Thanks for the link, I know some of this has been covered here previously but this was my first time reading this particular court filing. I note the following allegations (which I'm reasonably confident are true): "In addition, and as it relates to the NWSL, the 2013 CBA/UPA provides, among other things, that Women’s National Team members would also play in the NWSL as employees of US Soccer and be paid an extra annual salary by US Soccer for their NWSL service. The reason for including NWSL service as part of the 2013 CBA/UPA was to help build a credible and sustainable women’s professional league and to hopefully avoid the fate of its two failed predecessors. Pursuant to the 2013 CBA/UPA, Women’s National Team members were given various options to “opt out” of participating in the NWSL for specific NWSL seasons by giving US Soccer notice by certain deadlines. The deadline for opting out of the 2016 NWSL season was October 5, 2015. Only one of the current Women’s National Team members exercised her option, but even she ultimately decided to play in the NWSL this coming season. ".... "In order to give the NWSL a chance to succeed for the benefit of all of women’s soccer, US Soccer has provided substantial support to NWSL in a variety of ways including, among others, substantial front-office support and allocating Women’s National Team members to the NWSL teams and paying their salaries." So, the US WNT players are employees of the USSF for purposes of both WNT and NWSL play. On the other hand, other materials establish that at least the non-allocated players are employees of the NWS (and not of their individual clubs). Thus arises the question of how the NWSL teams can be assured of their WNT players' availability since the USSF, and not the NWSL, is their employer and the entity able to insist on job performance. How it works for non-US allocated players, I don't know.
This might occur, but the players will need to act with care so long as most of the NWSL teams are losing money. If the losses get too high, the league may fold. The players don't want to cause that to happen. And, if the potential financial rewards of forming a union aren't high in the near future, the players may elect not to incur now the expense of forming and being represented by a union == which probably would be substantial -- and may choose instead to postpone that to a future date.
I don't think an NWSLPU would ever be so forceful - whether by ability or by choice - to ever put NWSL in trouble. I mean, even if they had the clout to do real damage, of course they would make sure to "act with care". It's not like any of them went into this career thinking they could be overly demanding. I see it as no different as when the MLSPU formed well before most MLS teams made it to profitability.
I agree, but I also am familiar with what legal fees can be, and to form a union and negotiate an agreement, they could be quite high. My point was that there's an economic judgment the players will be making about when the return on a legal fee investment will be sufficient to make the investment worthwhile. If I'm a bottom rung player making $15,000, knowing that I'm not likely to get a big pay jump over the next few years, I'm going to be reluctant about putting up my money to form a union and engage in collective bargaining now. That's particularly true if the non-salary parts of my contract are decent.
I can't seem to find the old "NWSL reserves/academy" thread, so if someone does find it and it's not too far out since the last post, feel free to direct a post-move. Anyway, I posted this over in the Lower Divisions forum the other day, but I wanted to point out that WPSL had its AGM last week, and two new additions caught my eye: Not only are the Red Stars, the Spirit, and the Breakers all still in the league, but I see "Seattle Reign" and "WNY Reserves" as well. Re: WNY, I'm really wondering how outdated this list is, especially since FC Indiana is also still included, even though they moved from WPSL to UWS.
I spoke too soon... The Spirit Reserves aren't listed at all on the current WPSL teams or standings pages, and the Spirit Academy has returned to being the Braddock Road Stars Elite. I know senior team roster news in theory has nothing to do with how the club treats its other teams, but still just reeks to me of the organization continuing to absolutely implode.
Perhaps cutting costs due to inc min wage since it's known they hate spending money. Can a team field nothing but min wage players + 1-2 Canadian allocations? May also receive a kickback due to lower # of allocations with no US players.
Personally I'm praying that DCU steps in to buy the team next year. Would be a great way to fill the extra dates in their new stadium (which, as of today, has a name).
The Spirit are pretty fortunate to have a facility like the SoccerPlex available to them. Seems like they are one of the teams that could easily stay independent from a facilities standpoint. But the current management seems to be shooting themselves in the foot, so I guess DC United couldn't do any worse and it would be good for the A&E deal to have another team playing in a MLS calibre stadium. I wonder, though, how much would moving from the SoccerPlex to DC United's new stadium affect the current fanbase?
I agree, the SoccerPlex is an amazing venue... I think Audi Park will be too, from what I can tell, though certainly bigger than what might look good with the current Spirit attendances (which I expect to be rather down this season). As to the fanbase, the SoccerPlex is honestly rather out from DC itself, up in the outer NW 'burbs. That area isn't the least-densely populated area of the DC Metro, but it's certainly not up there in terms of the number of really-local people the team could be drawing from. My impression was that most people are coming up from the inner 'burbs or from DC itself, some from NoVA too. Pretty sure almost all of the youth teams are closer to DC itself than to Boyds, too. You'd definitely be losing some fans moving from the 'burbs into DC itself, but I don't think many, so I think the upside is much greater.
Chill.... Mentioned in the media thread, but there are multiple delays with the schedule largely dealing with scheduling the live games and their backups. Home openers expected tomorrow (I guess, they said "this week" the other day) and full schedule TBD.
Red Stars and FCKC has redesigned websites Just wondering why KC's website has Sporting Park as a background pic... Is there something going on there? Maybe , maybe not
Well it is a picture of FCKC playing at Sporting Park. They probably used it cause it looks better than this:
Also: as reminder, we didn't get last year's home openers until 2/17. If they come out tomorrow, they'll be literally the same day of the year as they were last year.
My March is starting to fill up and I've got NCAA clients asking about dates in April. As I'm supposed to be working the Courage games, it would really be nice to know - even off the record - so I can start blocking out dates. Oh well, should be an interesting summer.
Should be today or tomorrow, & since we tend get this kind of news all at once, I'd like to think the announcement of the USWNT April friendlies means today.