A big question for the Earthquakes is when the club will "begin to invest some of its newfound revenue in higher-caliber players," according to Jeff Carlisle of ESPN FC. Earthquakes President Dave Kaval "insists the club is in the top half of the league in total spending," but that investment has not "resulted in a commensurate finish leaguewide." Kaval said, "Our strategy has been to have three more-moderately priced designated players instead of one (Orlando City MF) Kaka. At least in the near term, we think we can be very competitive and successful with that model." Meanwhile, Kaval said of running an MLS club, "You need more people now. ... It's a bigger business, and you need to have more resources dedicated to develop the processes to be successful, and then implementing them and doing the work." He added, "I think we are on par (with the rest of the league). ... I've done benchmarking with our staff and it is equivalent to the Portlands and Kansas Citys. ... But some of these teams have been doing this for five years and we've been doing it for like a year. There is some buildup advantage by these teams in terms of players that they signed that we've never had the ability to sign." Carlisle noted the Earthquakes at some point will "need to ante in terms of spending, and choose wisely in the process." Otherwise, the team's "spell in MLS anonymity will continue." The team also is attempting to finalize a deal for a $38M academy training complex to be located less than a mile from Avaya Stadium, but Kaval said the club is "still in a little bit of the infrastructure phase" (ESPNFC.us, 4/23).
EUROPEAN FEEL: MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that clubs are "increasing payrolls slowly in an effort to improve quality of play, but teams are 'still in investment mode.'" Garber: "It would be very easy for many of our owners to have teams that look like Chelsea in Major League Soccer. It doesn't make economic sense for us because the revenues would not be able to cover the increased costs of being able to have a $100 million roster" (ESPNFC.us, 4/22).
