MLS: Is the return to training early enough?
On Thursday, MLS lifted its training moratorium. But is it early enough for the proposed plan to return to action in late-June or early-July?
Major League Soccer plans to resume play with a World Cup-style tournament in Orlando later this summer. Details are still being finalised, but it will see teams enter in a group stage before a round of knockout matches structured in the same as a World Cup.
Players, coaches and other staff will live in hotels at Disney World while games are played at ESPN’s Wide World of Sport. It should not go unnoticed that ESPN, which is owned by Disney, is desperate for live sports to show and has been a key broadcaster of MLS matches.
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This week, after the league and the MLS Players’ Association ended testing negotiations regarding a new CBA, which included the league threatening a lockout in the middle of the pandemic, Don Garber announced that the league has lost around $1 billion in revenue:
"“Major League Soccer will take a one billion dollar revenue hit due to the pandemic. And that’s a function of lost revenue that regardless of what we’re able to do, is going to be nearly impossible to generate at the levels that we need. When we lose the ability to sell tickets and we lose the ability to have any hospitality and other game-day stadium revenues … today that is on hold. And we really don’t know what it’s going to look like, going forward.”"
Sports leagues the world over are attempting to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. They face frightful financial situations. MLS is no different, which is why the league is so keen to get games back on, especially in regards to the TV deals and broadcast revenues. Like all professional sports, TV is where the money is, and with no games currently being televised, there is no revenue.
This is the driving force of MLS’ decision to conjure up a contorted tournament in the middle of the regular season. Garber just wants to get games on. It almost doesn’t matter how.
This week, MLS also announced that the training moratorium which had been in place since March 12th will be lifted. Players have been training either individually since May 6th and then were allowed to train in small groups on Thursday. Not all teams have passed the necessary protocols yet, and some teams are based in states that rules do not allow training in any form, but the steps are being taken to physically prepare teams for when play resumes.
This gives teams roughly three or four weeks of full-contact training before play starts. It is fair to question whether that is enough time to truly prepare for competitive matches. And it again hints at the money-obsessed desperation of the league to play, suggesting the lengths MLS will go to ensure that some form of football is played.
The players have had to train on their own, must now be separated from their families for the best part of two months, will play matches without fans, and have had to deal with the disrespect of the league changing the terms of a previously agreed CBA while using the threat of a lockout.
Next. MLS: How much damage did lockout threat cause?. dark
Is MLS rushing back to play because of that $1 billion lost revenue? Garber would never admit as much, but it is very fair to question his and the league’s process and motives.