Comments on: Have a whip-round! 26 MLS players living in poverty!

By: Grant

Grant — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:46:03 +0000

I completely agree with the idea that these players are underpaid.

Having said that, I must say that the poverty line you quoted is for a household income and a family of four, which most of these guys don’t have, since most guys in that situation don’t have a family yet and the ones that do have a spouse or significant other with an income of their own.

Though I will say that some cities like LA and New York have much higher costs of living associated with them than Sandy, Utah or Columbus, Ohio, so the point is probably fair enough.

By: .:R32

.:R32 — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:46:09 +0000

The thing is, if you look at the statistics on some of these players you will see that they played over a 1000 minutes last year making them an integral part of the team. That is not a player in need of “developing”. The wages are disgusting and I hope they do strike for better starting wages. 20,100 per year is considered poverty..!

By: NewcastleUFC

NewcastleUFC — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:54:03 +0000

The reason those players are making so little is that they are signed to “development contracts”. Essentially they are signed to the team but aren’t expected to get much playing time. MLS teams sign these players up with the hope of developing them throughout the year to become better players. With MLS not having a reserve league or proper youth teams this is the way they squeeze an extra player onto the roster. That said, the average MLS starting player is still only making 80-150k a year, not exactly enough to go out and buy a Range Rover with Pink wheels every other week…

By: Richard the Red (Devil)

Richard the Red (Devil) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:24:24 +0000

I’ve seen a couple of these blokes play and now I think they’re overpaid.