MLS Special: The MLS SuperDraft and how it works
This Thursday, America’s very own soccer league, the MLS (Major Soccer League), will hold the annual SuperDraft. The 2011 SuperDraft will have 54 very new players in it. A week from now, another three round draft will take place which is called the Supplemental
Draft.
But that’s not it!
On November 24, the Expansion Draft will take place and, then, on the 8th and 15th of December, Re-Entry Draft will take place.
Now I’m sure it’s pretty confusing for a non-MLS follower, or even a person who doesn’t know about the American sporting culture, to understand about the Drafting system and how it really works.
The concept of Drafting has been around since 1936. It was started by the National Football League (also called Gridiron), when 9 NFL teams selected recent graduates for their teams and the NFL granted all those teams the rights to the players, so that they
could negotiate the players’ services.
This Thursday, 18 teams from the MLS will undergo the same process in a North American version of a ‘soccer talent hunt’.
Certain traits are common in all drafts, whether it is American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey or soccer. The most important trait is the way of bringing talent into a league. Although the MLS does have good alternatives, all the teams in the
league depend a lot on the draft for new talent.
The second best trait is, perhaps, another reason why the MLS is becoming such a popular affair. Allowing the worst teams of the previous season to have the first pick in the draft is definitely a step that is intended to encourage the weaker teams in the
league.
The third trait of the SuperDraft in every American sports league is the act of commercializing the league by televising the whole affair. There was a time when the old Major Baseball League used to conduct the annual draft through conference calls; now,
they are doing it all through T.V, in order to attract a major audience to the game.
The setting for every SuperDraft is the same. A ballroom or an arena is booked for the event. The rows of seats are occupied by the franchise representatives, who always seem to be making a lot of calls to their headquarters and analyzing documents that
they should have done before arriving. Media personnel are waiting with their cameras and start flashing them as soon as the league president steps up to the podium to kick start the event.
The process is definitely fun and can also be bewildering sometimes. But it still makes some people wonder why MLS wants to utilize the draft option.
Even more surprising is the fact that MLS has 4 drafts even though they already have a SuperDraft. But it’s actually just 2 drafts- those players who are removed from a squad mid-way through the season are inserted in the first of the other two drafts if
there are any available franchises in the MLS who want pick them up.
From the worst to the best performing team, every franchise gets to decide if they want to get a certain player. Moreover, players who are not from the U.S.A and who have signed with the MLS are inserted in the ‘allocation draft’ (something entirely different
than a regular draft).
The Draft does restrict a player’s rights and many soccer players unions in the U.S.A want to finish the concept. In the end, it is nothing but getting a chance of selecting players that you want from a pool on the basis of how poor you performed last season.
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