Talk:Designated Player Rule

Guillermo Barros Schelotto

I said the deal hadn't yet been confirmed, but it had been. My apologies. However, Schelotto was NOT signed using a designated player slot, so he doesn't belong on this page. Che84 01:26, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

I edited the page and removed GBS from the list. MichaelBlankley 23:01, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Lede not too short

The majority of the article lists the players who were or still are designated players. If you remove that text, the lede is just the right length.

Besides, what do suggest we add to fill it out? Counts? Something else? --Walter Görlitz (talk) 16:46, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

Past Designated Players

An editor has twice deleted the Past Designated Players section in the past couple of months without discussing. I prefer we retain the table. If other agree or disagree, please chime in. Barryjjoyce (talk) 03:37, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

There should be a separate article for the current DPs and related statistics. It could contain information about past players. Neither should be in this article. Walter Görlitz (talk) 04:56, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

At the moment it's poorly maintained and out of date and given it's MLS, it's often difficult to get the correct info. Salaries are fluctuating all the time too. Also, all the info of past players is contained in the "Most Countries" list. It doesn't seem necessary at all given how it's always going to be reasonably incomplete. UncleTupelo1 (talk) 09:20, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Tupelo — There is more info (years played, salary) in the "past players" section than there is in the "most countries" list. For that reason I think the "past players" list is worth keeping. But if you think there is too much duplication between the two lists, I'd have no objection if you wanted to remove the "most countries" list instead. There's no info there that isn't already covered by the first two lists. Barryjjoyce (talk) 02:45, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

Past DPs revisted

Was this two to remove the section against one? Is that enough to remove it? It's already out of date and not likely to be maintained. Also, MLS rule changes are numerous adding more caveats to every past DP. It's a mess. deathgripz 23:02, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

Tupelo (I think you and Deathgripz are the same): I'll start with the predictable response of any wiki editor who is behind on the "vote" tally: it's not a vote. With that out of the way, my preference would be for the article to keep some information about past designated players. I understand your concern that a complete list is hard to maintain; I recognize that may become even harder over time. Additionally, some of these DPs didn't last long in MLS and didn't do much while they were here. Perhaps one concept is to make this not an exhaustive list, but a more select list focused on DPs who have made significant contributions to their team or to the league — such as Beckham, Henry, Donovan, Blanco, etc. I'll draw up a firmer proposal/illustration over the weekend, post it here, and give you and other editors an opportunity to comment. In the meantime, please leave the complete list of past DPs up there, as I'll be using that information towards this project. And thanks for re-starting this dialogue. Barryjjoyce (talk) 01:34, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

I reiterate my former position: move the current DPs to their own article. I will state that this article, which is named "Designated Player Rule", should be about explaining the rule only. That would address the issue raised below (what's the rule now?). It could list information about the rule and how it has changed over time. A third article, for former DPs, would not be out of the question. It could focus on who they were, when they played, how many games played, minutes played, goals scored, assists and any other stats that might give an idea of how important they were to their teams and the league. Walter Görlitz (talk) 13:58, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

The table below provides a suggested format for recording the most significant designated players in MLS history. This table shows 2014. I've selected the five highest paid players, which is an objective criteria for inclusion. If people like this format, we could generate similar tables for each year since 2007. If people have a better idea on how to present the most significant DPs that have played in MLS, I'm all ears.

2014 MLS season: Highest-paid Designated Players

Player	Guaranteed Compensation	MLS team	2014 season accomplishments	National team	Transferred from
Clint Dempsey	$6.7m	Seattle Sounders	15 goals	United States	Tottenham
Michael Bradley	$6.5m	Toronto FC		United States	Roma
Jermaine Defoe	$6.2m	Toronto FC	11 goals	England	Tottenham
Landon Donovan	$4.6m	LA Galaxy	MLS Best XI, 19 assists	United States	N/A
Robbie Keane	$4.5m	LA Galaxy	MLS MVP, 19 goals	Republic of Ireland	N/A

Looks good, but "Highest-paid Designated Players" does not equate to most significant. Beckham should be listed, and N/A should not be, it should read "Free transfer". Also, we have some linking issues: Seattle Sounders FC and we have repeat link issues for TFC and Galaxy. Walter Görlitz (talk) 16:43, 20 September 2015 (UTC)

Walter: The table above is for one year only (2014), which is why Beckham is not there; I had envisioned a separate table for each year.
Below is another way of presenting info on key past DPs. This table a row for each year, instead of separate year-by-year tables. I think I prefer this method. Thoughts?

Year	Highest paid players	MLS Best XI	Most goals	Most assists	Other accolades
2013	Clint Dempsey ($5.0m) Thierry Henry ($4.4m)	Robbie Keane Marco Di Vaio Tim Cahill Diego Valeri	Marco Di Vaio (20)	Diego Valeri (13)
2014	Clint Dempsey ($6.7m) Michael Bradley ($6.5m)	Landon Donovan	Robbie Keane (19) Clint Dempsey (15)	Landon Donovan (19)	Robbie Keane (MLS MVP)

Barryjjoyce (talk) 00:50, 23 September 2015 (UTC)

Confusing

It's not clearly spelled out what the current rules are. It would be helpful if there was a single paragraph explaining what the current rule entails. Hack (talk) 05:34, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

Collapsible Boxes

I really like this most recent change regarding sorting past designated players by team, but it leaves a lot of white space and it makes the article feel unnecessarily long. Should these boxes be collapsed? It won't eliminate the white space problem, but it will shorten the article. Jay eyem (talk) 22:25, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

Should Ge Be Listed Next To Nationality

I think it would be very helpful to add an age column. in the current designated players section. to track the average age of the designated players and to perhaps see trends in age of designated players over time, as recently since Atlanta United the Age of DP signings has been going down. Midgetman433 (talk) 15:39, 16 December 2018 (UTC)