MLS: Don Garber and co. exploiting pandemic for own ends
Amid negotiations between MLS and the MLS Players’ Association that could see a previously agreed-upon Collective Bargaining Agreement changed, the league threatens a lockout. The league is exploiting the pandemic for their own ends.
It was only this weekend that that MLS Players’ Association voted to propose their counteroffer to Major League Soccer as discussions regarding wage cuts continue amid the league’s attempt to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The MLSPA took their time regarding the details of their counteroffer. The league did not.
Per ESPN, the league immediately responded to the MLSPA’s counteroffer, stating that it has already submitted its best proposal. Even more significantly, Herculez Gomez reported that the league has given the MLSPA until noon on Tuesday — which is a little over 24 hours away as of writing — to respond otherwise we could see a lockout.
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This is the climax of month-long negotiations between the league and players’ association as commissioner Don Garber has attempted to find a solution to the cratering revenue MLS will suffer from as a result of COVID-19. It also comes after a new Collective Bargaining Agreement was verbally ratified but never confirmed earlier this year.
It has been almost three months since any games have been played. If and when they do return, they will be played behind-closed-doors, potentially for as long as until the end of next season. Given the league’s dependence on matchday income, which is far higher than the top European leagues whose TV revenues dwarf their North American counterpart and dominate their income, this could be catastrophic.
Initially, MLS proposed a 50% wage cut. That was quite quickly dismissed and negotiations have been ongoing ever since. At present, the league is pushing for an 8.75% cut while the MLSPA responded with a 7.5% cut. This is one impasse that must be solved.
More pressing issues relate a Force Majeure clause inserted into the CBA. This would allow MLS to exercise the clause and back out of the CBA if four teams lost more than 25% of their attendance from the previous season. MLSPA’s offer does not include any such clause.
There are other issues: The MLSPA wants a year extension to the agreed CBA following the 2020 season largely being washed out. The league also wants to limit the share that teams get from a looming new TV deal that will come into effect in 2023 and is set to provide significantly increased revenue.
The initial terms in the CBA stated that 25% above $100 million above the 2022 revenue would go to the teams and not the league. Now the league is proposing that this be cut to 10% in 2023 and then increase to the previously agreed-upon 25% in 2024. They had initially proposed that the entire scheme be delayed for an entire year.
The bigger issue here, then, is not the wage cuts or the agreed amendments to the Orlando-based tournament. It is the league using a global pandemic to make changes to a CBA that was already agreed upon in February. As The Athletic’s Paul Tenorio stated on Twitter on Monday morning:
"“MLS owners are effectively leveraging a global pandemic to insert drastic new terms into an already-negotiated CBA or else not pay the players.”"
And if they do not get their way, which already involves reversing what they previously agreed with the MLSPA, the league will lock out the players and refuse to pay them. It is a drastic step in what has mostly been cordial and successful negotiations up until this point.
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This is the league using the threat of a lockout to muscle through terms in a CBA that the MLSPA previously did not want and did not agree to. That is utterly unacceptable.