And this is why the MLS can't compete with the structure of Liga MX:You're talking historical. It's a very top heavy league nowadays. It's a good league for preparing their national team; nobody from non ty concacaf countries or SA flunkies are transferring there. Come to terms.
from reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/LigaMX/comm...rison_updated/
So MLS teams have 21 players making 20k or more per week, Liga MX teams have 141 players making 20k or more
That speaks to two things:
1- The possible inflation of median salaries in Liga MX.
2- The extreme gap in depth that the two teams have. The best teams in MLS can compete with the top 4-5 teams in Liga MX, but the drop off after that is why MLS never does much in CCL [CONCACAF Champions League].
TAM has made it much closer than it was, but MLS needs to keeps investing in those kinds of players if they want to narrow the gap.
edit: Just to provide context, when a player signs with MLS, they sign with the league to keep teams from having to one-up each other on salaries and keeps salaries from inflating, which speaks largely to the discrepancy in the median salaries.
Right, it's confusing. It's paid off in that MLS teams haven't been knocked out by any team other than LMX teams since it's introduction. The average age of new players in the league is 20.4 so far this winter, largely because of TAM.
It's separated MLS from the top Costa Rican/Honduran teams, but there's obviously still a gap between Liga MX and MLS teams because of the sheer depth.
For instance, the best team in MLS right now is Toronto FC. Their top 6-7 players can compete and do very well against Liga MX teams, but after that 7th player, the drop off is where it gets tough. They're adding Gregory van der Wiel this week, so that will close the gap more, but the salary cap makes it tough to beat teams like Tigres who can afford to have strength at every single position. Because of the salary cap, teams essentially have to concede that they will have weak spots, but that is changing as the rules are relaxed more and more.