meant to bring some discipline to a sport that has a history of being out of control. The NASL, which died in 1985, succumbed to out-of-control costs tied to player costs,” (Morrissey 3).
This single-entity economic approach works for marketing as well. Instead of a wealthy owner being able to override league contracts with corporate endorsers, like Dallas Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones did, the league makes all the marketing decisions. Further, MLS is organized in a way that adds to its economic potential. First of all, the league is comprised of more home-grown and America soccer players, coaches and other personnel. Secondly, salary caps have been instituted to prevent league salaries from spiraling out of control the way they did after the Cosmos signed Pele, “More than 75% of the league’s players are American and include most of the members of the current US national and Olympic teams. The league seeks both economic and competitive balance through a salary cap of $1.13 million per t
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