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A Deep Dive Into MLS and Orlando City’s Payroll Spending

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The Major League Soccer Players’ Association released its fall salary information yesterday and the numbers revealed some interesting trends in regards to teams’ payroll spending. As a general rule, in 2018 you don’t want your team to spend the most money or the least if you’re interested in the club playing postseason soccer.

Let’s take a look at the payroll breakdown:

1.      Toronto FC   $26,559,206.65

2.      LA Galaxy   $17,507,008.30

3.      Chicago Fire   $15,531,522.67

4.      New York City FC   $14,824,390.78

5.      LAFC   $14,134,135.99

6.      Seattle Sounders FC   $13,427,648.33

7.      Montreal Impact   $12,642,036.90

8.      Atlanta United   $11,606,330.49

9.      Sporting Kansas City   $11,554,237.01

10.  Portland Timbers   $10,994,792.96

11.  Colorado Rapids   $9,741,570.96

12.  DC United   $9,689,537.84

13.  FC Dallas   $9,334,556.52

14.  Philadelphia Union   $8,914,581.59

15.  Orlando City SC   $8,873,899.44

16.  Minnesota United   $8,542,121.37

17.  San Jose Earthquakes   $8,308,343.41

18.  Real Salt Lake   $8,132,415.56

19.  Vancouver Whitecaps   $8,107,770.17

20.  New York Red Bulls   $8,064,992.45

21.  Columbus Crew   $7,715,954.14

22.  New England Revolution   $7,471,669.49

23.  Houston Dynamo   $5,896,563.27

24.  FC Cincinnati   $2,057,575.83

*These numbers were compiled from individual salaries by SB Nation’s Jeremiah Oshan. I haven’t checked all of them for accuracy but I did double check that Orlando’s is correct given the data from the MLSPA and I looked at a couple other random teams and found no discrepancies. For these purposes, the total compensation column was used rather than base salary.

How Orlando City Fits in the MLS Spending Picture

The first thing that stands out is this: holy cow is Toronto FC spending a lot of money! To me, the second thing that stood out when I saw the numbers displayed like this is that two of the top three payrolls are out of the playoffs and the No. 2 LA Galaxy are below the line with one game left to play. With a game in hand on Real Salt Lake, it’s possible the Galaxy will win and get in, especially with a home game looming against Houston, but a draw or a loss would eliminate LA and put the top three payrolls in the league on the outside, looking in.

The next thing you notice in this column (or at least for me, as someone following Orlando City) is that the teams below the Lions are not doing well. Of the eight teams below Orlando City’s payroll number (not counting FC Cincinnati, which isn’t fully in the league yet), only one team is safely in the playoffs. Five of the eight are out and two more — Columbus and Real Salt Lake — both could miss the postseason as well.

It’s likely the Crew will get in, with only a home game remaining against Minnesota. Even a draw would see Columbus through. Montreal needs to beat New England and get help from the Loons to knock Columbus out. But we’ve already mentioned that the Galaxy just need a home win against a poor Houston side to leapfrog RSL. So the likelihood is that six of the eight teams below Orlando in payroll will miss the playoffs, while 10 of the 14 teams that spent more will continue playing beyond Sunday and two of those four teams to miss the postseason are Toronto and Chicago, the league’s No. 1 and No. 3 spenders.

D.C. United’s payroll was lower than Orlando’s prior to the secondary transfer window and the team languished near the bottom of the table. However, once the spending increased the team quickly climbed up the Eastern Conference. That’s certainly not the only factor in D.C.’s rise, with the other being a bevy of home games in the second half after spending the early months of the season mostly on the road, but it does follow the spending trend.

The New York Red Bulls are the league’s outlier. Sunday’s Orlando City opponents have been outspent by everyone but Columbus, New England, and Houston, yet are gunning for the Supporters’ Shield this weekend. Excellent player evaluation and an even better academy have served the Red Bulls well.

If the Crew get in, they’ll be a second outlier, as Columbus spends very little. Talent identification, smart spending, and good coaching have gotten the Crew a long way. On the other end of the spectrum, Toronto FC and Chicago are outliers in a negative way. Each spends a lot but didn’t reach the playoffs. With the Reds, that’s due largely to a spring spent chasing the Concacaf Champions League title and a rash of key injuries. It’s also possibly, in part, a hangover from winning a treble just a year ago. The Fire also dealt with some injuries this season but mostly they just played poorly throughout the year. Should the Galaxy stumble on Sunday, they would join the Fire as clear underachievers at the top of the MLS spending ranks.

Orlando City was much higher on the payroll list from 2015 to 2017 but that was mainly due to paying Kaká the league’s highest salary. The team did a better job of more evenly distributing its spending in 2018; however, it is now just 15th of the 23 current MLS teams in payroll and in the range of spending occupied mostly by teams that will miss this year’s postseason.

How Orlando Spent its Money

With the vast overhaul the team did last off-season, and the amount of allocation money used, it is unclear how much flexibility the Lions will have to distribute across their payroll in 2019. There are some tremendous bargains on this team, such as Adam Grinwis ($67,500) and Shane O’Neill ($79,499.92). However, there are also players making far too much money for the amount of minutes they’re getting, like Donny Toia ($125,004), Dillon Powers ($180,000), Stefano Pinho ($183,333.33), and Richie Laryea ($164,000).

Injuries have also been costly, with Jonathan Spector ($636,941.50) limited to just 13 matches in 2018, while the club should also look to be more economical with the roster spot occupied by Cristian Higuita ($581,662.67), who will appear in less than two thirds of the team’s games this season.

Speaking of Higuita, the Lions are spending an extraordinary amount of money on defensive midfielders. If you don’t include Yoshimar Yotún’s salary of $599.996 in that, the club is still spending $2,193,474.80 combined on Higuita, Powers, Uri Rosell, Will Johnson, Carlos Ascues (who could feature in a three-man back line next year instead of defensive midfield), Tony Rocha, and Cam Lindley.

The Lions are spending $3,818,916.62 in the attack (if you consider Yotún there, as he’s played much of the season in the attacking midfield, although it’s not his most natural position). This includes the team’s only two strikers — Pinho and Dom Dwyer — as well as attacking midfielders Sacha Kljestan, Josué Colmán, Yotún (who generally plays deeper, where he’s more comfortable), Laryea, Jose Villareal, and Pierre Da Silva (a bargain buy at $54,504 for a developing young player). Keeping in mind that Dwyer and Kljestan make up more than $2.48 million of that $3.8 million total and another half a million plus is Yotún — a more natural left back/left defensive midfielder — that leaves $735,587.25 on the rest of the attack (Pinho, Laryea, Villareal, Mueller, Colmán, and Da Silva). Four of those players hardly ever play, Mueller’s production (but not his work ethic) has dropped dramatically since the early part of the season, and Colmán has yet to find good enough form to warrant being a lineup regular, appearing in 23 games but starting just 10. This is clearly an area in need of an upgrade and a more even distribution of expenditures.

The back line is somewhat expensive at $2,469,174.62. It has also been hit hard by injuries in 2018. There is a lot of quality on the team in this area but with injuries and international call-ups leading to 25 different back line combinations in 33 matches, you’d hardly know it. Orlando set a new MLS record for goals conceded in a season largely due to so much inconsistency on the back line. For the purpose of counting the back line cost, I did not include Ascues, as I believe he was intended to be a defensive midfielder who can fill in on the back line. (You can add $391,500 to this total for Ascues and subtract it from the defensive midfield, if you like.) That could change next season if James O’Connor sticks with three at the back, since the Peruvian is adept at playing the ball with his feet and he combined well with O’Neill and Lamine Sané the last couple of games.

For our purposes here, I’m counting the guys who are primarily center backs and fullbacks (minus Ascues). So, the total above reflects the combined salaries of Toia, Spector, Sané, O’Neill, RJ Allen, Mohamed El-Munir, PC, Chris Schuler, Scott Sutter, and Amro Tarek. I think the team has done a good job overall spending in this area and there is good quality. It just needs to stay healthy consistently. Perhaps removing Spector and using his salary to improve the depth players at fullback would be the right move here as it would seem unlikely to sustain such an insane rash of injuries at center back again, and Ascues could certainly fill in when needed. Allen’s not a bad depth player but PC and Toia aren’t being used and an upgraded is needed behind El-Munir who has finally started playing better defensively now that he’s being deployed more as a wingback than a fullback.

The goalkeeping is only costing Orlando City $324.833.40 this year. Several teams pay their starting goalkeepers more than the Lions pay all of their keepers combined. Joe Bendik makes more than half of the above total and he’s not been nearly good enough in 2018. Grinwis has been a nice find but it took him all season and a number of poor performances by Bendik and a lack of seizing the job by Earl Edwards, Jr. to get his chance. It’s unclear if Grinwis is the long-term answer the Lions need but if he is, he’ll get a significant raise. This is another position the Lions will need to upgrade this off-season.


To summarize, the Lions should use a better payroll distribution across the attack, upgrade the goalkeeping position, and stay healthy at the back. Jettisoning Spector would save the team a lot of money, but would also result in a loss of leadership and quality, as he’s been the team’s best center back when fit, so that will have to be taken into consideration.

Committing to playing Yotún either in the defensive midfield or the attacking midfield and Ascues either in the midfield or the back line, would also help the club see where it needs to best address payroll this winter. And, finally, O’Connor must decide whether an expensive Designated Player like Kljestan fits within his system or if the money spent on the veteran midfielder can be used more effectively.

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Reflecting on Eight Years with The Mane Land

A look back over my time with The Mane Land (so far).

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Nick Leyva, The Mane Land

As of last week, I have been a contributor at The Mane Land for eight years. That’s longer than I’ve ever been at any of my actual jobs in my life. There are literally only a couple of people who have been with the site longer, but I’m still amazed at how long it’s been. This is not to say I’m going anywhere, but rather I wanted to take the opportunity to look back at the past eight years, and look ahead to the future.

Unlike some, I didn’t come to be a supporter of Orlando City until it was announced that the club was joining MLS. At the time, I was contemplating picking a club to follow in MLS, but being in Tallahassee, there were no nearby options at that time. I considered FC Dallas and D.C. United, given the two were geographically closer in proximity to me than any others. Fortunately, it was literally while I was considering my options that the announcement was made regarding Orlando City’s jump to MLS. It was an easy decision.

As I do in many aspects of my life, I immediately started researching my new club, which led me to the content being produced by The Mane Land. There was also an article on the site titled “Join The Mane Land Staff.” I had often over the years internally bemoaned that I rarely used my Bachelor’s degree in English, and the desire to write welled up in me so much that I emailed the staff. 

In response, one of our former editors, Andrew Marcinko, contacted me and said “I think your voice would be a great fit on TML.” He asked me to submit a Fan Post (those went away with our presence on SBN), and then another piece for review. Following that, our founder and managing editor, Michael Citro, emailed me to welcome me to the staff. I had no idea at the time how big a part of my life this blog would become.

I started out writing Monday’s Lions Links — often one of the more difficult days to write — and a feature piece. It’s been many years gone by now, but there was a time when the feature piece was “Pride Pub,” an ongoing series that paired craft beer and good food based on Orlando City’s opponent. I can tell you that the research for that was very enjoyable, and I still use some of the recipes I found to this day.

Eventually, I started contributing more match coverage and analytical pieces. Staff came and went, but I never thought to leave since I was enjoying myself. Sometime after that, I was promoted to senior columnist, for which I’m grateful. I can without reservation say that I’m a better writer thanks to my time with the site, and from working with such excellent staff.

In November of 2016, Michael asked if I wanted to give co-hosting The Mane Land PawedCast a try. My first recording was for Episode 71. We just recorded Episode 354, and with the exception of maybe two or three episodes, I have been on every single one of 283 episodes over the last six plus years. Michael and I have spent a lot of time talking on and off the podcast over the years, and I’m proud of what we have produced and to call him my friend.

We recently added an Orlando Pride-specific podcast called Skopurp: An Orlando Pride PawedCast. For years we wanted to give the Pride the time and attention the club deserves. Now, it is a reality, but one that I ask you to listen to and share. I’ll even put out that although Michael and I are the current hosts, we merely consider ourselves stewards and are hoping to get others to come onboard and eventually take it to the next level.

When I started with The Mane Land, the site had just made the move from a free WordPress site to the SBNation network. It was a big deal, and for many years it was a good partnership. Of course that all came to an end not too long ago, and our blog went the independent route thanks to the incredibly generous support of our readers and listeners. In fact, if you want to be one of those supporting our efforts, please go to our Buy Me A Coffee site to become a member. The move has allowed a flexibility we didn’t have before, but I really want others to have the same sense of joy and accomplishment that I have as a member of our staff. 

At one point we had nearly twice the staff that we do now, and as you know, many hands make light work. The opposite of that is also true. I genuinely believe that there must be others out there with the same passion for Orlando City as I have — with the same desire to have their voice heard, whether through the written word or on a podcast. I promise you there is an opportunity to contribute here with us. Our internal discussions are informative, engaging, and often funny. Please consider joining us, as I did eight years ago. I haven’t regretted it and I know you won’t either.

I want to thank all of those who contributed to The Mane Land over the years. There are many that I am still in touch with, though they are no longer a part of the staff. Of course, the current staff are a pleasure to work with, and I appreciate their dedication to what we are trying to do.

Finally, I want to thank the readers and listeners over the years. From those who regularly comment on our articles, to those that I’ve personally met at matches or even randomly on the street, you are a big reason that we do all of this. You are a big reason why I’ve been doing this for the better part of a decade. it is always a genuine pleasure hearing your thoughts or simply sharing a moment of joy together — U.S. Open Cup final, anyone?

So, thank you. I look forward to many more years of this journey together.

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The Mane Land Announces Membership Program

Maximize your Mane Land experience with our new TML membership program while supporting our independent efforts.

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Hello, readers of The Mane Land and listeners of our podcasts. Before you start reading this, please note that the most important part of this post is at the end. So, don’t stop until you get to the bottom.

You may recall that when we left SBNation to become independent, we really weren’t sure the best way to go about that. Many of our readers and listeners generously offered to help us make that transition, but we still weren’t sure the best path forward, so we took a poll.

The poll was pretty much split down the middle between those who preferred a one-time, Kickstarter-style campaign (which we did, and those of you who stepped up to help completely blew us away!) and those who favored a Patreon-style, subscription-based membership with extra perks. In fact, the member subscriptions option got a few more votes in our poll.

The folks who took part in our GoFundMe fundraiser were fantastic and are now immortalized on this very site on the “Our Founders” page. But we had always planned to give folks the option to choose whichever method of support they preferred and we tried to communicate that throughout the process. It took a little longer than expected to get up and running, but our membership subscription program is now in place! (You may notice the fancy new banner ad about it on the home page, echoed below.)

Supporting TML helps build a better TML for you to enjoy, so you’re really subscribing to your own Orlando soccer fandom.

Part of that delay was thinking up something that didn’t encroach on the benefits we gave our Founders. Those folks helped us get started and deserve the exclusivity of the perks they got. The other part of the delay is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. (However, for you guys, I’m willing to be cloned.)

We have utilized the popular Buy Me a Coffee platform to run this program. You can find the basics here. The Mane Land premium membership program includes three tiers of membership, as well as the option to click on the “Support” tab for those who just want to help us out whenever, without joining the program or adding any recurring “appointment-based” payments to their budgets. We love that feature of Buy Me a Coffee (or “Buy Us a Beer” in our case…you drink what you like).

For those who do choose to become members, we hope we have provided value and we are planning to add benefits along the way, in addition to providing special giveaways, events, etc. (more on that below). We have also provided subscription options — with monthly or annual memberships. The annual cost essentially gives you 12 months for the price of 10.


Current Benefits

The current membership benefits depend on which level of support you choose — Homegrown Player, TAM Player, or Designated Player level. Each level includes all benefits from the lower tiers, with additional benefits for each higher level.

Homegrown Player: This is a basic set-it-and-forget-it level of support for The Mane Land, providing a way for our readers and podcast listeners to contribute to the success of TML‘s independence goals. We want to compensate our current volunteers, replace lost income of those who previously received small stipends from being part of the SBNation network, add photographers, attract new writers, and expand our coverage. Additionally, each Homegrown Player Level member will be recognized in a Lion Links column, which is still typically our most widely read post of each day and one of the top daily links columns among soccer sites. Homegrown Player Level members will also be included in any future prize drawings we have or events we host and may be subject to future benefits as they are added.

TAM Player: In addition to Homegrown Player benefits, TAM Players will receive a new weekly e-newsletter in their inbox (unless you opt out…some people hate email). These will be informal missives from myself, other TML writers, or a combination, discussing what’s on our mind regarding Orlando City, the Pride, OCB, or soccer in general. Think of it as an extra post from our site that may cover multiple topics. Additionally, you’ll get a 10% discount from our web shop items that we control (presently, that means everything except our listed MLS Shop items). We will definitely have more benefits coming for this level soon and will look for opportunities to include additional benefits as they become available.

Designated Player: This limited availability level of support includes all perks from the Homegrown and TAM levels, but it goes beyond. Your discount at our webshop (for items we control) will be 15% off. Additionally, we’ll send you Zoom links to watch us “make the doughnuts” whenever we record the podcast. This includes when we interview guests. You’ll see how the sausage is made behind the scenes and everything that we say, some of which will end up on the cutting room floor before the final podcast is sent out. This includes both The Mane Land PawedCast and SkoPurp Soccer: An Orlando Pride PawedCast. And after two months of membership you can commission a bonus episode of either podcast simply by letting us know what topic you want us to cover. Think of this as an extended Ask Us Anything. We’ll do a whole show about your topic and you can even join us to discuss it if you wish.

The DP Level will certainly have additional benefits tacked on as we move forward. It is currently limited to 40 members but could be expanded slightly depending on demand and our Zoom attendance.


Future Benefits / Benefits Under Consideration

While we won’t be able to schedule these due to the random nature of items falling into our hands, there will be periodic prize giveaways in drawings that include all of our members, regardless of level. The catch is that you get one entry per level of support, meaning Homegrown Player Level members will get one entry per prize drawing, TAM Player Level members will get two entries per drawing, and Designated Player Level members get three entries for prize drawings. Some of the kinds of items we have come across in the past include match tickets, trinkets, posters, scarves, and so on.

We are planning to add a message board to our website, well…soon-ish is the word that comes to mind. The plan for the message board is to build our community and further the discussion about the club. As part of this, we’re planning an exclusive, members-only area of that message board that TAM and DP members can access. This will be a place our staff can share informational nuggets we can’t necessarily write stories about for various reasons and interact with our members on a daily basis.

Other things in the works include meet-and-greets/watch parties where you can chat with TML staff members and catch a road match with a bunch of like-minded Orlando City/Pride fans while we all cheer on the team together. There may also be other informal outings with one or more members of the staff, organized fantasy leagues, random Zoom calls for Q&A sessions, and perhaps even some organized group outings for Orlando City / Pride matches, national team games, etc.


The Most Important Part of This Post

Remember at the top of this post, when I said the most important part is at the bottom? Well, that seems like a long time ago, now, so it’s OK if you’ve already forgotten.

The most important part of our membership program is you. We want your feedback so we can make this program something that interests and excites you. We want to know what you like and dislike about this program. We want to know if there are some things we didn’t think of that interest you. If you like what we’re offering, tell us! If you hate what we’re offering, we want to know what you’d prefer instead or in addition. If you want to go drinking with Dave, we can probably arrange that, but it’ll be a unique tier and we’ll have to figure out the cost of that.

No idea is too crazy to suggest, even if it’s too insane for us to actually offer. Let us know what you want from your subscription and we’ll see if that’s something we can do. We’ll make it easy for you by putting the form right here below this post, which is now concluded.

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Welcome Home!

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Where do I even start? When we were told in January that SBNation was pulling its support of The Mane Land and other MLS and NHL blogs — and many podcasts — I was devastated. The site had become my new baby in September of 2014 and after eight and a half years, I wasn’t ready to let it go.

I was in a pickle. I couldn’t afford to lose the monthly stipend I had been getting from SBNation to manage the site and provide a steady stream of content. It wasn’t that it was a huge monthly sum, but it mostly covered my car payment. That car was purchased when my salary was higher. The pandemic hit my day job like it did to many, and after a four-month layoff, I got my old job back but not at the same rate. So, imagine taking a pay decrease at work and then, on top of that, losing the amount you spend per month on your car payment. There was simply no way to launch The Mane Land independently, I thought, because I simply couldn’t cover the startup costs. Even with some generous offers from the staff to pitch in, there simply wasn’t a way.

Once we took the news public, there was an outpouring of support on social media. We appreciated both the pledges to help out that we got from the community and the signal boosting that the national media gave blogs like ours. Those national folks rely on local reporting for background.

Encouraged by this outpouring of public support, I met with the TML staff and we threw some ideas around. We polled our Twitter followers to see how our community would prefer to show their support. We got pretty close to a 50/50 split between those who wanted to provide a one-time donation via a Kickstarter or GoFundMe crowdsourcing effort, and those who would prefer some sort of premium subscription add-on service like Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee.

We didn’t get a lot of responses to that poll, but we decided as a group that since the results were so similar, we would offer both and let the public choose one path, the other, or even both. (Stay tuned for news soon-ish on the premium subscription level, but rest assured, everything you’ve been getting for free at TML will remain free!)

I was, admittedly, skeptical that we could raise enough startup money to create a private business, pay for hosting a new site and two podcasts (having long wanted to give the Orlando Pride their own unique show), registering a domain, paying for some design work and consulting, and any unexpected expenses that might come up. However, I thought we’d at least give it a try.

Then the amazing Orlando City, Orlando Pride, and TML community got involved. You guys pushed us past our bare minimum goal in just four and a half hours when our fundraiser went live on March 1. We reset our goal and you met that by midnight. We reset our goal again, to the dream total we discussed on our initial staff Zoom chat and you met that by that first weekend.

Stunned. Humbled. Amazed. Touched. All of these words apply to how that made us feel, but they don’t quite cover it. I think we all felt an enormous responsibility, as well. We felt a mandate to provide you the best site and the best coverage we can.

We got everything we needed to run the site for two years, even if we don’t earn a penny after our launch — and we plan to try, via advertising, a Patreon (or similar) program, an online shop, affiliate links, and anything else we can think of. But we decided to leave the GoFundMe open through the end of March, just in case there were folks who wanted to contribute but needed to wait for payday, or if more people wanted to become founding members of this new site.

Now, here we are. You guys did this. We’re here because of you. And this site isn’t quite what it will become. I’m still learning my way around WordPress, after being away from it for years. There’s more to build, and some of the things you’re seeing on this site now will be improved in the future. We’ll continue to tweak it, add things, and upgrade as we go.

For now, I just want to welcome you to your new online home. On behalf of our entire staff, I thank our founding members, who are now immortalized on this site in our founders section. If you weren’t able to contribute to our transition from SBNation’s network to an autonomous and independent, new version of The Mane Land, you can thank the folks on our founders page, because without them, we wouldn’t be here. And if you still want to help out, we’ve got more things on the way.

Vamos.

Michael Citro
Managing Editor

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