The battle lines are being drawn. On the one side you have Major League Soccer players. On the other: MLS owners, led by commissioner Don Garber. The players appear to be led by Landon Donovan and Kasey Keller, who made the union’s stance clear in a recent statement from FIFPro, which represents soccer players internationally. At issue: What the players say are “basic rights” of free movement among clubs, which they say is prohibited by the league’s structure. MLS has vigorously defended this structure “that has provided stability and growth during the last 15 years while creating opportunity for the sport,” while pointing out that federal U.S. courts have effectively rubber-stamped its legality. It will all come to a head by Jan. 31, when the collective bargaining agreement expires.
MLS fans have been keeping abreast of every development and sit on pins and needles hoping the league does not suffer the same fate as its various predecessors. There is no question that a strike or lockout would be highly detrimental for the sport in this country–perhaps even fatal to MLS. But whose side are the fans on? Why not put it to a vote. Pick one of the three options in the poll and defend your choice in the comment area below it.
Special thanks to cartoon artist John Zidar. You can follow John on Twitter.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by chicagofireasn: New @amersocc poll: MLS players vs. owners: Whose side are you on? http://american-soccer-news.com/?p=3989…
While I do think the salary for the “rookies” is ridiculously low, I do not agree with a strike! If you don't like what you are paid – work somewhere else! The league is still struggling to be profitable and survive and I believe these sort of demands if met, would kill the league!
I don't think pay is the top priority here at all…it's just the power and freedom that only the league enjoys in the MLS. Players are told if they are fired, quit, whatever…they don't have the freedom to move to another club on their own accord…but the league can move them anywhere at any point.
It really does look like institutionalized collusion. But the league says this has been challenged in court and that it's stood up every time. So I don't know what options the players have at this point. Other than striking of course–which is by no means a foolproof measure.
Please show one case where the league took a player from one team and transfered them to another team without both the teams being involved? Just one please.
There's always room for negotiation. But to threaten lockout is just rotten. These players have been suffering with poor and mediocre pay since the beginning. And in the beginning it was understandable. But big money has been flowing into MLS through Nike, player sales to Europe, Galaxy shirt sales, etc. And for their patience all these years, the players are going to be rewarded with a lockout?
Don Garber's salary is near 3 million, I hear. There needs to be a rebalancing, a cleansing process. It's for the good of the players… and inevitably for the good of the league, too.
It's not only rookies. Most all players are underpaid. Read The Beckham Experiment for an example of how the average MLS player lives, and an L.A. Galaxy salary list from 2007.
I would simply say to both Kasey and Landon, the league isn't ready to be restructured yet, you might want to wait until at least half the teams are actually making a profit. Or would you rather have teams like Man U with hundreds of millions in debt?
The players have some legit concerns, but their actions and words make it seem like the MLS owners are rolling in profits, which simply isn't true. “Free Agency” can't happen when the league owns all the contracts.
Mike Petke was on the It's Called Football podcast last night and he pointed out that Don Garber has a salary well into the seven figures while players are barely making five figures in some instances (and none of that guaranteed). It's hard to take seriously the league's claims that they need this “cost certainty” with that kind of disparity.
Unfortunately the players really don't have much leverage. They'll likely agree to a modified CBA where the single entity structure remains in place. The league will probably throw them a few bones–higher minimum salaries and the like. Not sure where else this can go at this point.
I would totally agree that “the Don” is well paid for what he does, I am not sure if his salary as reported is his MLS salary, his SUM salary, or both but I heard in Seattle during MLS Cup that the number is more like $1.5 to $1.75 million, which I still would say is being very, very well paid. I would argue that as much as I may not be a fan of “the Don”, he does work long hours and has done a lot to progress a league that when he came on board was heading into the deep end bankruptcy pool.
So yes Petke is right, that some players are only making 5 figures, of course most players put in an hour or two of practice a day and maybe another of fitness. It isn't like they are punching a clock in a 10 hour a day job either.
Ask yourself this what has Mike Petke done to advance the league, how much did he work on soccer specific stadiums, how has he impacted the TV deals that the league has? Sorry I get that a lot of player need to make more money, and some want to make more, and I totally support a raise of the league minimum and I believe the overall cap should be raised.
But do I think that the players should point to “the Don's” salary as why they deserve more money, that is simply ridiculous. That would be like me walking up to my CEO and saying that I should get paid more because he makes so much.
After listening to the podcast I would add
Sorry Mike, but making 80,000 a year doesn't qualify you as poor and you have a guy making just as much as the comish in JPA and 10 guys making 6 digits a year. I think guys like Borman, Duffy, Sasssano, and those making under 40K have room to complain most. I would say a minimum of 40K should be established for all players.
Oh and Mike comparing MLS to the EPL, that has been around for over 100 years vs.15 for MLS, or a league that has huge academies to develop talent vs a league where every signing is a crap shoot. Not to mention the revenue difference between the two, or the debt level. I get wanting to grow the league, my god there are so many things that could be done, but when you have a more than half the teams not making money are the players willing to give back money if the team loses money? Of course not, see I love how it is easy to want a share of profits but nobody talks about the losses. Way to quote the NASL model from the 70's as a model for “improvement”, right ideas but wow you have no idea how quickly it would bankrupt the teams.
Yes the players are right to want more power to the teams, but removing a salary cap all together would be a disaster for the league. So teams with billionaire owners could spend what they want, oh wait LA already does that and how have the last 4 years gone for them? Let's agree that there are changes that need to take place and a lot of them include moving power away from the league and to the teams, but remember that MLS is a fringe sport in the US and changing that is a process that can happen but it isn't going to happen overnight. Both the league and players need to understand that change is needed and both sides need to understand that only by working together will the sport continue to grow in the US. But the game of pointing fingers, which is done by both sides will accomplish nothing. Most of us are working in jobs that we tolerate in order to support our families, players get a chance to do what they are passionate about and if they find they can earn enough to live the way they want, then they like everyone else should look for a new job.
First of all thank you for the lengthy comment. Any interest in contributing as a writer? (I'm serious)
As far as the salaries are concerned, I think it's very simple: If Don Garber is earning seven figures, the minimum salary needs to be higher. If the league earns enough money to pay its commissioner that much it needs to do more for the little people. It's the same in every organization. For example, I don't think anybody at Goldman Sachs earns $30K (unless we're talking $30K a week and even then it's probably just the secretaries). Of course Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman CEO) also earns a lot more than Don Garber, but the point is you can have that kind of disparity. It just isn't fair. And it isn't good business. You want to share the wealth to make people more willing to contribute their blood, sweat and tears to your cause.
As for Petke, I know for a fact there are many New York Red Bulls fans who really value the guy and who during parts of last season came out to games just on his behalf. When everybody else effectively quit, he was there firing people up. Nobody else had the cojones to call out his teammates or coaches last year. Petke did it publicly (on his ESPN blog). No he won't go down in the annals of great American soccer players but he has definitely done a lot for the league. 80K per year may not make him poor but you'd like to see a guy like him share in the wealth (so far that there is any. If not then that's a different story).
Removing the salary cap will bring disaster only if the owners are willing to cast aside all notions of fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately you may be right here because other sports (and soccer in Europe) has proven that team owners simply cannot do this. One is always going to overpay for a transfer and that will set off the inevitable dominoes. The “Soccernomics” book has a whole chapter on this.
Thanks for the offer, I actually have my own blog focused on Real Salt Lake(http://www.rslsoapbox.com/). I like Petke, and I am no fan of “the Don” but I get a feeling from a lot of my online reading that far too many pundits and fans think that every player is getting jobbed and that the MLS owners are reaping huge profits. That simply isn't the truth and it is unfortunate that very few people are willing to look at things with a fully open mind.
One has to ask how much money did the Hunts pump into their teams over the past 15 years? Do you think they have broken even? I can tell you with 100% certainty that RSL's owner Dave Checketts hasn't made money off RSL yet, he paid a low (by the standard today) $10 million dollar franchise fee in 2005. He played the first 3 3/4 seasons at Rice Eccles Stadium, where the team lost money every MLS match they played. He took out loans and put his money on the line to a tune of over $65 million to get Rio Tinto Stadium built and as I reported on my blog a couple weeks ago, the organization still didn't turn a profit in 2009 (despite the 5th best home attendance in the league and one of the lowest payrolls).
So I try to balance out the very real needs of the players to earn a living wage (I think no player should ever make less than 40K a year) for doing what they love (and most of us if we had the talent would do for 40K and be the happiest people on the planet). I do think Garber is overpaid, I also think he must surrender control of either MLS as a league or of SUM as a company, there are huge conflict of interest issues in my opinion. I honestly think the Petke has the stuff to make a great coach, he is one of those guys like RSL head coach Jason Kreis, hard working, committed to doing his best, and not afraid to speak the truth.
I respect his opinion but I also remember sitting in the stands in 96 at the Horseshoe in Columbus watching the Crew play with 4-5,000 people in the stands and knowing the business couldn't last that way. I remember moving to Dallas and in 99 watching the Fire play to slightly larger crowds in the Cotton Bowl when huge sections were covered with banners to try to cover the tens of thousands of empty seats and again thinking that the business couldn't survive for long. I remember when Tampa and Miami folded and so many sports people started closing the coffin lid on MLS. I know that no one person deserves credit for bringing the league back from the brink, but I know that probably nobody deserves more credit for it than Don Garber. We are on the verge of seeing our passion become a national passion and go from fringe sport of foreigners to being a major player on the US sports scene and I for one would hate to see it risked because a guy making 80K a year for playing a game is pissed off that the guy who is really responsible for him having a job is overpaid.
Sorry, change is needed but doing things wisely (both sides) is the only way we move from being the undercard to college baseball and the WNBA on ESPN2, to being on the headliner on a network that is committed to the sport. I want nothing more than to see MLS become a top league in the world, but I don't expect it overnight. I do think a start is moving power away from the league and to the teams, but even in the NFL there is a salary cap, in the NBA a salary cap, in MLB a weak salary cap. Most sports owners are a mix of business men and egomaniacs, they are willing to spend ungodly amounts of money to win and that is why I believe removing the salary cap in MLS would doom the league. If there is no MLS where does Mike Petke make 80K playing soccer in the US?
Fair enough. Good points, all of them. And of course I'm aware of the RSL Soapbox! Great site! Keep up the good work
No problem, I love what you guys are doing, and I really like the new logo. Might just have to get one of those new t-shirts.
actually doing a quick CBA update and pointing to this discussion.
thanks! Well if you keep up the comments and sign up here for our contest you might not have to pay for one of our shirts!
Fair enough. Good points, all of them. And of course I'm aware of the RSL Soapbox! Great site! Keep up the good work
No problem, I love what you guys are doing, and I really like the new logo. Might just have to get one of those new t-shirts.
actually doing a quick CBA update and pointing to this discussion.
thanks! Well if you keep up the comments and sign up here for our contest you might not have to pay for one of our shirts!
It seems the US has a major problem with working on what is best for the overall player as a whole. It goes from the children up to the professions. In the US, soccer needs to be promoted more, but with all the regulations and red tape that goes along with just playing the sport is out of control. I have daughters that have played for several years and they have tried to get better training while maintaining the friendships and camaraderie among players, but the system will not give them the opportunities to play on more than one team. I think this is defeating the purpose of trying to promote soccer in the US because if is causing frustration among the players and coaches, whereas, in other countries player play with several different teams and become better players. I think the opportunity for the players to transfer among clubs just creates more competitiveness and brings the sport to the top arena along with other sports.