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Labor and Agents

How pieces came together in MLS labor deal

“Play ball.”

A simple tweet sent out by Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando Wednesday night said it all.

Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Rimando, who had been involved in the late-hour negotiations in Washington, D.C., seeking a new MLS labor deal, was letting it be known that the league and the players union had come to an agreement, ensuring the 2015 MLS season would start on time.

Official word from MLS about the new collective-bargaining agreement with the MLS Players Union followed soon after.

The process to reach a deal had become a lengthy one by last week, and it entered a crucial last stretch of negotiations on Sunday, March 1, with still much progress to be made on what had become the key issue for both sides: free agency.

Players wanted it, so as to have the same opportunity for franchise movement and salary gain that their peers in the other major U.S. pro leagues enjoy. MLS maintained full free agency could threaten the financial underpinnings of the league and its single-entity structure, as well as its

teams, dimming the growth and expansion possibilities that have come to dominate discussion of MLS as it enters its 20th season.

Tweets by Nick Rimando and MLS spread the word about the agreement.
Over those first two days of talks in Washington last week, the matter of whether the 2015 season would start on time became increasingly uncertain. Negotiations brought little word of any common ground being found on the subject of free agency.

There was, however, positive news coming on other fronts. Teams were continuing with business as usual with the hopes that the games would begin soon. One of the league’s original teams, the Columbus Crew, announced it had found a naming-rights partner for its stadium, MLS’s first soccer-specific stadium. The deal with global insurance company Mapfre Insurance would see the Crew’s stadium renamed Mapfre Stadium. Meanwhile, in Orlando, expansion club Orlando City SC announced it had sold more than 60,000 tickets for its first game, scheduled for this past Saturday as part of the league’s opening weekend.

At the league level, news of a deal with Audi of America to be MLS’s official auto sponsor and presenting sponsor of the playoffs was breaking as well.

Back in Washington, by Tuesday evening, things were starting to move in a more positive direction, too. More owners were getting involved in the discussion, and they along with the league for the first time presented some sort of free agency opportunity to the players — offering a system that required players to be at least 32 years old and with 10 years of experience to become a free agent. While those terms made it a system that would cover only a handful of players across the entire league, the outlining of that framework was a notable step.

Also, Scot Beckenbaugh, deputy director for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, was able to become more involved in the mediation, moving more heavily into the talks after work on a labor dispute between West Coast dockworkers and the Pacific Maritime Association. Beckenbaugh played a key role in labor negotiations for both the NHL and NBA in recent years, and he also was involved in working with MLS and MLS players when they reached their prior labor deal, in 2010. At the time, then-MLSPU executive board member Landon Donovan said the deal wouldn’t have gotten done without the assistance of Beckenbaugh and former FMCS Director George Cohen.

Over the course of a long final two days, the league and the players union were able to find more middle ground from that initial league proposal, finally settling on a limited form of free agency that allows for players 28 and older with eight or more years of league service to become free agents. It was an agreement that ultimately made the late-night announcement of the full new CBA on Wednesday possible.

There are, however, limits to how much a player can earn through the new free agency system. If a player makes less than $100,000, he can only make up to 125 percent of his current salary in his next deal. For players making between $100,000 and $200,000, that cap is at 120 percent; those who make more than $200,000 are capped at 115 percent.

While this sort of free agency falls short of the union’s goal of a true unrestricted free agency format akin to the other U.S. pro leagues, it also can be viewed as a game-changer given the staunch opposition to free agency that had been exhibited by some of the league’s owners during negotiations.

“While limited, the players opened up the Pandora’s box on a systematic change that the owners had publicly stated would never happen,” said Richard Motzkin, head of the soccer practice at Wasserman Media Group. “That is real progress and something that will greatly benefit the players in the years to come.”

Beyond the free agency details, one of the last key points of discussion came in regard to how long the new CBA would be. While the league and team owners preferred an eight-year deal that would have tied its completion to the league’s new media rights deal, the union fought for a shorter term that would allow players to re-engage the league for further concessions on free agency sooner. The deal that was agreed to was a five-year pact, through 2019.

The next step will be ratification of the deal by the players and the owners. That action is expected to take place this week, but the announcement of the deal had positioned MLS to kick off the 2015 season as originally scheduled this past weekend.

Staff writer Liz Mullen contributed to this report.

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