WASHINGTON – The next step in D.C. United’s roster renovation process involves a long look at potential options in the league’s Re-Entry Draft, the new mechanism for player movement that begins in earnest with the first of two stages next Wednesday, Dec. 8.
By virtue of their 2010 record, United will pick first in both stages of the dispersal draft, which concludes with Stage 2 on Dec. 15. For a club whose late-1990s dynasty has fallen on hard times of late, a bit of turnabout is more than welcome.
“The good thing with this league is, when you have a season like ours, it gives you a little boost,” head coach Ben Olsen said. “We’ve been punished plenty of times [for past success], so now we get to sit at the top of some of these things and make some decisions. I think throughout the league, there’s some guys that can help us for sure.”
DC officials are “intrigued” to see which players will be available next week, but sound more enthusiastic about the second stage given that they would have more flexibility in salary negotiations at that point. A wait-and-see attitude is natural, given that re-entry is a brand-new process that grew out of last spring’s collective bargaining negotiations with the MLS Players Union.
“None of us knows how this is going to work,” United president Kevin Payne said earlier this week. “I think you may see more action after the second dispersal draft because the first one, you basically have to pick up a player’s option.
“In a lot of cases, those players are exposed because the team that has them now doesn’t agree with the option price. And usually everybody is in a similar place on players, there’s not that many different opinions. We’re intrigued by it, we think there’s going to be some pretty good players exposed, but whether we pick them in that draft or wait and pick them in the second one remains to be seen.”
Several notable veterans around the league have become eligible for the Re-Entry Draft this week, but salary levels are a likely stumbling block for many clubs in Stage 1. United declined contract options on four members of their own squad on Thursday afternoon, though several are likely to be invited to 2011 preseason as trialists. None qualify for the re-entry process.
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