MLS’ worst contract

By: Robert | June 29th, 2007

I made a momentary mention about a week ago that the best contract in MLS belonged to Houston’s Dewayne DeRosario ($324,999.96 guaranteed – quite honestly I’m shocked that those clowns could pull that off.) Well its only right (and the next logical step) that I turn around and discuss MLS’ worst, especially since it involves an FC Dallas player.

MLS’ salary cap structure places serious repercussions on poor financial decisions. Even if you had the money of Roman Abramovich, you cannot buy your way out of mistakes. The cap (roughly 2.2 million in 2007) allows for the possibility of every team to be competitive while not ruining anyone’s bottom line and for a young league like MLS it’s the perfect tool to foster growth. Which is why signing an almost 40-year-old Shaka Hislop to play goal keeper for a guaranteed contract worth $220,800 makes no sense.

The FC Dallas front office boys’ were trying to fix the defense when they wrote his contract. The Hoops have not had the strongest backline in the league for awhile (if ever) and the fastest way to shore up any defense is to put a stone wall in the net. The idea is a solid one and in his defense, Shaka Hislop has been considered English Premier League side Reading’s greatest goal keeper ever, has led West Ham United to the 2006 FA Cup Final (only to lose on penalties in what many consider the greatest FA Cup match ever) and helped Trinidad and Tobago earn a draw in the 2006 World Cup against heavily-favored Sweden, even though the Soca Warriors spent basically the entire second half down a man. So it’s fair to say the man has talent.

But in the MLS structure, no goal keeper, not Petr Czech, not Pepe Reina, not anyone is worth more than 150, maybe 160 thousand per year. Historically, the US has been a nation filled with quality goal keepers (Tony Meola, Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller, and Tim Howard) and today nothing has changed; there is no need to go overseas and overpay for a great ‘keeper when there are good ones right here. Take a look at the salary figures for some of MLS’ better American-born keepers: Brad Guzan makes 67 thousand, Troy Perkins pulls in 87, Zach Wells is at 50 (I know he doesn’t start but that just goes to my point that good ‘keepers are abundant.) This proliferation of quality in the net forces us to remember the law of supply and demand which would state in this situation there is no rational reason to pay that much money for a ‘keeper (even one with Shaka Hislop’s exploits) especially since quality field players are a lot harder to come across.

At $220,800 Shaka Hislop eats up more than 11% of the FC Dallas salary cap space alone and is the most expensive ‘keeper in the league. Couple that with the fact that he lost the starter spot to Dario Sala, after Sala came back from suspension and is now the back-up/goal keeper coach and you have what should be regarded as an economic disaster (Even if he was able to keep the starting spot, I’d be writing the same thing about paying Sala $119,000 to back-up – you do not use approximately 17% of your salary cap space on two ‘keepers, only one of whom can play at a time – this mistake is just made more egregious with Hislop on the bench.)

I know FC Dallas want to extricate themselves from this ridiculous contract situation by just making Shaka Hislop the full-time goal keeper coach and that may be possible but not without Hislop’s permission (they have a legally binding contract.) But why would he give up that kind of money, I wouldn’t and I doubt many of you would either, but he does have a heart and maybe he’ll listen to reason (read: money.) But we may be stuck with this for awhile, I’m looking into getting more information on the situation but no one wants to talk (If I can figure out what’s legal and what’s not I’m pulling the Freedom of Information Act on people) but we cannot make a decision like this again because this is Dallas where the FC stands for “fiscal considerations.”

HOOPS PRIDE!

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