More DPs en route to MLS? They may be talking about it

Here’s a little something for MLS fans to chew on while they await Wednesday’s All-Star match in the thin air of Rio Tinto:

I’m in Utah for tomorrow’s match against Everton and I’m hearing that big hitters in the league are talking about ways to get more teams on board with the Designated Player initiative.

Major League Soccer’s technical committee got together Tuesday in one of the meetings attached to the All-Star game, and word is that one of the topics was creating more incentives for clubs to covet a DP of their very own.

I hope to track down someone on the competition committee tonight or tomorrow. Or, I’ve got a little time tentatively booked with commissioner Don Garber tomorrow on another matter, so I might be able to squeeze in a question on this.

Currently, only six of 15 clubs have exercised their right to employ a high-priced star and the attached salary implications. Some of the more aggressive owners would like more teams to get off the sidelines and do the DP dance.

The most likely option would be some adjustment of the amount that a Designated Player counts on each team’s salary cap. Currently, a DP eats up $415,000 of each team’s $2.3 million salary cap. A second DP eats up $335,000. (The clubs can pay a DP whatever they want, but the hit to the cap is contained.)

So, say the cap hit is lowered to $200,000. No one told me that figure, necessarily; I’m just using it as an example. But in that scenario, the percentage of salary cap tied up in one player is lowered from about 18 percent to just less than 9 percent. At that amount, the risk might seem more palatable for more teams.

Currently, the risk is two-pronged. There is financial risk at dipping so far into the wallet to pay a high salary when so few teams are profitable at the moment. Then there’s a competitive risk; tying up nearly one fifth of the salary cap in one player is dicey. Simply put, the DP shuffle hasn’t exactly been a boondoggle in terms of competition. Houston and New England, for instance, have been pretty successful without playing the DP card.

As for balancing the books, advocates of a more forgiving policy feel that if it’s done correctly, an expansion of the league’s DP roster will pay for itself on the back end -- although not everyone agrees with that theory.

Now, no one should get too excited about any of this too quickly. Nothing really ever gets done at the All-Star game. Rather, things are hashed out here. The technical committee could make a recommendation, which would be heard and voted on at MLS Cup in November. Still, it’s movement. Maybe I’ll know a little more later.