Top Stories

Report: MLS on the verge of lockout as labor talks reach impasse

As more and more professional soccer leagues around the world prepare to return to action in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Major League Soccer’s return, and the proposed tournament that would restart the season in Orlando, are in danger of being derailed by stalled negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, and changes precipitated by the pandemic.

On Sunday, the MLS Players Association released a statement acknowledging that several concessions have been made but according to multiple reports, MLS is preparing to reject the counter-proposal made by the players.

According to ESPN, MLS has set a deadline of noon on Tuesday for the MLSPA to respond before being locked out of negotiations.

The MLSPA and MLS had reached an agreement on a new CBA prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but that new CBA had yet to be ratified. According to multiple reports, MLS has attempted to modify aspects of the most recent CBA, attempting to make changes on key details such as profit-sharing, base pay, and protocol for catastrophic events like a pandemic, prompting the difference of opinion.

The full statement shared by MLSPA on Sunday is below.

If an agreement cannot be reached, and MLS decides to lock its players out, we could wind up seeing the 2020 MLS season cancelled, though at this point the more likely casualty of the current impasse is the proposed tournament in Orlando.

Comments

  1. I’m with the league : No Play no money , as simple as that and If they don;t want to accept the terms of the league, well time to stop that F—-ing union.

    Reply
    • That wasn’t the sticking point. They players agreed to that what they didn’t agree to was a clause that if attendance dropped for any reason at five clubs the league could invoke across the board pay cuts. As in five teams stink and have terrible owners who spend nothing on marketing everyone gets a pay cut. Players agreed to the same basic force majeure clause as the NBA.

      Reply
      • Stupid law protecting players allready protected by their own contratcs. Unions suppose to protect low earning workers and not rich players.

  2. Way to take an opportunity to further your footprint and establish yourselves as a major professional sport and instead blow that up in an effort to save some pennies in the short term. A lockout will set both league growth and USMNT for years. I would bet it’s Kraft and Kroenke promoting this strategy.

    Reply
    • do you ever not take the position of the status quo, the powerful? did you miss the part where they sent in a proposal with a pay cut and such? geez.

      Reply
      • The lockout was the strategy of the owners the rich and powerful in this situation. I’m clearly stating that is stupid and then name two owners (billionaires) who are probably behind it since both spend little on their clubs and have used the lockout takeout in their other sport franchises.

    • They are billionaires because they know how to make money and besides that is a business and if you go into a business to loose money then you are the stupid one or not.? So, If you are a billionaire means you have to throw your money out of the window? and listen I’m not even a millonaire but into to be one some day.

      Reply

Leave a Comment