down. Obviously, Hornby had to go with a more traditional romantic boy-girl
theme to make Fever Pitch palpable as a movie, but the lead character (played
by Colin Firth) was not nearly as likeable as the storyteller in the book.
If you haven't seen it, rent it. Just don't don't expect it to measure up to
the book or, for that matter, to High Fidelity, Hornby's other
book-turned-movie.
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