2008 Portland Timbers Salaries: A Guestimate

By: Bob Kellett | April 15th, 2008

One of the better things the MLS Players Union has done the past couple of seasons is publicly list the salaries of all the players in MLS. By displaying just how pathetic some of the salaries are in MLS they have earned the sympathy of fans and in the end I think they will see a steady increase in what the bottom earners make. The list has also given us a reference point to work with when it comes to trying to guess what guys in the USL First Division earn.

That is exactly what I am doing in this post. Guessing. I don’t have access to the salaries of the Portland Timbers and I could be way, way off the mark, but I think I am in the general ballpark (probably a bit high). If Ray Burse makes $17,700 from FC Dallas, Jordan James is probably making less than that playing for the Timbers. If Scott Bolkan and Vardan Adzemian are making $12,900 from the LA Galaxy, a guy coming out of college like Lawrence Olum last year is probably making about the same.

My upper end figures are based on the story earlier this year that Chris Brown is making in the neighborhood of $40,000 to play for the Timbers. I’ve grouped the players based on experience and their general pedigree/potential demand from other clubs. If you add the numbers up at the high end and take away the players who are on loan, the Timbers total salaries are around $500,000, a number that a major league utility infielder would scoff at.

$30,000 – $40,000
Chris Brown
Andrew Gregor
Takayuki Suzuki (Maybe more, but I read somewhere he was considering a $30,000 offer from a team in Hong Kong)
Scot Thompson
Leonard Griffin (was making $45,000 at Columbus)

$20,000 – $30,000
Chris Bagley
Shaun Higgins
Tom Poltl
Tim Karalexis
Justin Thompson
Cameron Knowles

$15,000 – $20,000
Ray Burse ($17,700)
Troy Ready
Arsene Oka
Miguel Guante
Kiki Lara
Neil Dombrowski
Tom Taylor
Lawrence Olum

$12,900 and less
Scott Bolkan ($12,900)
Vardan Adzemian ($12,900)
Jordan James