League Notes

Garber Says MLS Salaries Must Become More Competitive With European Leagues

MLS Commissioner Don Garber "admitted the league's salaries must increase in order for MLS to remain competitive with second-tier European leagues that attract MLS talent and draw Americans."  Garber: "It's always a challenge for us to keep our American players. The only way that's going to happen is if we can raise our revenues and can afford to pay our players what they are getting overseas." More Garber: "The league is doing better, but don't forget that there has been massive amounts of money invested in this league to get to this point. One good year does not a future make. We've got to ensure that we've got a good year this year and ensure that some of the teams we have that have struggled at the gate are able to pick it up" (Riverside PRESS-ENTERPRISE, 4/8). The MLS Players Union last week released a list of player salaries, and in N.Y., Jack Bell writes the list is "by turns eye-opening and embarrassing, depending on your point of view. While salaries over all have increased by 12[%] to an average of $129,395, the range from top to bottom is stark" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/9).

THROWING HEAT: White Sox Chair Jerry Reinsdorf, when asked if his team "could or should have done more to curtail steroids," replied, "We would have loved to have done more, but [MLBPA Exec Dir] Don Fehr wouldn't do it. People should start to realize that we could have been testing for steroids years and years ago, but Don Fehr wouldn't do it because he said it was an invasion of privacy, and the result of that is that Don Fehr is going to cost players entry into the Hall of Fame because if we could have been testing for steroids years ago, some of these guys who are now on the bubble who got themselves in trouble would have gotten off steroids. ... Steroids is strictly a Don Fehr problem and creation" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 4/9).

TRAFFIC JAM: After "several years of struggling to fill the 33-car field of the Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George said he expects to have a count in the mid-30s this year with the unification" between the IRL and Champ Car. The increased competition also will "feature a bonus reward: tire supplier Firestone will pay $50,000 to the team that completes the grid on 'Bump Day'" on May 18 (USA TODAY, 4/9).