The rumor mill has been churning at fever pitch regarding the New York Red Bulls and that second designated player option.
The Red Bulls gathered up Claudio Reyna with their DP mechanism but have one more in pocket, having collected a second slot from Chivas USA. Hence the pesky rumors, some generated by traditional media and some generated through the relative anonymity of the message boards.
But there's a bit of cart-before-the-horse here. The club still has some work to do before it can identify and pursue its next high-profile target: Red Bull officials still must figure out how to squeeze another big salary beneath the cap.
Red Bulls technical director Jeff Agoos says the team simply isn't in a position to extend any high-dollar contract offers at the moment.
These new designated player slots are great and all, bound to splash extra color along the MLS walls in 2007. But league guidelines require that teams clear $400,000 from the salary cap for the marquee player. The second DP counts $325,000 toward the cap.
Add it up, and if Red Bull uses the second slot, 36 percent of its salary cap will be devoted to two players. That means Bruce Arena, Agoos, et al could have some tough roster choices ahead as they spread the remaining money around a full complement of players.
New York eliminated about $400,000 in salaries as Tony Meola, Chris Henderson and Steve Jolley moved on. But that only got the team so far.
"Right now, we're just not in a position to use our second designated player option," Agoos said.
And salary cap sleight of hand isn't an option. Agoos says there isn't much wiggle room under cap guidelines.
"I wish there was," he said. "Every creative way we've tried to work it has been shot down by the league."
BACK TO REALITY: As they talk to players from around the globe, kicking the proverbial tires and gauging interest in joining MLS, club representatives are battling the Beckham Effect.
Apparently, not everybody understands what a unique gem MLS has in Beckham. No other player in the world - no, not even the fabulous Ronaldinho, even if he were available and affordable - is so uniquely positioned to draw attention and awareness like Becks.
Here's what has happened: Players and agents around the world saw the $250 million compensation package that helped hook Beckham and pretty much fell over backward with delight. They got delusional, dreaming of scoring a similarly lucrative payday, pretty much assuming they would be stopping over at Fort Knox on the way to Toyota Park or wherever.
So coaches and other club officials had to perform a financial cold water splash and bring everybody back down to MLS reality on their compensation requests.
"A few guys got stars in their eyes, and we had to bring everybody back down to Earth," one club official said.
COMING SOON NEAR YOU: A league source has confirmed that MLS schedule makers worked overtime to provide every chance possible that David Beckham and the Galaxy will visit each league market at least once.
In some cases, the Galaxy visit might not be part of regular season play, but part of the new SuperLiga tournament.
It's all quite tricky, of course, and league officials certainly can't make any guarantees. Beckham could always miss time due to injury. And league officials remain unsure of the date Brand Beckham will splash down in MLS waters.
The extra tinkering didn't cause any delays. The schedule is set to come out early next week, which will be almost exactly the same date it was released last year.
VACATION SPOTS? Players in the NFL, NHL and NBA have certain things better than their MLS counterparts. But there is at least one area where MLS players have things substantially better than their professional sports siblings: Those teams generally don't get to spend their training camp days in swank vacation destinations.
Check out where the long MLS preseason will take some teams:
New England will spend time in Bermuda and Cancun. Real Salt Lake will find itself in Spain for 12 days. Maybe they'll bump into some of the Chicago Fire contingent there; Dave Sarachan's bunch is spending two weeks in Huelva, Spain. FC Dallas is going the other way, to Brazil. Kansas City will visit Argentina. And several teams will spend time in Bradenton, Fla.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME: Red Bull New York announced earlier in the week that the club will (finally) have a (sort of) permanent practice venue, spending significantly to fix up fields and locker facilities at Montclair State University. The agreement is for 2007, with an option for 2008.
But that doesn't mean the Red Bulls are losing focus on the big picture. They continue making steady progress on a (really) permanent training facility, according to spokesman Eric Tosi.
The renovation of Montclair State's Dioguardi Field and the adjoining locker facilities all represent a stop-gap, although an important one. The club's training situation has always been a trouble spot, and would have been once again this year if not for the agreement with Montclair State.
The team formerly practiced at Giants Stadium. If the NFL's Giants were in season, the soccer team's coaches and players would often discover where they were practicing - in the indoor bubble, on the outdoor practice field or occasionally at a nearby school - about an hour before the workout was to begin.
That's why new manager Bruce Arena made a priority of sorting out the messy training situation.
Club officials hope to have a deal finalized by April for the permanent training facility and office complex. They continue talking to several undisclosed communities, allowing only that all the potential sites are in northern New Jersey. The new facility will have 5-6 fields, enough for not only the senior team, but also the reserves and the Red Bulls youth component.
STILL AGOG-GLE: Fans of the Orange (the Dutch, that is, not Houston Dynamo) were excited about the potential Edgar Davids signing in Dallas. And they were certainly disappointed with the news that Holland's eminently recognizable tough guy signed instead with Ajax.
But take heart: there's still a chance he could join FC Dallas later. New manager Steve Morrow has left the door slightly ajar, saying the club may pursue Davids again this summer or at the end of his 18-month deal in Amsterdam (if the club still has its designated player slot.)
Still, Dallas loses its best chance at keeping the individual fouls leadership title at Pizza Hut Park. Davids would have been a decent bet to take the baton from Simo Valakari, who led the league in fouls for the last three years.
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
