The MLS Players Association voted on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to approve the latest return-to-play plan negotiated with Major League Soccer. The MLSPA announced Wednesday morning that the vote passed and the new collective bargaining agreement had been ratified by the players and league owners averting a lockout. This means that there will be play starting in Orlando possibly as early as July 9th.
According to Paul Tenorio and Sam Stejkal of The Athletic, the CBA that they players and the league ratified has several alterations from the one that was agreed back in February.
Commissioner Don Garber said on a call with reporters that players will take a 5 percent pay cut for the remainder of the 2020 season. Team and individual bonuses in 2020 will be reduced to a $5 million pool, $1 million of which will go toward the Orlando tournament.
All terms of the previously-agreed CBA have been pushed back by one year, so increases for 2021 will now begin in 2022. In addition, the CBA was extended one year, through the 2025 season. Players also agreed to take a reduction in the television revenue share that was previously agreed beginning in 2023. Garber had recommended to clubs that any local television deals run no longer than 2022.
Players were initially set to receive 25 percent of the net increase in media revenue that exceeds $100 million above 2022 levels inserted into the salary budget and general allocation money. Instead, players will receive 12.5 percent in 2023 before returning to 25 percent in 2024 and 2025.
Notably, the league and players agreed to add a force majeure clause into the CBA. The league removed language that would have tied the clause to specific attendance figures in MLS markets. The agreement is modeled after the language in the NBA’s CBA. That clause is now permanently in the MLS CBA.
As part of the restart in Orlando, teams who are able to stay in the market for full-team training can train stay home until just before the start of the tournament. Other teams will train in Orlando in advance. The tournament will take place at ESPN Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World and the teams will stay at the various resorts at the theme parks.
There is currently a three-phase process for returning to play for the first time since March 12th. The first phase was individual training which started on May 6th. Testing was not required due to players being on their own and socially distanced at all times. Phase two is small group training, which the league gave the green-light to clubs to commence on Monday. That doesn’t require testing either, as the groups (no more than six players) are socially distanced at all times, too.
Phase three is full team training, in which full testing will be required. Clubs will be in charge of providing testing when they are in-market, prior to leaving for Orlando.
“There’s three key issues,” Abbott said. “First is that clubs have to have testing capacity to test players, second is that they have local government approvals [to return to training] and third is a variety of protocols, in terms of sanitized facilities and PPE (personal protective equipment).”
Once in Orlando, MLS will provide testing. Tests will be conducted when players and staff arrive, then continuously throughout the tournament.
Specific competition details for the tournament have not yet been revealed, with dates and competition format set to be announced in the coming days.
It was also reported on Tuesday that a member of FC Dallas tested positive for COVID-19, but is reported in good health and is reported not to present a risk to anyone who has worked or trained at the club’s facilities in recent days. The unidentified player is the second known case of COVID-19 after Philadelphia’s Kasper Przbylko who contracted the virus in March.
MLS East
