Congratulations to Dwayne De Rosario!

Dwayne De Rosario was named the MLS MVP for 2011.  This is fantastic for him, but it is also fantastic for Canadian soccer.  Canada is a country with a decent soccer heritage but not much in the way of soccer performance on the world stage.  They are putting a lot of effort into improving their world ranking and making a run at a World Cup appearance.

De Rosario had the unique experience of having been traded twice this season.  First he went from his hometown of Toronto to NY, then from NY to DC.  The second trade was because NY had gross deficiencies on defense and needed to bolster that part of their roster.  Doing that meant parting with an offensive asset that they still wanted.  The first trade was motivated by money.

De Rosario made a poor judgement call by miming the signing of a check during a goal celebration.  He was upset that he was being paid far less than the 'designated players' on the team when he was outperforming them by a large margin.  The TFC response was to deny him and ignore him and when he wouldn't back down, they dumped him.  TFC is a wealthy franchise.  Their parent company is worth somewhere between 1.5 and 2 billion dollars.  De Rosario would have been pacified by anything resembling a raise of at least $400,000, effectively doubling his salary.  He wanted more, but I think he would have settled for something symbolic like a doubling of his salary along with the prestige of being a 'designated' player.

The decision to dump him provided proof to many that TFC is one of the cheapest tightwad franchises in MLS, and possibly in all of sport.  Their parent company already had a reputation for being tightwads.  The crown jewel of the organization, Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment, is the Toronto Maple Leafs.  The Leafs are widely considered to be tantamount to a license to print money.  Prior to the imposing of a salary cap in 2005 the Leafs could have spent as much as necessary to bring success on the ice.  They were always among the top spenders, but never came close to even trying to break the bank.  The Maple Leafs haven't made a Stanley Cup appearance (the NHL Championship series) since 1967, the longest drought in the NHL by far.  The other teams that are close are all expansion franchises that haven't really 'made it' yet and may not have had time to make it.  Most franchises have had multiple Stanley Cup appearances during that period.  The other 5 "Original Six" franchises have won the Cup at least once each in the 40+ year Toronto vacuum of success.

Given the lack of success and a near limitless cash flow it would be logical to spend whatever it took to get the talented free agents to achieve success.  It never happened.  The team was more concerned with financial prudence than winning.  They were pretty much alone in the entire league with that philosophy.  Some point to the fact that for the most recent history of the franchise the majority owners are a pension fund rather than the more traditional philanthropic, obscenely wealthy, vain, egotistical, offended-by-losing individual owner.  Pension funds exist to make money.  Winning is irrelevant to them.  The only thing that matters is maximizing return on investment.  If winning turns out to be necessary for profitability then winning would be a priority.  In Toronto, every game is a sell-out and tickets are generally brutally expensive, so winning is clearly not necessary for profitability.  So no one that had control of the purse strings really cared to win.

Now that the NHL has a salary cap that option is no longer available.  MLS has a salary cap, too, but it also has a pressure valve or escape clause in the 'designated player'.  Teams are allowed up to 3 deisgnated players and their salaries don't count against the cap.  Theoretically, there is no limit to how much a team can spend on their designated players.  At the time, Toronto had less than their designated player allotment.  It would actually have eased their salary cap situation by declaring De Rosario a designated player as his current salary would come off the books.  In it's infinite wisdom, TFC management and coach Aron Winter decided that it would be better to dump De Rosario than pay him.  There was an outcry in the city when this happened, but what could fans do?

They could stop attending, and many did.  Season ticket sales are down and dropping.  The stands had bare spots for the first time in team history, which is a mere five years long.  Not surprisingly, TFC has never made the playoffs, and in general haven't even been close.  This year, they would have had to increase their point total by 40% just to tie for the final playoff spot (33 pts vs 46 pts)!  As long as they remain in the financial black, they will remain tightwads.  If the fans' boos and dismay turn to outright rejection and it hurts the bottom line, there may be a change.

Today, I wonder what TFC management and Aron Winter are thinking.  They knew when they let De Rosario go that he was among the very best in the league.  He had been runner up to the MVP twice before and had been named to the Top XI (the MLS version of a First All-Star Team) many times.  His outstanding performance this year -- he was tied for the league lead in goals, 4th in assists, 1st in total points (by a landslide), and the only player with double digits in goals and assists -- under very difficult conditions (having to learn to play with new teammates, not once but twice in a single season!) were completely worthy of the MVP award.  Does TFC regret it's decision to get rid of MLS's best player?  I doubt it.  I don't think these executives think that way.  In their minds, they are infallible.  Their original reasoning justifies their decision no matter how De Rosario plays.  He could lap the field in scoring and they would still think dumping him helped the team.

So, as far as intelligent, objective people are concerned, DeRo wins the battle in the court of public opinion and laughs both last and best.  With more roster decisions like this, it will take another decade before TFC enjoys it's first playoff game.  The biggest losers are the soccer/football fans of Toronto.  Here's hoping the black turns red, and soon.  It's the only way Toronto's fans have any hope of having something worth cheering.