New MLS deal avoids player strike

(by Michael C. Lewis sltrib.com 3-20-10)

Soccer fans, rejoice.

Real Salt Lake and Major League Soccer have averted a potentially devastating player strike just days before their new season begins, with league owners agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement that gives the players much of what they wanted while stopping short of allowing unrestricted free agency.

"Everybody's relieved," said goalkeeper Nick Rimando, one of two RSL union representatives who helped negotiate the deal in Washington. "The players are satisfied with the deal it's a structure we can always grow on."

Agreement on the new five-year deal Saturday will allow the upcoming season to begin as scheduled, with the new Philadelphia Union expansion team playing the Seattle Sounders on national television on Thursday night.

RSL will open defense of its MLS Cup championship at San Jose on Saturday. The team will play the Sounders in its home opener April 10.

Players had threatened to strike if a new deal was not reached by midnight Tuesday, jeopardizing a season that many view as crucial to the league, with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa expected to heighten domestic interest in soccer and the New York Red Bulls planning to open their new $220 million stadium in suburban New Jersey.

But the players wound up winning concessions on their major concerns after several days of late-night negotiations that included about two dozen players - RSL's Nat Borchers and Rimando, among them - and a federal mediator.

Union executive director Bob Foose said the new deal will afford players "significantly" increased compensation, more guaranteed contracts based on age and years spent in the league, and greater freedom to change teams within the league.

That last provision won't come in the form of free agency, though, something the owners opposed out of fear it would lead to an escalation of salaries that would doom the league.

Rather, players who are released by a team or otherwise out of contract will be able to enter a "re-entry" draft sometime after each season, during which other teams can select them and presumably negotiate new contracts. Under the old agreement that expired Jan. 31, teams could release players but still control their rights, limiting their freedom to join other teams.

"I give the union credit for a unique concept," league commissioner Don Garber said.

Officials did not disclose many other details on a conference call announced the deal, saying they need time to finalize them before announcing them to the public.

But Foose and Rimando said the players are satisfied that they moved the league closer to the global standard for their sport, while appreciating that owners were willing to make changes only in what Garber called an "evolutionary way, rather than a revolutionary way."

Since its creation, MLS has operated under a unique "single-entity" structure, in which the league - not individual teams - owns the contracts of players, in an effort to keep costs down and ensure its long-term survival. That will not change with the new deal.

Now, "it's time for all of us to get focused on the task at hand, which is building the sport of soccer in North America," Garber said.