Please, go on strike! Then the league can fold and we won't have to endure any more of this boring sport or its dumbass proponents trying to take tax money that could be spent on more important things!

A poster in the article comments says salaries start at $20K.

"Please, go on strike! Then the league can fold and we won't have to endure any more of this boring sport or its dumbass proponents" I'm giving Jesus Fucking Christ an amen on that!

I'm not shedding any tears for some asshats that came riding in to town and browbeat everyone to bend over backwards to accept them. Go to a town with jobs if you want to complain about your stupid fucking hobby only paying you four times the annual salary that I make at a real job when not begging for lodging. Boo-fucking-hoo. Why don't you apply for some of your piece of shit part time, non union, minimum wage, seasonal jobs at the stadium that you tried to drum up support with?

Seriously, fuck you.

Seriously.

@TIG: What the fuck are you talking about with "paying you four times the annual salary I make"? I'm sorry that you can't get a job paying more than $5k/anum.... but shit... You're making less than 50% of the federal poverty level. Maybe you should be thinking about moving to a city with jobs; cuz PDX has obviously failed you.

Really, truly, TIG, are you in some sort of indentured servitude? I'm sorry about your situation, but who made you the arbiter of what constitutes a job vs. a "hobby"? These guys have a talent, people are willing to pay them for it, and they feel like they deserve a raise for their services. Sounds like what collective bargaining is made for. Next time try picking on someone who doesn't actually earn their living, like the higher-ups in the financial services industry.

@Graham: I'm poor? Really? That would explain why I'm sleeping on the couches of friends and family while constantly looking for work beyond the piece of shit part time, non union, minimum wage seasonal gigs soccer promised to give us. Your solution, that the natives should be forced to leave to make room for chauvinistic European traditions, has been already done. Fuck soccer.

I think I'm really starting to admire Matt's ability to get a rise out of people.

@TIG: You are a fucking whiny lazy idiot. If you had any motivation you'd get a damn job. BOO-fucking-HOO; you can't get a job in PDX. Go somewhere else, follow the opportunity. Join the fucking military. Do something better than bitch about people making $20k a year. Why don't you bitch about the Trail Blazers instead? Or how about you bitch about people with college degrees? Or people who go out and collect bottles on trash day? Or anyone who can do something about their problems, which you can't seem to do.

Matt Fucking Davis

@Graham: The MLS are the ones complaining about making $20k a year, not me. I'm just not going to cry for their hardship as they -unlike many- have jobs; have jobs playing a game; and they make more than many teachers in the state do when they start out. Added to it is the irony in that they were promoting the great jobs and big economic boost they were going to create by bringing soccer in to the city. Already the money pit is widening.

As for trying to provoke me with your ad homs, it's not going to work. Complaining about making that much money playing one of the least commercially viable sports in the country during a recession is simply pathetic. Attacking the messenger doesn't change that.

The Sounders get 30,000 fans a game.

The MLS better pay their players otherwise the league won't grow. Good players can go play even second division leagues in Europe and get paid more. And those leagues are often feeders for upper tier, higher-paying gigs.

Hey TIG, what's your skill set? Perhaps we can all help you find a job.

@TIG: Are you functionally retarded? Grossly mis-informed? Willfully ignorant? Starting salary for a teacher in Oregon is around $32k (that's more than $20k, in case you don't know how math works). So you're wrong on that.

Do you hate unions and collective bargaining? You were bitching about getting a non-union job, well these motivated people who can get jobs are unionizing and collevitvely bargaining. Really, you're just bitter and sad because you don't have the gumption to do anything about your sad pathetic life. At least the soccer players had the drive to get paid doing something they love.

@TSW: Thanks, but there's not much to be done. I have a job that'll help set me up later. My career is a "spend most of your life becoming obscenely qualified; and after qualification, spend the rest of your life climbing to a place where you can apply said qualifications" kind of gig. I knew what it was going to be like that when I started...However, when I started years ago there was no way to know that finding a secondary job to supplement the career was going to be so rough. The bottom wrung of the career pays a pathetic amount and I have to hope that the big pay off is down the road.

TIG, if I didn't know better, it sounds like you're working your way up the rungs (not wrungs) of the professional soccer pay scale. Whatever vaguely-defined industry you're in, since it's all part of your life plan, how about you suck it up and deal rather than take it out on people who have had a modicum of success?

How come you're not advising soccer players to "suck it up and deal rather than take it out on people who have had a modicum of success?"

My mistake was to allow one personal detail slip out, which is about the only thing being discussed and it's attempted to be used as leverage to make me feel bad. But I don't feel bad, my position in life was always part of the plan. I won't be rich, but I'll be happy. Asking that soccer people do the same is, apparently, a heresy. I still don't give a shit about soccer, I still think it's fiscally dubious, but I sure as hell am understanding why people want it to fail so badly. You're emotional people trying to provoke a negative emotional reaction in me...and all that does is kind of make me want to watch all of you cry.

@TIG: The soccer players are sucking it up and dealing. They're dealing by trying to better their pay and positions by using a collective bargaining methodology. Are you too dense to figure this out? They're being proactive. You don't seem happy at all, really you seem bitter and resentful towards a group of people who play soccer, like watching soccer, think soccer could better the city, or anything relating to soccer? Did a soccer-player steal your lunch money or something?

TIG,

What do you do? Out with it, or your oddly-directed rage at soccer means far less.

We're just here to help!

@TSW - I already mentioned one thing in passing that the entire thread now revolves around. The one thing in passing - that I'm currently poor - has garnered a heap of personal attacks and scorn. I'd be a complete idiot to reveal anything more about myself.

Quit playing victim. And you're not the only one who's poor, ya know.

I'm truly not asking to mock your response. I'm asking so that I perhaps could help you improve your lot.