Landon Donovan and that Elusive, (Illusive?) Second DP Slot

By: Laurie | September 27th, 2007

There is some interesting debate going on in the media lately about the possibility of gifting teams with a second Designated Player (DP) slot. The best article I’ve seen is by Pat Walsh for Goal.com. If the issue interests you, you’ll want to read the whole thing. It sums up the situation nicely, particularly as it relates to LA and Landon Donovan. (It also makes the interesting point that the teams at the top of the table this year haven’t used their DP slots. D’oh!)

Remember here that Landon’s DP-level salary, currently $900,000, was grandfathered in for this year only, meaning that he can have an above-cap salary without it counting against the Galaxy’s DP allotment. But that goes away after this year. In order to keep Landon on the roster with Beckham, barring rule changes or a massive salary cut, LA would somehow have to scare up anothe DP slot.

In his article, Pat Walsh points out that after the slash-and-burn trades of the mid-season the Galaxy don’t have a whole lot to trade to get this slot. You have to give quality to get quality, and the Galaxy doesn’t have a bunch to spare right now. He’s thinking perhaps Chris Albright (which wouldn’t surprise me — remember that he was all but out the door before the injury.) I’m also thinking maybe Mike Randolph, who’s substantially increased his value in these past few weeks. (I’d say trade Ante Jazic instead, but Mike’s 22 and Ante’s 31. Who’s going to be worth more?)

On top of that we have a whole slew of draft picks this year — if I’m remembering correctly, LA has a jaw-dropping number. Something like eight picks in the first two or three rounds? That has to be worth something, right? But how many players and picks would it take to be worth a DP?

Enter the possible creation of a second DP slot.

The fact is this rule panders to the hapless Los Angeles Galaxy. …

The league needs Los Angeles to be successful. Having the Galaxy out of the playoffs for two consecutive years, especially this year with Beckham in town, is bad for business. An L.A. side with Beckham and Donovan playing together for a full season should easily make the playoffs.

Very true. Everything I read about the possible addition of a second DP slot always mentions LA and Beckham and Donovan. The Galaxy is the poster-child team for “But we NEED another DP!!”

So why not offer up the possibility? Like the first DP slot, some teams will use it, some won’t. What’s the problem? Well, for starters, there’s that little thing called the salary cap. I’m watching for cap increase rumors, but I don’t think it’s going to go up enough to cover the full cost of a second DP.

Financially, allowing teams to add a second Designated Player also doesn’t make sense.

A DP counts as $400,000 on the salary cap, meaning two players would account for nearly one-third of what a team is spending on its entire roster.

The obvious comparison then becomes the NASL. But that parallel is not quite accurate, as the salary cap should prevent exuberant spending. However, the money those two players would made would continue to grow the gap between the grossly underpaid developmental players and the stars, perhaps stunting the growth of the league in the long run. Without those youngsters, many of whom make less than $20,000 per year, this league would be unable to continue.

If another DP slot means that the majority of our back line will continue to make less than $30,000 apiece, a second DP slot would probably not be worth it. Except…oh, wait. We already have two players counting toward $725,000 of the salary cap. How would things be different?

One last point, though. Given Alexi’s talk about “new and exciting international talent,” would that DP slot necessasrily go to Landon? If we’re talking about, say, Zizou… Well, it’s spam and ramen time, boys! We need a second DP!