Professional Soccer Player Traded for Hotel Accommodations

A Fort Lauderdale player takes the news hard. (Getty Images) The Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the NASL traded Walter Restrepo to the San Antonio Scorpions for

A Fort Lauderdale player takes the news hard. (Getty Images)

The Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the NASL traded Walter Restrepo to the San Antonio Scorpions for " a transfer fee." Seems like a your typical minor professional league cash trade, right? Not quite:

The Fort Lauderdale Strikers executed a trade that sent Walter Restrepo — a player who scored six league goals and assisted on eight others in 2012 — to the San Antonio Scorpions in exchange for hotel and transportation arrangements during the club's trip to the Lone Star State for a game this coming June.

We did not make that up.

The Crockett Hotel, a business partner of the Scorpions, would otherwise charge $169 per night during the days in question to put two men to a room. Take that times a dozen, to account for at least 24 members of the organization — players, coaches, medical staff, etc. — and it comes out to $2,028 per night, which brings the total value of the lodging portion of the trade to $4,056.

It'd be one thing if they traded him for a year's worth of hotel lodging, but just one road trip? That's insulting.

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MLSSoccer.com