MLS Commissioner Don Garber on CBA Negotiations with the MLS Players Union
MLS Insider recently talked to Don Garber regarding the ongoing negotiations with the MLS Players Union (MLSPU). Garber has some interesting things to say concerning the negotiations.
We are working hard, collectively, both the MLSPU and the league, to try to reach an agreement that’s going to be good for both players and management. We are working very hard to do that. We are meeting regularly…we met several times last week and we’re meeting again next week. But we are going to get to a point where both players and management are going to have to make some tough decisions.
We’ve been doing very well over the last ten years making this league very stable. We need to ensure we have the right kind of deal to continue to develop the game the way we have and clearly the players are going to have to try to decide what kind of deal they will accept to get the type of things they are looking for.
At the end of the day, this is still a very young sport. For 50 years, soccer has failed in this country. And here we are, about to have 18 teams, nearly 10 soccer stadiums, all because we’ve had a system that albeit different, is one that allows us to have this ability to continue to operate and grow for another day.
Don Garber
In other words, it looks like the MLS Commissioner is still taking a pretty hard line with the players and believes the league’s success has been exactly because of the non-traditional players contacts. He also seems to believe that any continued success the league would have would also be from a continuation of those contracts.
It doesn’t seem either side is ready to back down at this point and more and more, it looks as if a players strike is very possible.
You can see all of Garber’s remarks here.
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Did Garber really say “deal they would except?”
Sorry to be so negative…but Garber is full of it. The Gen-Adiadas program is a joke. (If anyone ever gets the balls to take this farce to court, they will easily win…I can be so confident as a professional in a labor law practice.) A low, fixed pay scale, for players who are frightened into signing, because they have a dream of pro-soccer. A program created by the league, to capture the best young talent, and have everyone but the player profit. I think USSF supports this systems, deep into ODP and the academy system because it keeps more $ coming into the coughers. MLS has had some success, but they have also exploited too many players to make the owners some money. Most other pro sports have done the same, only to see free-agency and out of control player salaries threaten the leagues existance…bottom line is the owners still agree to pay the players a ridiculous amount of money.
What is with the specter of the first NASL failure . . . why are player salaries always to blame and not the absurd amount of expansion that occurred in the league that led to teams making stupid decisions about what they would be willing to pay players. Heck, even Championship Manager will fire you if you exceed your player budget
I hope the players win on this one
Generation adidas? What’s the issue with that? That’s basically MLS’ attempt to bid against foreign clubs to sign top young players, and they typically get decent money.
So far, MLS has done a reasonably good job of increasing its visibility. The biggest difference between MLS and the other major pro team sports in the U.S. (NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL) is that the other four are considered to be the global standard for their respective sport.
We can sit and argue all day whether EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, LFP (or others) is/are the “standard.” What is clear is that MLS isn’t.
MLS and its players have worked hard to gain respect and I am sensing they have made some inroads. A work stoppage (regardless of which side is to blame) will not help their cause.