MLS' regular season is scheduled to begin in four weeks, but the league and MLSPU remain “very far apart” in CBA negotiations on key issues like free agency, according to a source cited by Steven Goff of the WASHINGTON POST. MLS and MLSPU reps this week in DC "addressed a variety of topics during two days of negotiations." A source said of the meetings, "Not much progress." The source added the sides are "grinding through smaller issues and some legal language" but "remain very far apart" on key sticking points in free agency and compensation. MLSPU Exec Dir Bob Foose confirmed that the sides met but "declined to comment about the status of negotiations." The failure to reach an accord by early March "would jeopardize the scheduled start of MLS’s 20th season." The first regular-season match is set for March 6 (WASHINGTON POST, 2/6). In Utah, Matt Montgomery writes if there is a strike that "delays the season, it could be the biggest problem for MLS" since the Mutiny and Fusion folded in '01 (DESERET NEWS, 2/6).
DON OF A NEW DAY: MLS Commissioner Don Garber on Thursday said of CBA negotiations, "We’ll get help from federal mediation if that’s necessary and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to solve our differences." He added, "We have quite a few players that are earning significant amount of money and in many ways more so than they could potentially earn overseas. Our minimum salaries continue to grow and our average salary is growing. But it can’t just grow immediately. Our revenues aren’t exploding on an immediate basis, they are going to grow over time, our business still is relatively small compared to certainly the other leagues here in this country and many of the other soccer leagues around the world and our player salaries have to be commensurate with our revenues." Garber continued, "We’d like our league to be profitable and right now it’s not. ... The league as an enterprise is still losing money. ... So we recognize that it’s a business that is going to take time to be profitable. ... The best thing I can say now with four weeks or so before the start of the season is we’ve got a lot of work to do and we’re committed to spending the time needed to reach an agreement. We’ll get help from federal mediation if that’s necessary and we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to solve our differences" (
ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/6).
MOST VALUABLE PLACARD? Galaxy F Robbie Keane, the '14 MLS MVP, said he will be "100 percent behind" fellow MLSers if they go on strike. SI.com's Brian Straus noted Keane "had the luxury of making his choice while negotiating with the 'league of choice.'" The issues about which the union "feels most passionate -- intra-league free agency and player compensation -- don’t apply to Keane." But he made clear that despite his "privileged position, he still identifies and sympathizes with his colleagues and is ready to stand with them when necessary." Keane said of if he would strike, "Yes, of course. If 90 percent of the players in the league want that, if 55 percent of the league wants that, it should be. It’s a majority. If the majority wants it, I’m behind it." Keane’s "vote of confidence is an important one." If a player with "nothing to gain is willing to walk the picket line, then the union may have less to lose" (SI.com, 2/5).
COMING TO AMERICA: In Orlando, Paul Tenorio noted many U.S. men's national soccer team players "are coming back" from Europe to play in MLS, which suddenly "has a surplus of American stars to sell." Red Bulls MF Dax McCarty said, "It means the world to the league. ... Clearly the league has put a big emphasis on trying to get the best American players to play in America, and that's something that is only going to make the league better." Some players "have earned big pay days" in returning to MLS, while others have "seen a return to the United States as a necessity after struggling in Europe." Red Bulls MF Sacha Kljestan said, "Since the league started basically, it's been growing so much, and at a certain point I wanted to be a part of that growth." Still, not everyone "is happy about the sudden movement." USMNT coach and USSF Technical Dir Jurgen Klinsmann "has expressed his disappointment at some players returning to MLS, and on Wednesday he called those players 'big fish in a small pond.'" Tenorio wrote some European leagues "are certainly a higher level of competition than MLS right now, but the short-term trade-off is more than worth the potential long-term benefits for the U.S. soccer program." As MLS "aims to be one of the top leagues in the world during the next two decades, the trend of Americans flooding to MLS may be one of the most important developments in that evolution" (ORLANDO SENTIEL, 2/5).
