How much did Major League Soccer teams spend to earn a league point in 2015? How much of their payroll actually saw time on the pitch instead of languishing on the bench or the rehab table?
We consider publicly available data such as salaries, in-season arrivals and departures, minutes played by every player, and total points won to find out how successful MLS clubs were with plenty or with very little.
Resultados del Campeonato mundial de Marcha por equipos Antalya 2024
Major League Soccer 2015 Front Office Efficiency
1. FRONT-OFFICE EFFICIENCY
How much did Major League Soccer clubs
spend to earn a league point in 2015?
We expose the difference between success
and failure in MLS front offices.
EXPLANATION OF TERMS
PAYROLL
UTILIZATION
PAYROLL COST
PER POINT
Annualized base pay pro-rated by player availability
in squad (not transferred, released, loaned or retired)
Proportion of playing time of team payroll to
maximum possible playing time of team payroll
Payroll multiplied by utilization divided by total
league points
DATA SOURCES
MLS Players Union Salary Data, 2015; Major League Soccer;
ENB Sports Player Database
SOCCERMETRICS RESEARCH 2015
WWW.SOCCERMETRICS.NET @soccermetrics
LA GALAXY $ 172,998
$16.719,562 payroll
52.8% utilization
51 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS FC $ 57,526
$5,422,176 payroll
56.2% utilization
53 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
CHICAGO FIRE $ 103,667
$6,313,439 payroll
49.3% utilization
30 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
ORLANDO CITY SC $ 159,391
$10,413,056 payroll
67.4% utilization
44 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
COLORADO RAPIDS SC $ 58,921
$4,516,380 payroll
48.3% utilization
37 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
TORONTO FC $ 280,019
$20,789,292 payroll
66.0% utilization
49 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
COLUMBUS CREW SC $ 55,898
$4,822,707 payroll
61.4% utilization
53 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
SPORTING KANSAS CITY
$ 59,915
$5,369,257 payroll
56.9% utilization
51 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
DC UNITED $ 37,805
$3,652,323 payroll
52.8% utilization
51 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES $ 45,663
$4,610,488 payroll
46.6% utilization
47 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
FC DALLAS $ 27,408
$3,438,832 payroll
47.8% utilization
60 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
$ 57,424
$5,971,711 payroll
48.1% utilization
50 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
NEW YORK RED BULLS $ 35,747
$3,555,182 payroll
60.3% utilization
60 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC $ 111,553
$10,276,754 payroll
55.4% utilization
51 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
HOUSTON DYNAMO $ 61,505
$4,646,934 payroll
55.6% utilization
42 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
REAL SALT LAKE $ 55,771
$4,280,464 payroll
53.4% utilization
41 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
IMPACT DE MONTRÉAL $ 43,727
$4,769,197 payroll
46.8% utilization
51 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
PORTLAND TIMBERS $ 64,687
$5,447,100 payroll
62.9% utilization
53 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
PHILADELPHIA UNION $ 64,553
$5,123,276 payroll
46.6% utilization
37 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT
SCCR.MX/1Hx13QV
NEW YORK CITY FC $ 236,150
$13,021,682 payroll
67.1% utilization
37 pointsPAYROLL COST PER POINT