News: MLS owners approve fall-spring calendar and season format changes: Sources

In general, on average, highs are usually hit around 4 or 5. Basically the sun has been warming the ground all day, and the ground radiates that heat back up, until the sun's at a low enough angle that it is no longer adding any heat and the ground heat is going up and away.

 

I mean, even if you're the players and you ultimately agree with the change, wouldn't you try and leverage this into some sort of other benefits on your list? Probably yes. And if so, the longer it drags out the better your bargaining position probably would be.

 

What could they be fighting for? Faster free agency?

 

Yeah, I'd imagine they will be pushing to get rid of the draft and the associated exclusive bargaining, the waiver wire, all that stuff this time, in addition to their typical objectives. That bell has been rung now and I think it's ripe.

I don't think the league will fight too hard to keep it. That's going to be the price to go to the international calendar. If they want to be a big boy league, they're going to have to play by similar rules.

I think clarity on image rights and off the books payments are going to be in there as well. There are too many players coming in with unique deals and some teams that always have room for a player.

 

I was thinking about this a bit. Sean Johnson's deal with DC United runs through the 2027 sprint season, and he was Toronto's MLSPA rep last year. I imagine the calendar switch is 100% happening, and I don't understand why, for whatever reason, the MLSPA hasn't announced their approval yet unless it's simply for collective bargaining reasons.

 

As an outsider, it does seem we are in a different world than 20 years ago, where the savings from these measures are pennies on the dollar of the much bigger organizations that MLS clubs have become, and would seem to be far less worth aggravating the players over.

 

Unions are composed of current members, not future members. If I’m a current union member, I’m happy with a system where my club can’t decide to do a rebuild and kick it off by signing 6 solid prospects from college, thus putting my job under threat. I’m happier with a system that is biased toward the status quo, because under the status quo I have a job.

Unless I’m missing something, getting rid of the draft helps owners, not players. They can scout more efficiently, so it saves them money.

Also, without a draft, the way clubs will persuade top prospects to sign with them and not a rival is money or playing time, both of which are bad news for current union members.

The MLS draft is very, very different from the drafts in our other sports because the talent pool is horrible in comparison. Most MLS draft choices have no impact on the league; they either barely play, or are the very definition of replacement level.

 

This sounds quite rational, but I have a feeling it's not how it will work.

First, a disclaimer, USSF is currently pitching reforms that would figure to significantly increase the level of play in NCAA soccer, but I'll have to assume that away, since it's speculative. For now, NCAA players aren't very good--they're mostly not really replacement level, most of them are worse than that. MLS teams won't do this type of multiplayer collegiate rebuild because they can't, it's a formula for certain embarrassment.

Also, I think players can extrapolate a little and see things through their fellow players' eyes. Especially when, as I've just argued anyway, the costs are trivial.

And it may even benefit current players, in that in general once one guy 'gets paid,' the knock-on effect is that other guys get paid too. Tristan Blackmon is able to haggle for a better deal because he can point to guys who are not as good as him getting paid more. If a college guy gets a 350k contract, current players are not going to view it as coming out of their own pockets, but the owners. Players tend to see it as a case of the owners trying to hoard the revenues, and once somebody gets a little chunk of their stash pried off, it makes it easier for the rest of them (in some sports they've been wrong about that, but I think at this moment in MLS they're probably right).

 

I mean there are 45,000 male NCAA players, about 90 a year are drafted and most of those won't play higher than NP. Anything that can be done to put the best players against each other competitively will help bring the cream to the top.

 

It depends whether you think the draft and associated free agency limits are depressing wages or not. In the end I can't think of a reason the players wouldn't jump at the opportunity to line up the calendar, for all the same reasons the league is interested in doing it. However, I fully expect them to milk this opportunity for everything they can get.

AS THEY SHOULD.

 

It's all fun and games until a player's fingers fall off.

 

I could be misreading this but broadly a draft is a restriction on a players movement and choice of employment so I would think the union would be against the draft. As others have pointed out the MLS draft doesn't really matter much so guessing the union isn't going to make it a high priority but I don't think they'd have a problem if MLS wanted to abolish it, but of course would want a say on any new system and would want that new system to give players more freedom of movement.

Basically I think the union is going to broadly favor anything that gives players more choice in where they play.

 

The draft is voluntary and signing a contract is voluntary.

 

Pardon my ignorance, only a year in I am still learning the intricacies of MLS roster building, but are you saying that a player who played US college soccer could choose not to enter the draft and essentially become a free agent and sign with any club they choose in MLS?

 

Yes, they can leave college and sign directly for a club.

 

Not one in MLS.

 

They can sign directly for a MLS club.

They can't be drafted then sign for another club within two years.

 

If you are among the players that are required to use the draft as your entry point to MLS, it is voluntary in the sense that you can volunteer to skip it and thus not play in MLS.

The NWSL is going into its second season after the CBA abolished the drafts (both rookie and expansion) and required player consent for all intra-league trades. The latter might be a more important goal for MLSPA.

 

Ok. So to avoid the draft you have to sign a home-grown contract before going to college?

 

If they put ideology over income, sure. And unions do that sometimes…you never hear NBA players pushing to, for example, restrict the draft to those who have been out of high school for 2 years instead of the current 1. And that’s because they’re putting ideology over money, it happens. Humans are complicated.

 

Or go play elsewhere, get established as a pro, then eventually move to MLS as a paid or free transfer.

 

No, you can sign as a homegrown after attending college, like Sean Davis did with the Red Bulls after 4 seasons at Duke.

But if a player is draft-eligible, they cannot directly sign for an MLS team. They can sign with any MLS Next Pro team, but those rights don't transfer to MLS.