Dynamo Theory: Re-Entry Draft Felt Like A Swap Meet

The Re-Entry Draft was pretty clearly a step forward for MLS. For the first time in the league’s history, players are free to reject a team’s offer and still have a reasonable hope of finding employment.

Unfortunately, the draft did not play out in a particularly easy to watch or follow format. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes and players were moving around faster than any outside observer could reasonably follow.

As Dynamo Theory’s Zach Woosley pointed out, it was a bit of a mess.

It’s not that I don’t think the Re-Entry Draft worked or that it could be the first step in eventually getting the players true free agency rights, I’m just forced to once again shake my head at another hard to explain cluster&!#@ produced by MLS. As if two Western Conference teams in the Eastern Conference Final wasn’t bad enough, the league has managed to create a player movement system that best resembles a swap meet.

There are a few ways MLS could address some of Woosley’s complaints. For one, they could cover the event live rather than rely on Twitter to relay the messages. For another, it might be worthwhile to limit the trading of picks and players. Maybe they could cut trading off 10 minutes before the draft starts and not allow teams to trade players until the draft is over.

It wouldn’t be perfect, but at least it would make some sense.