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I Fought the Power (and the Power Won)
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 05:24 PM by Dan Loney
Leech off other people's articles and give my own comments? Don't mind if I do!
Apparently for some weird reason AEG isn't satisfied with how the Galaxy are doing. Picky, picky, picky.
If two weeks was the deadline, then that means the Chivas USA game will be root, hog, or die. However, Tim's appearance was before the San Jose pratfall...so why wait that long? It's a bye week for the Galaxy, and the Chivas USA game is the day before the transfer deadline. Freedman says that Yallop was the fall guy last year, but as I recall the story was that Yallop left of his own free will.
I've grown weary of trying to defend Alexi Lalas by pointing out that his job description is to sell tickets, because if he's the next guy tossed overboard, then there's a definite upside...the guy was magic as a commentator. Getting out from under the whole corporate silliness, and getting some good press for a change, will do him a world of good. By 2010 we'll have Dellacamera, Harkes (who's very much improved - all he has to do is work on his player pronunciations, although it never bothered Bruce Arena)...bringing Lalas and Wynalda back will make the World Cup wonderful again. Er, assuming the stadiums are built and the crime is under control and so forth.
Meanwhile, MLS players attempt to solve the prisoner's dilemma.
The hilarity of the situation aside - it's easy to see this leading to some serious grudge-keeping on the part of the Powers That Be...and in this case, the Powers That Be have a serious amount of power. Hard to see this as anything but the players spitting in the eye of SUM, and the annoying thing is, it doesn't gain the players one single thing. They still have to go out and play this game, after all.
With this kind of gesture, it literally doesn't matter who is right (the players) and who's wrong, or whether you believe the Superliga is worthwhile (Chivas USA really could have used a better showing, just like the Galaxy really could have used winning it last year, to be honest, but it's hard to spin another Houston-New England match). Unless the Dynamo and Revolution go lugnuts-out on this one, preferably with a bench-clearing brawl or two, they've seriously questioned the integrity of the product.
I realize that's precisely the point of the exercise. But that's not very groovy for the fans who purchased tickets to this, and "let the buyer beware" isn't the message SUM, MLS teams, or players want to be sending.
The players don't want to be used as chew-toys for meaningless friendlies, which is entirely valid. But this was a hardball move by the players, and bodes extremely ill for the future.
Apparently for some weird reason AEG isn't satisfied with how the Galaxy are doing. Picky, picky, picky.
If two weeks was the deadline, then that means the Chivas USA game will be root, hog, or die. However, Tim's appearance was before the San Jose pratfall...so why wait that long? It's a bye week for the Galaxy, and the Chivas USA game is the day before the transfer deadline. Freedman says that Yallop was the fall guy last year, but as I recall the story was that Yallop left of his own free will.
I've grown weary of trying to defend Alexi Lalas by pointing out that his job description is to sell tickets, because if he's the next guy tossed overboard, then there's a definite upside...the guy was magic as a commentator. Getting out from under the whole corporate silliness, and getting some good press for a change, will do him a world of good. By 2010 we'll have Dellacamera, Harkes (who's very much improved - all he has to do is work on his player pronunciations, although it never bothered Bruce Arena)...bringing Lalas and Wynalda back will make the World Cup wonderful again. Er, assuming the stadiums are built and the crime is under control and so forth.
Meanwhile, MLS players attempt to solve the prisoner's dilemma.
Quote:
This just in from the MLS Players Union:
"The players on the Houston Dynamo and New England Revolution have agreed in advance of tomorrow night's SuperLiga final that they will split evenly the bonus money at stake in the game. The players have made this decision to show their solidarity and in protest of the league's violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with respect to the negotiation of bonuses for this tournament."
"The players on the Houston Dynamo and New England Revolution have agreed in advance of tomorrow night's SuperLiga final that they will split evenly the bonus money at stake in the game. The players have made this decision to show their solidarity and in protest of the league's violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement with respect to the negotiation of bonuses for this tournament."
With this kind of gesture, it literally doesn't matter who is right (the players) and who's wrong, or whether you believe the Superliga is worthwhile (Chivas USA really could have used a better showing, just like the Galaxy really could have used winning it last year, to be honest, but it's hard to spin another Houston-New England match). Unless the Dynamo and Revolution go lugnuts-out on this one, preferably with a bench-clearing brawl or two, they've seriously questioned the integrity of the product.
I realize that's precisely the point of the exercise. But that's not very groovy for the fans who purchased tickets to this, and "let the buyer beware" isn't the message SUM, MLS teams, or players want to be sending.
The players don't want to be used as chew-toys for meaningless friendlies, which is entirely valid. But this was a hardball move by the players, and bodes extremely ill for the future.
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I say fire Lalas and get him in the ESPN studio. He could do the Barry Melrose role, but for soccer.Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 05:39 PM by BlackGold 
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Yeah, it was harball by the Union. But MLS has been playing hardball with the players since 1995.
Is anyone surprised the players finally started pushing back?
Yeah, this is a slightly weird time to do it, but something like this is inevitable and, as Dan says, portells of what is expected to be a very nasty series of negotiations regarding a new CBA.
IMO, one of the biggest issues is that the perspective of the players has changed. These days, there are just a handful of players left who got out of college BEFORE there was a first division to play in.
I don't mean to paint the players as entitled, but most of them take MLS' existence for granted and don't realize that as crappy as they're often treaded by MLS, it's still a damn shade better than what the players went through in the Pre-MLS Era.
Most of the players now don't have that "we're just happy to have a league to play in" mentality and instead the players are more demanding. Some would say uppity.
I'm not saying MLS is wrong. Not saying the players are wrong. But what I am saying is that the perspective of the players has changed dramatically but I don't see MLS changing with it and that is what is leading to all this bad blood and the looming grudge match.Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 05:45 PM by Sandon Mibut
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Oh, I miss Wynalda. One thing I have noticed with regards to soccer announcing in the US, is that the US commentators feel the need to fill every second of game with chatter. EPL commentators often will sit with 10 or 15 seconds of dead air as something plays out.
How big a stick can the USSF wield in the upcoming measuring contest? Any? Could they act as mediator? Would they even want to?Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 06:11 PM by FU United
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I do have to chuckle a bit whenever someone says how "nasty" the CBA negotiations are going to get.
Too many people seem to think it's a fair fight, or that it'll come down to the wire with the possibility of a work stoppage. I think it'll be more growling and less biting.
The players will end up with better overall working conditions. I don't think there's any question about that. They were coming from a position (originally) that was really, really low (they didn't even have direct deposit, for crying out loud) and got an upgrade (not to mention more jobs).
I don't see any issues that are strike-worthy, and considering the league is poised to really make a breakthrough, both sides would be beyond stupid to let a work stoppage intervene.
But, at the end of the day, this isn't a fair fight. Just saying you're mad as hell because you don't get as much as Pachuca got for winning SuperLiga (which means about as much as Kyle Rote, Jr.'s Superstars victories back in the 1970s) doesn't mean you're a bulldog and doesn't mean you're going to get everything you want, come hell or high water.
It doesn't mean they're going to ruin their relationship forever. It doesn't mean there's going to be a strike. There'll be a lot of rhetoric on both sides, as there is in every CBA negotiation in every industry you can think of.
But to say it's a "looming grudge match" implies that it's a fair fight whose outcome is up in the air. And I don't think it is. MLS players aren't equipped (yet) to put the kind of fear into management's hearts that the MLBPA or the Teamsters do.Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 06:13 PM by kenntomasch
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Does anyone else see the eventual possibility of a Premier League-type move over this issue? What I mean is the departure of the top teams in the league to form a new D-1 league? By the time the CBA comes up for renegotiation in 2010, there will be 16 teams in the league, plenty of teams to split in half and form a small pro/rel system between the two leagues. If the Houstons, New Englands, and DC Uniteds of the league keep getting screwed over like this, I could see them bolting from the league and setting up better rules and a larger cap eventually.Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 06:26 PM by time_drifter
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The players have more leverage than you might think - more certainly, than the league would like to admit.
First is that clumsy "M" - Major. MLS cannot allow themselves to be seen as a minor league because that would be, in marketing to the mainstream American sports market, the mark of death. Never mind that major/minor distinctions are BS in soccer and NCAA major / mid-major / small conference type distinctions are a better analogy. Never mind that MLS is a solid league and increasing in quality steadily. If ain't "Major" here in the good ole' USA, it's crap, dagnabbit.
What kind of "major" league nickel-and-dimes its players the way MLS does? (All of them, duh, but in the case of MLS and developmental roster guys we are talking about literal nickels and dimes...)
This whole Superliga prize money thing is a PR disaster for the league in this respect and the union knows it.
Second problem the league, did you see that goal Charlie Davies scored for the Revs? Man, what Mariner has done for that kid....oh, wait. What about that record transfer fee for Jozy? Yeah, you mean the teenage phenom who played here for a couple years and then, errrr, moved on to a ,ummmm, different, bigger, league, like we were some uhhhhhhhhhhhh.....Hey LOOK, streamers!!!!!! bad supporters!!! bad bad supporters!Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 06:48 PM by NHFootyFan
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"Does anyone else see the eventual possibility of a Premier League-type move over this issue?"
Short answer: No. Why would they want to play in an 8-team league that created even more schedule redundancies and fewer options for interesting draws? And wouldn't splitting up into smaller leagues just make the leagues more "minor league?"
Why do people keep crying out for pro/rel? I don't get it.Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 06:49 PM by RapidStorm 
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How is the league supposed to split when all the teams are owned 51% by the same organization? Not to mention, the players aren't under contract to the teams, they're under contract to MLS. I agree. Enough with the pro/rel crap. It ain't Europe.
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 07:03 PM by denver_mugwamp
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51%? Where are you getting this number?
Last time I checked, out of 16 teams (counting Seattle and Philly), there were 14 1/2 owners (AEG is only 1/2 owner of Houston Dynamo). And for the record, pro/rel isn't exclusive to Europe. I was just using the Premier League (ca. 1992) as an example.
Just because the players are under contract to MLS, that doesn't mean their teams can't offer them a larger paycheck (which wouldn't be hard) to stay with the team when they jump. I doubt FIFA would throw up a single complaint if the move was seen as an advancement of the sport in the good ole' USA.Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 07:33 PM by time_drifter
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time_drifter, you need to go back and check our some of the threads on Single Entity. You obviously have zero understanding of it.
Posted 04 Aug 2008 at 08:26 PM by denver_mugwamp
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UPDATED:More Quakes-Galaxy Analysis - - The Offside - LA Galaxy Soccer Blog MLS05 Aug 2008, 08:39 PM
#8221;
It’s also how some teams implode.
Also, Dan Loney, the funniest blogger covering MLS, noted that he thinks Lalas’ only function is to sell tickets.
I’ve grown weary of trying to defend Alexi La
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