March 04--Major League Soccer and its players union reached agreement on a labor contract late Wednesday, clearing the way for the league's 20th season to begin on schedule Friday when the Galaxy plays host to the Chicago Fire at the StubHub Center.
The previous collective bargaining agreement expired Jan. 31, and despite five weeks of sometimes-intense negotiating, it didn't look as if the two sides would come to terms on a new one in time to save the 10 games scheduled for this weekend.
The most contentious issues involved compensation and free agency.
The players were reportedly seeking a significant raise in the league's $3.1-million salary cap and a rise in the minimum wage -- promising to strike if they didn't get both.
Last season players occupying the final five spots on a team's roster could be paid as little as $36,500 -- and about half the players in the league made less than $50,000. The union also wanted a form of free agency that would allow players to go to the club of their choosing when their current contracts ran out.
The league repeatedly insisted it could not agree to any form of free agency because of its single-entity business model. Under that setup, the league owns all 20 MLS teams and the players on their rosters, with investor-operators handling the day-to-day operations of the franchises, such as setting rosters and selling tickets. Allowing free agency, MLS argued, would result in the league office bidding against itself for players who are eligible to switch teams.
Another split developed late in the bargaining when MLS sought to have the CBA cover eight seasons -- the length of the league's $720-million broadcast deal -- while the players wanted something similar in length to the last CBA, which covered five seasons.
But after four days of marathon negotiating sessions with federal mediators in Washington, MLS finally cracked, agreeing to a deal less than 50 hours before the season was scheduled to begin. Details of the league's free agency rules weren't immediately released, but earlier media reports from ESPN and others suggest factors such as a players' age and length of service will be used to determined who can change teams.
Five years ago the league and the union waited until five days before the first games to ratify the last labor contract.
In the final days of this year's talks, the league was reportedly facing pressure from its TV partners -- ESPN, Fox and Univision -- which had ponied up $90 million a season in rights fees and hundreds of hours in programming time. Fox and ESPN declined to comment when asked if they were due payment from the league if any scheduled games were lost or rescheduled because of an impasse.
Expansion franchises Orlando City and New York City FC also wanted an on-time start to their first seasons. The league's two newest teams will meet Sunday before a sold-out crowd of more than 60,000 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla.
