Major League Soccer and its Players Union have agreed to extend negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement to Feb. 25, thus averting a potential lockout or strike for the time being. The sides agreed to the extension after snow storms in the northeast forced the cancellation of scheduled negotiations.
The extension is the second one the sides have agreed to. The original deadline was Feb. 1 before the league and union agreed to extend talks to Feb. 12.
maybe they should just keep extending it for 3 years
Yeah but unlike Congress the owners have a bottom line they have to worry about. There is a limit to how much MLS owners are willing to go into debt.
Is it progress that they can agree to delay coming up with an agreement?
I don’t believe “the players are free to play in any league in the world.” In the UK and Europe a player can not just sign to play can they? (Not an argument but a request for more information). I believe they must meet certain conditions, such as playing on the national team for 75% of the games over a certain time frame. It is not as if they can walk from one business to another. Other leagues such as Australia have native player caps. The world of soccer is anything but a free and open market. The union and the league must both compromise; let’s not turn this site into a political peripheral political discussion.
Theplayers are free not to sign with MLS and play at any league in the world which will pay them according to their marketable skill.
Single entity has probably kept the league in business. It is a business, not a hobby.
I think the issue of rights after contract completion is unreasonable.
If a person will play a sport they love for $25,000 then that is the market wage.
Well if they go on strike, they can always pull a stunt like in “the Replacements” – I’d happily suit up for DC until the players come back : ) !!!!
Years if you imagine they knew this was coming as soon as they signed the last one with much rumbling and groaning from the Player’s Union….
they’ve agreed on Guarenteed contracts and Salary cap (2.3 to 2.6), but the major disagreement is still coming down to a free agent market. Apparently MLS fear Free Agents would artificially inflate the market.
of course these sources remain ambiguous, but they are close to the Players Union. Of course this could simply be completely off the marker, but its news
http://www.24thminute.com/2010/02/good-news-on-cba-front.html
I know!I’m getting tired of this.
i think its upsetting considering this is a World Cup year and and also this league has a team that is close to reaching 40,000 attendance for the first time in MLS history.
Jesus Christ! Just get this s*%t done already!!
How effective is a strike when more than half the stadiums around the league are averaging about half-full? How many owners of the teams are actually making money? When was the last time the league turned a profit? I understand where the players deserve better contracts but where is exactly is that guaranteed money going to the come from?
When the every single game around the league is mostly selling out, when advertisers are throwing money to buy spots on TV, only then would a players strike be effective. You can’t strike on a sport where the majority of the public doesn’t even know you exist in the first place.
If anything the smart thing to do is strike a couple of weeks after the World Cup. Then you will have at least some attention by the media which also depends on how well Team USA does in the tournament.
Get them, they have to refund you the money if anything happens.
I just want them to come to some sort of agreement so that I can stop worrying about whether or not I’m wasting my time getting those March/April tickets I’ve been eyeing.
Thanks, man, that is _exactly_ the story I was looking for.
MLS is hardely a cartel. It has to compete with myriad leagues around the world who offer competetive salaries. Calling the MLS a cartel is like saying Toyota is a cartel becuase it’s main dvision doesn’t compete with it’s Lexus division for engineers.
MLS has a monopoly. There is no fair market. That’s the problem.
Funny, why do you think a cartel would have something to do with actual market rates?
Everyone will be against them? Have you read the comments?
Go to http://www.24thminute.com/. He has a scoop on the CBA negotations. He’s pretty good at getting inside information. He was the one who broke the Portland / Vancouver MLS expansion announcement.
Not jumping on Ives at all, but the lack of reporting (across the board) on this story is absolutely stunning. What’s a brother have to do to at least get a “calls were unreturned” or “tersely declined to comment”? I refuse to believe that the state of soccer reporting in the country is so bad that not a single journalist has a source willing to make some anonymous comments.
Some even make under 20K.
Both the league and the players know a lockout/strike will be bad for the league.
Regardless of a lockout or a strike people will still blame the league.
REALLY? It “will benefit them, the fans, and improve the league’s quality” when they break up the single-entity model and bankrupt a third of the teams in the league? Their demands are absurd. Another winner – guaranteed two year contracts for college draft picks. REALLY?
A decent pay raise and an extra roster slot or two, plus a 401k match. That is a fair improvement and compromise. But the union is requesting rubbish terms.
In most sports leagues I’d agree with you. but MLS is different. Many players make under 30k a year. I have no problem with collective bargaining on the part of players when the teams use a single entity structure to pool their bargaining power.
the fact that both sides want to extend the talks means that they’re trying to find a solution. let’s hope they raise the minimum wage significantly and allow for free agency…
I hate unions. pay the players as per their market values.
Let me make something very clear to you all. This is all a moot point there will be no lockout because the league does not want to deal with the PR and the fact that everyone will be against them;however, if the league does not agree to guarantee all of the players contracts as well as adjust free agency the players will go on strike right before the first game. The players would be stupid to strike now simply because they would then not receive a paycheck. So why not just play out preseason get a paycheck and strike right before the first game. Mark my words, if the league doesnt agree to terms the players WILL strike
Get er done. Ready to see the rookies in action. Good luck Bone and Akpan.
i dont know what id do with no soccer come march… ill be pretty upset to tell ya the truth
I hope the players hang in there and get most of what they asking for. It will benefit them, the fans, and improve the league’s quality.
*Come on
Come one!!! It can’t POSSIBLY take this long to decide things! This isn’t Congress!
slackers
lol! i am tired of it tooo but we should never stop caring unless u really care less about MLS
I don’t even care anymore.
These losers better get things together they’ved had months to get their mess together
The snow was pretty much the reason for the extension, the two sides had planned to meet this week in D.C. but were unable to due to the weather. However, there are still issues that separate the two sides. Hopefully they can come to a compromise.
Does thus avert a potential lockout or strike or is it just drawing out when it will happen? The fact that they keep extending it seems to me that they arnt coming to an agreement. Or was the snow the reason for the extention?