We are just days away from MLS kicking off season 20… Well maybe. Negotiations are ongoing between MLS owners and the MLS Players Union. The biggest topic of discrepancy is free agency. Simply put, the players want it, and the owners do not. Let’s take a look at the perspective of all parties involved.
Point of View of the Players:
Naturally, players in any sport would want outright free agency. Free agency tends to overpay and over value the available talent. Wouldn’t we all love to be paid the absolute maximum we can? Of course.
Point of View of the League:
No business in existence wants cost controls to be nullified. The current collective bargaining agreement in place for Major League Soccer has a cost control mechanism to ensure owners, general managers, and the like do not find themselves in a bidding war for talent. Free agency would diminish that significantly.
Point of View of the Fans:
Fans of all sports love the offseason wheeling and dealing between teams. Free agency could certainly add another layer to that. But the question must be asked at what cost?
Battle Lines Are Drawn
The players have been very outward and public about their unified stance on free agency. They claim they will not play this season without it. It is tough to know just how serious the players are in regard to this. It’s easy to talk the talk but how many of the players will stay unified and walk the walk once bills aren’t being paid at home? Negotiations of any kind are bound to have plenty of posturing from both sides.
When a player’s contract runs out, he and his agent are free to negotiate a deal with any other league on the globe and get paid their worth. Try a comparable league like in Japan, Belgium, Austria, Holland, or lower level leagues in England, etc. And while I understand it can sometimes be difficult for Americans to ply their trade in European countries due to bureaucracy and red tape, we have seen plenty of players of all talent levels make the jump.
My Two Cents
Allow me to share some personal perspective; I worked for both Chivas USA and the Colorado Rapids in a lowly season ticket rep capacity. After the 2011 season, our Team President, Tim Hinchey, brought everyone within the organization in for a staff meeting. Mr. Hinchey has his critics but he came up with the teams “One Club” mantra and genuinely believes in it and acts accordingly. His purpose for calling the meeting was to make sure everyone from top to bottom understood the organization structure of the entire franchise and how each one of our specific roles played a part in the outcome of the team. The highlight of the meeting was when he shared the overall finances of the club. The Rapids won the MLS Cup in 2010, thus the 2011 campaign saw an uptick in season ticket packages sold, sponsorship revenue, and merchandise, etc. Essentially we saw an increase in nearly all facets of the franchise and even with such a spike in revenue the Rapids still operated with a deficit of over $2 million that season. I can’t fathom such a deficit is an anomaly in MLS so I understand the owners reluctance to embrace free agency.
While it’s easy to say “what is two million bucks for Stan Kroenke?” sure it’s chump change but it still doesn’t negate the fact that it is not a smart business proposition either. MLS is a business after all. The players see the large TV deal MLS just signed and what a piece of the pie. That is fair, but free agency is the piece of the pie they shouldn’t be so fixated on. Quite frankly, I think the Players Union should instead make the following their points of contention:
- Raise league minimum to approximately $65,000.
- Raise the salary cap to $5.5 million this season and continue to raise it at a certain percentage rate (say 5-10%) for the duration of the new CBA contract.
- Implement a “Percentage Cap System” where players only have a certain percentage of their salary count against the cap.
Example: Let’s say a homegrown player (or a drafted player) like Connor Lade makes $100,000, have only 50% of his salary count against the cap and it would stay that way for the duration of his career with the team. If in a few years Connor is a starter and outperforms his current contract and he is given a raise to $200,000 only $100K would count against the cap. This rewards scouting and player personnel departments for their efforts by giving the team a break on the cap. Rather than having to trade a player away because they outperform their contract, you can keep them, and the player is compensated fairly.For non-homegrown player, the longer a player is with a team, the less of a percentage of their salary counts against the teams cap number. In other words, cap hits on contracts decline for every season a player serves a club. Players with 3 years of service to a club have only 85% of their contract count against the cap. 4 years would equal 80%. 5 years 75% so on and so forth.
The three bullet points mentioned above would keep cost control mechanisms in place for owners, players will still be compensated fairly while entering the league as a rookie and as they develop into veterans. In my humble opinion, free agency has negatively affected professional sports in America. Player contracts in the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB all have grown beyond reason. If all out free agency is what it will take for MLS to truly become “major league” on the global scale than I guess I am fine with MLS being a 2nd or 3rd tier league. I hope we kick off the season this Friday but not if it means free agency runs rampant in the league.
