Back in January of 2007 soccer popstar David Beckham showed the rest of the world that there was money to made in Major League Soccer. It turned conventional thinking on its head and gave the up-'til-then-abiding-player populous a new lease on their professional lives
Now, approaching the three-week anniversary of Dwayne de Rosario signing with Toronto FC I can't help but blame Becks for what has transpired.
De Rosario wants to be here but he also has played alongside billionaire Becks for long enough to know that his being here is very profitable. The original optimism oscillated to the uncouth upon realization that the almighty dollar will always have the final say -- regardless of league, location, etc.
To explain, I present a snippet from Grant Wahl's Anatomy of a blockbuster, printed just days after the fall of conventional thought:
"There is more to Beckham's deal than the guaranteed salary, however. Beckham will also earn 40-to-50 percent of Galaxy jersey sales and an undisclosed share of ticket revenues."
If De Rosario is indeed holding out (and not just holding his breath until the huge unveiling), is this the line of reasoning? It makes absolute sense. Try to count on as many hands as you can gather the number of De Rosario shirts in the stands at BMO Field on April 4, 2009. To put a monetary value on the idea of shirt sales allocation, consider that over 200,000 David Beckham Los Angeles Galaxy jersey were ordered worldwide in the summer of 2007.
200,000 x $75 = $15,000,000. Forty percent of that number is $6 million.
The rumour mill has churned out numbers which indicate De Rosario and TFC are approximately $200,000 apart in contract demands. Or, about 5,000 jerseys.
As for going back to the dessert table for a second piece of the BMO pie, De Rosario can think again. The 20,000-plus seats are already accounted for, regardless of what names show up to play.
Of course, Newton taught us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, which we may have seen when my colleague Kristian Jack went ahead and posted the revelations of a Wednesday morning chat with the club's Senior Director of Business Operations Paul Beirne. The TFC exec referenced locker room solidarity, the winter acquisition of De Rosario and the inked investments in Carl Robinson and Amado Guevara as reasons why the team will drag its feet over bringing in a designated player.
In short: the money is there, but the need and the cap space are not. (The exact opposite of what seems to be going on with De Rosario.)
Can't say I disagree with the decision of Beirne et al; but the final word on the announcement will ultimately fall to DP-desperate head coach John Carver.
