It appears the issues surrounding an MLS work stoppage are past the boiling point now. Numerous reports contain player quotes that suggest a strike after February 25th is now likely.
UPDATE: League says it is willing to start 2010 season under expired CBA "To characterize the league as not taking the players' concerns seriously is just factually incorrect. What we have not made a proposal on and what the league is not prepared to do is to have free agency within the league. The league created its structure after really studying other efforts to launch professional soccer leagues in the United States, which unfortunately failed."
ESPN Soccernet: According to MLSPU executive board member and Kansas City Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad, little headway has been made in resolving these issues, despite the two sides meeting last Wednesday and Thursday.
"We feel like we've made a huge effort to be reasonable, to propose things that are within the confines of the single-entity structure," Conrad said. "At this point they're not even humoring us with something tangible. If things stay where they are, then it's inevitable that a work stoppage is going to happen."
CenterlineSoccer: According to San Jose Earthquakes goalkeeper Joe Cannon, that hope — at least on the players’ side — has evaporated in the last week.
“I can honestly say that I don’t think things were ever going great,” said Cannon. “But there was a lot more hope when we had a little bit more time. Maybe people just felt that through negotiations things could hopefully get done, but I think now it’s come to a point where the reality of the situation has to eclipse the hope we all have.”
ProstAmerika.com: Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad is less hopeful and suggests that the Union will up the ante by refusing to even attend. “We’d just be negotiating against ourselves,” said Onstad. “What’s the point?”
With both sides at polar opposites over the ideas of player free agency and rights to pick which MLS club they play for, the other issues such as salary and aligning with FIFA rules are taking a back seat.
One report suggests that the salary cap will be raised as a result of the current bargaining. But what do you do with the players' belief that they should have a say in where they play butting up against the owners' belief that control over player movement and free agency is the only way they can survive and grow the league? The two sides simply have a huge disagreement to settle, and it appears by the quotes of the player representatives speaking out above that the union now thinks it is being toyed with.
Comments
Well f@#k... That's not sounding promising.
F#cking unions.
I'm a Union guy but I also bought season tickets. I'm conflicted about this. I just hope they don't kill the business by being stubbornly positional.
"The rarest thing in the world is the combination of effective agitator and competent negotiator." -Oscar Ameringer on 1920s Illinois United Mine Workers leader Frank Farrington
stash, you really think working conditions in a 1920's mine has anything to do with what unions stand for and how they operate today?
Well, you might not agree with Unions but I'll say this, without the players union MLS will NEVER get to the level of play that everyone hopes for/wants. Without freedom of movement, club autonomy, and a higher cap we will never attract the talent to equal European leagues and will continue to lose our best and brightest.
I'm with the players all the way on this one.
Shame on Hitler, I mean Don Garber, and the club owners. Players must get free agency; MLS operates as a communist cartel w/ rules that run afoul of FIFA regulations!!!I am 100% behind the players.
if you think I can't support the players and criticize union strangleholds all in the same breath, you're wrong. Let's do it right. Look what collective bargaining did for the NBA. It ruined it. Proceed carefully and try to learn something from the past.
Screw you MLS, negotiating means coming to a compromise
The MLS are right to stick to their guns and retain the single-entity contracts. You only have to look across the pond to see the effect of players demanding too much and their greedy agents. Already an increasing number of clubs are facing financial meltdown and Portsmouth are only the tip of the iceberg, watch for more spectacular collapses in the next few years. Unlike the Portsmouth players who haven't been paid for weeks, at least the MLS players can rely on their wages. Hopefully commensense will prevail in the end but I wouldn't rely on it.
Soccer, and especially, MLS is on a verge of becoming truly a major league in the US sporting landsacpe. Stoppage will be devestating to the league and the sport in the US. Go to Washington tomorrow, hammer out a compromise, and let the season start on time. No excuses. We want our beautiful game!
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