MLS Sticks to the High Road as Players Prepare to Strike

The March 25 opener of the MLS regular season is approaching quickly and the players, absent a new collective bargaining agreement, are having some trouble keeping their composure.

On Wednesday, veteran Toronto Nick Garcia (pictured, left) told CBC that the players are "anticipating not having the season starting" on time and that they will strike without a new deal. On Thursday afternoon, players told The Washington Post and Big Apple Soccer that union membership has approved a strike by a nearly-unanimous margin (only two were against a stoppage) and that the chance of finding common ground with the league over the next two weeks "doesn't look good at all."

Without specifics, it's unclear whether this bluster constitutes yet another negotiating ploy or whether the union really is prepared to go nuclear. Could they genuinely be considering blowing the whole thing up in protest of the structural and economic principles that allow them to be professional soccer players in the first place?

This is not the NFL or Major League Baseball, where simple existence can be taken for granted and there's profit to go around. MLS exists because of the conservative, central control the players want to destroy. Perhaps many of them are too young to remember WarGames, but a strike would be the soccer equivalent of mutually ensured destruction.

Negotiations continued this week with a mediator in Washington. It's impossible to figure out how they went.

"We, as a union, have come more than halfway," Garcia said. "To this point, the league hasn't taken us seriously. So for me, I don't think the real issues have been addressed and I know other guys on other teams feel the same way."

In a statement provided to FanHouse, MLS President Mark Abbott, not surprisingly, disagreed.

"The meetings this week were productive and we have scheduled a number of additional meetings. And while we can't discuss what occurs across the bargaining table, we do believe that the players' comments do not accurately reflect the proposals that we have made to address the players' concerns or the productive nature of the discussions between MLS and the players union."

But Abbott refused to go further. "We have an understanding with the union and the mediator that we will not publicly discuss what takes place during these bargaining sessions."

The league's insistence on maintaining this dignified stance was admirable at one point, but now it's simply counterproductive. Abbot has dropped hints several times now that MLS has offered some solutions for the union's chief concerns, among them contract guarantees and liberalized player movement. The players continue to insist that this is not the case and that they're being ignored.

It is past time for the league to reveal its proposals. Show your cards, let's see who's bluffing. Everyone knows the issues, and the media and fans in this country are savvy enough to understand the obstacles facing the American soccer industry. They know what's realistic and what's fair. They understand that most of the league's teams lose money, but that the players still deserve a little more. They understand that free agency isn't possible right now and that MLS isn't going to let its clubs overpay middle-of-the-road athletes. They can see that Kevin Hartman, the former Kansas City goalkeeper who became the union's free agency poster boy, signed with FC Dallas just a few weeks after he was told he'd no longer be a Wizard.

If the league is willing to increase its commitment to fulfilling player contracts and to raise the salary cap (or simply reduce the hit absorbed by a designated player), the fact that a club must provide some compensation to a player's former team in order to avoid the risk of losing him on the waiver wire might seem a bit more palatable to the union. Money has a way of soothing concerns. Either way, if the league can show the public what it's willing to give, then the players lose the high ground and their bluster will be revealed as nothing but hot air. But by staying silent, MLS gives weight to the union's claims.

Big Apple Soccer quoted one anonymous player willing to admit that, "We don't want [a strike] to happen." Smart man, whoever it was. The league needs to suck it up and spend some more money and the players need stay focused on the big picture (there's a pro soccer league in the United States!), swallow some pride and accept incremental progress. A deal needs to get done.