With the start of the season just over three weeks away it appears the two sides are no closer to an agreement. While it’s still seems unlikely that a lockout and/or strike will happen, both sides admit that it’s becoming more and more of a possibility.
The owners remain silent while more players are taking their turn on the bully pulpit.
Bobby Boswell of DC United remains optimistic but freely admits:
“There are some issues we’re not eye to eye on and we’re pretty far apart on some pretty important stuff.”
Boswell’s veteran teammate Chris Rolfe is even more succinct:
“While we are making progress on some fronts, there are some things that we as players feel are essential that they’re not even addressing. They aren’t showing us any respect on those issues.”
Nat Borchers, speaking at pre-season training in Arizona last week, added:
“Everybody’s hopeful but it’s going to be very tough because we are so far apart right now. There’s some very big issues out there that need to be addressed. Until we have those discussions, I don’t think we can talk about the season starting on time.”
Between the last CBA, implemented five years ago, the players union has begun preparing for this round of negotiations. Bowell says that the player’s union’s efforts have already impressed
“I had the chance to sit down with the NFLPA’s [NFL Players Association’s] president [Eric Winston], we met with baseball’s guys and they think we’re as unified as any group ever.”
“I think it’s because we have guys that are very well-educated, and the union and the staff and they do a great job of preparing us.”
With free agency being perhaps the biggest sticking point, the labor negotiations, though fruitless, continue. MLS was founded as a single-entity system with the owners choosing that system so as to prevent teams from starting a bidding war over players and thereby keeping costs under control.
However the league is on very stable ground. With expansion franchise fees well exceeding $100m and riding a crest of television money, it is no easier to explain how players are earning less than $36,000 which is laughable among both other American leagues and among top soccer leagues.
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