“As other big leagues seek concessions from players, the Major League Soccer Players Union has proposed significant increases in its members’ rights, including free agency and league-wide guaranteed contracts,” as part of a newly proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement, reports the Sports Business Journal.
Although already shot down by the league in 2004, free agency “would fundamentally change the way the MLS is operated,” with players finally obtaining “the right to have multiple [league] teams bid for their services” that athletes in other major American sports enjoy, something the league has always controlled under its somewhat controversial single-entity structure. But according to one SBJ source, “the real issue that players are pushing for…is the guaranteed contracts,” which would be upgraded from those existing that are only “semi-guaranteed, meaning the contract becomes guaranteed once a player continues to play to a certain point in the season.”
With MLS owners having “what is considered the most owner-friendly deal among the big leagues” and knowing that “only a very small fraction of the 15 MLS clubs are thought to be profitable,” an unnamed source said “there is no way the league would agree” to either issue raised by the MLSPU. Although the current CBA is set to expire on Jan. 31, “at which time the players could strike or the owners could lock them out if there is no deal,” sources on both sides expect the issue to be resolved before training camp for the 2010 season begins.