You read it here first: MLS Expansion Draft set for Nov. 25

by Steve Davis on Nov 6, 2009 4:54 PM EST Comment 11 comments

A storm of off-season change is coming. I just have this feeling that this is going to be a real shape shifter as off-seasons go, with more flux than usual in MLS management and personnel.

Today I learned that this season of significant winter movement will begin on Nov. 25, when manager Peter Nowak and his Philadelphia Union will cherry-pick off 15 MLS rosters. You read that hear first. (Although, in all honesty, expansion drafts are typically held within a few days of the MLS Cup championship.)

The league will announce more details later, but you can expect teams to protect about 11 players each. Clubs will be required to submit their lists of protected players to the League on the Monday after MLS Cup, in all likelihood.

I write a little more about it all on my weekly MLS Five-A-Side column. The shorty version is this: four clubs already are neck-deep in the managerial hunt, and there’s no guarantee that more teams won’t soon be doing the same. Denis Hamlett is probably on a way-short lease at Chicago, and a loss this weekend might just seal the deal. And, my oh my, has any manager in the history of the world gone from "sure to return" to "uh, let’s don’t set anything in stone just yet," faster than Columbus’ Robert Warzycha?

There are several prominent players who are on the outs or may be. Cuauhtemoc Blanco will dust off all those bad Chicago vibes and head to Mexico at season’s end. Brian McBride may call it a day. Landon Donovan has a big decision to make.

There are others that we already know about who will move on, such as Yura Movsisyan and Chris Rolfe. And there are several formerly rising stars who are fading fast, and they are prime candidates to relocate this off-season. Justin Mapp, we’re lookin’ at you, man.

And those are the known unknowns. What about the unknown unknowns? There may be some real surprises when it comes to who survives the off-season, as the country’s top-tier league heads into a more competitive time, when as many teams won’t make the playoffs as teams that do. (Finally!) That’s going to create a pressure point – and it will all start shaking out on Nov. 25 at the expansion draft.

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Doesn’t this way of assigning players to Philadelphia seem to screw over the existing MLS clubs slightly? Granted, it’s hard to envision a vastly superior model, but this seems to pull the rug out from under other teams.

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by Jake Shapiro on Nov 6, 2009 5:47 PM EST reply actions

Dynamo Could be much different

Considering the uncertainties of Stuart Holden and Rico Clark (overseas), the expansion draft and the fact that the Dynamo have a ton of senior citizens making $150,000+, we could see a drastically different team come next spring.

by GeoJock on Nov 6, 2009 6:46 PM EST reply actions

Bold prediction

The Red Bulls leave a player unprotected that the fans would love to see go away.

That player turns out to be a decent player and then the same fans will lament his loss and angrily whine about leaving him open to begin with.

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by John Fischer on Nov 6, 2009 11:16 PM EST reply actions

I’m thinking when vancouver and portland come in then dallas will be moved to the east. It makes the most logical sense. And what’s this that I heard vancouver will not be in the usl for the 2010 season?

by hoopsforlife on Nov 7, 2009 9:25 PM EST via mobile reply actions

You would seperate Dallas and Houston?

That doesn’t make sense with an unbalanced schedule.

I have a feeling 3 Conference will be coming back.

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by Dave Clark on Nov 7, 2009 10:52 PM EST up reply actions

We could always just have one league table instead of two divisions too

by hoopsforlife on Nov 8, 2009 3:03 PM EST via mobile reply actions

I don't think they want to go past 30 games

and you can’t have a single table if you’re not going to have each team playing 2 versus each other team.

Formerly ryebreadraz

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Nov 10, 2009 8:27 PM EST up reply actions

Salaries and the CBA

Doesn’t the lack of a CBA at this point complicate all this? Aren’t which players teams will protect, and who Philly will take in the expansion draft, in part dictated by salaries/salary cap and nationalities/foreign player limits?

Without knowing what the rules are going to be for all this next year, doesn’t this kind of handcuff teams in terms of knowing just what to do?

by PeterJH on Nov 9, 2009 5:21 PM EST reply actions

It does

but I guarantee you that the teams have been getting information from the league on what could possibly happen with the new CBA. I think the expansion draft will give us some clue as to how the negotiations are going.

I think Philadelphia is going to work under the assumption that the current cap will remain, then if it goes up, they will be in the same place as everyone else in having cap space to improve.

Formerly ryebreadraz

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Nov 10, 2009 8:28 PM EST up reply actions