There’s little doubt that the issue of single entity will be one of the main debating points when the MLS Players’ Union’s CBA with the league comes up for renewal in 2010. No one’s making any bets on how much power the league will be prepared to cede to individual teams, but Ben Knight thinks that the time has already passed for league HQ to relinquish control.
Protecting the league economically is no longer necessary because the danger of MLS turning into the “Wild West money-spending wingless, rudderless jumbo jet the old NASL became” is over. There comes a day, he writes, when “little MLS must leave the protective feathering of [Commissioner Don] Garber’s loving nest.”
Toronto FC’s paltry share from Maurice Edu’s $5 million sale to Glasgow Rangers that the team is allowed to spend on new player acquisitions is evidence that the system is now redundant. With the number of up-and-coming players that MLS teams will potentially be able to sell abroad in the coming years, the league must “find a way to let these teams be competitive in the world market — even with small stadiums and severely pinched revenues.”