Major League Soccer
MLS Strike Update: Players, Owners Continue to Talk
The fate of Major League Soccer's 2015 season will likely be decided in the next few days—or even the next few hours—in Washington, D.C. ASN's Brooke Tunstall is on the scene to report the latest.
WASHINGTON, D.C—With the start of its 20th season hanging in the balance and large gaps still remaining, Major League Soccer and its players are continuing a series of marathon negotiating sessions and hold out a glimmer of hope that a work stoppage can be avoided.
Officials from Major League Soccer, including commissioner Don Garber, his No. 2, Mark Abbott, and league owners including FC Dallas’ Clark Hunt have been involved in the negotiating sessions, which began here Sunday at the headquarters of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Office.
Both sides are hoping to reach a deal and MLS is being pressured by several ownership groups, including newcomers Orlando City and New York City FC, to avoid a work stoppage.
“Orlando and New York two are shitting their pants right now and are really putting heat on the league to get a deal done because they don’t want the start of their first season delayed,” said a front office official of a West Coast team. Orlando City has sold out Sunday's home opener against NYCFC, to the tune of 60,000-plus tickets.
MLS has prohibited officials from commenting about the CBA talks and this week fined Real Salt Lake owner Del Loy Hanson for public comments he made about the negotiations. Those who agreed to speak to American Soccer Now for this article did so at the insistence of anonymity.
On the other side of the table sit Major League Soccer Players Union executive director Bob Foose, general counsel Jon Newman, and Hall of Famer and original MLS poster boy Eddie Pope, who is the union’s director of player relations.
They have been joined in D.C. by more than 20 players, including current national teamers Nick Rimando and Graham Zusi and up-and-comers like the Chicago Fire’s Harry Shipp, the runner-up for last year’s Rookie of the Year award.
Yesterday’s session ended about 11 pm when Garber and league officials exited out a back door. But the players stayed till 6am, per a source, formulating a counteroffer and working the phones to the rank-and-file to gauge their commitment to a strike.
Garber was tight-lipped when asked by ASN if he thought a deal could be reached. “I’m neither optimistic nor pessimistic,” he said.
As of noon today, a formal strike vote has not been taken but several players told American Soccer Now they are expected to vote today. With 10 games schedule for this weekend, there is obvious urgency to get a deal done, especially because most visiting teams are scheduled to fly tomorrow morning.
“No one is getting on a plane unless a deal is done,” one player said.
In a sign of hope, the Chicago Fire, who are scheduled to play in Los Angeles Friday against the Galaxy, left this morning from O’Hare at 10:55 central time and soon after they landed in California they may be asked to vote on a new CBA that will determine if they turn around and fly home or play Friday’s game.
Union officials and myriad players have insisted that no league games will be played without a new CBA deal in place. The old deal expired at the end of January.
What the players are actually voting on is still to be determined. Despite obvious grogginess, both sides returned to the bargaining table today and while progress has been made, there are still major gaps.
Free agency has been a major goal for the players and MLS made a major concession in that regard, offering the chance to move freely within MLS teams for players whose contracts have expired and are over 28 and have eight years of service in MLS.
The players, however, want both numbers to go lower. “Most players in MLS play four years of college,” so free agency at 28 doesn’t do you much good if you’re 22 and can’t become a free agent until you’re 30,” said one player.
One agent who had been briefed on negotiations by clients added this: “If age and length of service is a caveat for free agency, then the league has to be more open in terms of letting younger players into MLS and signing more young players so that guys can turn pro when they’re 20 or whatever.”
Currently college underclassmen aren’t allowed to declare for the MLS draft unless they are already signed to a Generation Adidas contract and this year only five such contracts were signed.
Also to be negotiated is how years spent playing for an MLS team-owned USL Pro side would count toward service time.
Another major sticking point is the length of the CBA. The league has offered eight years and the players are insisting on five. Also being haggled is the salary cap. The league has offered incremental increases from last year’s $3.1 million. “What the league offered for year eight (of the CBA) is where we want it be for the fifth year,” said one player not at the negotiations but who had been debriefed by a player rep.
A cap figure of around $4 million for 2015 appears to be the starting point, according to several sources.
“Progress” is being made said one player here who requested not to be identified. “The gap is closing but we’re still not there.”
Of all the players here, Shipp likely has the most on the line. The majority of the player reps are older and more established and, in many cases, closer to the end of their careers than the beginning.
“The reality is we have more on the line than the older guys,” said another player in his early 20s. “Most of the older guys, they have enough time in MLS to be free agents pretty soon. But for someone like me to have to wait eight years, I’m not voting for that.”
Both sides continue to claim a unified front. But clearly there are differences in philosophies within each camp. For management, there is the pressure from Orlando and New York City and there are newer owners who didn’t endure the league’s early hardships who have shown a greater willingness to spend—such as Seattle and Toronto, whose president, Tim Leiweke, spoke last month of a divide among owners.
“The league is going through a debate—the haves versus the have-nots,” Leiweke told the Toronto Sun. “Are we going to count mints on the pillow and bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator? Or are we going to create a vision of what soccer can be in North America in the next five-to-10 years and challenge the system? "That’s what we’re doing with our DPs. Our owners have spent what we’re spending at BMO.”
Meanwhile the players have to unify the interests of the older players, who may be more likely to settle because they have mortgages and a families to worry about, with younger players with fewer responsibilities who may be able to live with mom and dad in the event of a work stoppage.
Further, it falls on Pope and each team’s player reps to get the foreign players to understand that giving up paychecks is worth their while. “Most foreign players, they don’t stay more than two or three years and the whole free agency thing doesn’t impact them,” one league source said. “So they don’t really have a dog in the fight. They’re here to get paid and don’t want to go on strike.”
Whether they have to vote to do so will likely be decided in a second floor K Street boardroom here in Washington sometime this afternoon.
Brooke Tunstall is an American Soccer Now contributing editor and ASN 100 panelist. You can follow him on Twitter.
MLS has prohibited officials from commenting about the CBA talks and this week fined Real Salt Lake owner Del Loy Hanson for public comments he made about the negotiations. Those who agreed to speak to American Soccer Now for this article did so at the insistence of anonymity.
On the other side of the table sit Major League Soccer Players Union executive director Bob Foose, general counsel Jon Newman, and Hall of Famer and original MLS poster boy Eddie Pope, who is the union’s director of player relations.
They have been joined in D.C. by more than 20 players, including current national teamers Nick Rimando and Graham Zusi and up-and-comers like the Chicago Fire’s Harry Shipp, the runner-up for last year’s Rookie of the Year award.
Yesterday’s session ended about 11 pm when Garber and league officials exited out a back door. But the players stayed till 6am, per a source, formulating a counteroffer and working the phones to the rank-and-file to gauge their commitment to a strike.
Garber was tight-lipped when asked by ASN if he thought a deal could be reached. “I’m neither optimistic nor pessimistic,” he said.
As of noon today, a formal strike vote has not been taken but several players told American Soccer Now they are expected to vote today. With 10 games schedule for this weekend, there is obvious urgency to get a deal done, especially because most visiting teams are scheduled to fly tomorrow morning.
“No one is getting on a plane unless a deal is done,” one player said.
In a sign of hope, the Chicago Fire, who are scheduled to play in Los Angeles Friday against the Galaxy, left this morning from O’Hare at 10:55 central time and soon after they landed in California they may be asked to vote on a new CBA that will determine if they turn around and fly home or play Friday’s game.
Union officials and myriad players have insisted that no league games will be played without a new CBA deal in place. The old deal expired at the end of January.
What the players are actually voting on is still to be determined. Despite obvious grogginess, both sides returned to the bargaining table today and while progress has been made, there are still major gaps.
Free agency has been a major goal for the players and MLS made a major concession in that regard, offering the chance to move freely within MLS teams for players whose contracts have expired and are over 28 and have eight years of service in MLS.
The players, however, want both numbers to go lower. “Most players in MLS play four years of college,” so free agency at 28 doesn’t do you much good if you’re 22 and can’t become a free agent until you’re 30,” said one player.
One agent who had been briefed on negotiations by clients added this: “If age and length of service is a caveat for free agency, then the league has to be more open in terms of letting younger players into MLS and signing more young players so that guys can turn pro when they’re 20 or whatever.”
Currently college underclassmen aren’t allowed to declare for the MLS draft unless they are already signed to a Generation Adidas contract and this year only five such contracts were signed.
Also to be negotiated is how years spent playing for an MLS team-owned USL Pro side would count toward service time.
Another major sticking point is the length of the CBA. The league has offered eight years and the players are insisting on five. Also being haggled is the salary cap. The league has offered incremental increases from last year’s $3.1 million. “What the league offered for year eight (of the CBA) is where we want it be for the fifth year,” said one player not at the negotiations but who had been debriefed by a player rep.
A cap figure of around $4 million for 2015 appears to be the starting point, according to several sources.
“Progress” is being made said one player here who requested not to be identified. “The gap is closing but we’re still not there.”
Of all the players here, Shipp likely has the most on the line. The majority of the player reps are older and more established and, in many cases, closer to the end of their careers than the beginning.
“The reality is we have more on the line than the older guys,” said another player in his early 20s. “Most of the older guys, they have enough time in MLS to be free agents pretty soon. But for someone like me to have to wait eight years, I’m not voting for that.”
Both sides continue to claim a unified front. But clearly there are differences in philosophies within each camp. For management, there is the pressure from Orlando and New York City and there are newer owners who didn’t endure the league’s early hardships who have shown a greater willingness to spend—such as Seattle and Toronto, whose president, Tim Leiweke, spoke last month of a divide among owners.
“The league is going through a debate—the haves versus the have-nots,” Leiweke told the Toronto Sun. “Are we going to count mints on the pillow and bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator? Or are we going to create a vision of what soccer can be in North America in the next five-to-10 years and challenge the system? "That’s what we’re doing with our DPs. Our owners have spent what we’re spending at BMO.”
Meanwhile the players have to unify the interests of the older players, who may be more likely to settle because they have mortgages and a families to worry about, with younger players with fewer responsibilities who may be able to live with mom and dad in the event of a work stoppage.
Further, it falls on Pope and each team’s player reps to get the foreign players to understand that giving up paychecks is worth their while. “Most foreign players, they don’t stay more than two or three years and the whole free agency thing doesn’t impact them,” one league source said. “So they don’t really have a dog in the fight. They’re here to get paid and don’t want to go on strike.”
Whether they have to vote to do so will likely be decided in a second floor K Street boardroom here in Washington sometime this afternoon.
Brooke Tunstall is an American Soccer Now contributing editor and ASN 100 panelist. You can follow him on Twitter.
