The present and future of Major League Soccer appear bright as the league prepares to open its 20th season Friday. On Sunday 60,000 fans are expected as Orlando City hosts New York City F.C. And this year begins eight-year television deals worth $90 million with ESPN, Fox and Univision. But among this excitement there are black clouds on the horizon as the players union and the league are at odds over a new collective bargaining agreement.
As reported by Richard Sandomir in today's New York Times, the key issue is free agency, common in other sports in the United States and in international soccer but lacking in the single ownership structure of MLS.
"M.L.S.’s system is antediluvian, born of the league’s odd-duck
structure," Sandomir writes. "As a single-entity league, M.L.S. owns all players contracts,
which keeps a draconian brake on player movement (and thus
compensation). In this way, the system acts like soccer’s version of the
much-reviled reserve clause, which tethered a baseball player to his
team in perpetuity unless he was traded, sold or released."
The Times article says that a strike could be called as early as tomorrow, which would prevent teams traveling to their opening games on Friday. The Union is scheduled to host Colorado on Saturday at 4 p.m. in its opener.
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