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More Details and a Clearer Winner Emerge on MLS Labor Accord

The new MLS Collective Bargaining Agreement salvaged the on time opening of the season, and the debut of the new Philadelphia Union at year old, and league success, Seattle Sounders.  Unfortunately for MLS, the debut will take place Thursday night opposite perhaps the most attractive Sweet Sixteen Regional matchup between Cornell and Kentucky.  Nevertheless, without the last minute deal, the players had committed to a walkout that would have delayed the opening of the season for an unknown length of time.

So, as details of the new CBA emerge, it's fair to judge who won and who lost in this standoff.  The winners are actually fairly clear:  ESPN and the league's other broadcast partners, Adidas and the other sponsors and most importantly the owners; the losers, the players.

Certainly the players came away with much of what they were seeking: a raise in the salary cap from $2.3 million to $2.5 million, a raise in the minimum from $34,000 to $40,000, and a re-entry draft for players out of contract.  But, most significantly, the players did not achieve any form of free agency, which going in had been their single most important demand.

Realistically, the players were probably never going to achieve free agency, at least not in this go-around.  The owners position was simply too strong, financially and legally.  A player's rights never left the league even if his contract expired with a particular club.  So, the players set out to gain some measure of freedom of movement.  Unfortunately for them they were simply not in the economic position to battle it out with the owners.  They had not built a large enough strike fund to support the players through what would have been a very lengthy work stoppage, not to mention the difficulty and potential damage to their future a work stoppage would have wrought in a year when soccer interest in the US should be at near an all-time high due to the upcoming World Cup.  At the end of the day, the  players had little choice but to take the owners last offer and start the season on time.
 

Full post as published by Sports Biz on March 25, 2010 (boomark / email).