Well between drafts and lotteries it is no wonder that the MLS schedule took so long to get out, well RSL may have traded away their first round Super Draft pick, and released their supplemental picks but today they won the lottery.
Here is the list of circumstances that have MLS holding a lottery:
The league uses the lottery mechanism for: 1) players who have completed their college eligibility and sign after the SuperDraft; 2) underclassmen who sign Generation adidas contracts after the SuperDraft; and 3) players who were previously offered MLS contracts and did not sign.
So today was the first of 3 weighted lotteries (based on teams performance in 2010, the better you do the worst your chances are), the prize today was Cody Arnoux, a 22 year old striker who most recently was a prospect for Everton FC in the English Permier league.
6 teams took part in the lottery (RSL,Houston, Columbus, Seattle, Portland and Vancouver) and with just a 5.4% chance RSL was the winner. It is hard to tell if RSL will keep him and add to their corp of strikers or if they will put him up for a trade to get some more allocation money. We know RSL was very tight on cap room, and we know the reason he was put into the draft was the issues with Vancouver trying to sign him last year and skate around the MLS draft. You have to believe that they will be interested in picking up his rights now.
There will also be drafts for Chris Agorsor and Korey Veeder, those will take place next week. Maybe RSL will hit the lottery again, now if my Powerball numbers would hit on Saturday, we could really celebrate. (note, RSL can't win another player lottery this year. Once you win you are out for the year, but Cody was a top prize. This also doesn't mean that I can't win the Powerball).
OFF MY SOAPBOX