MLS - Players Union Agreement

Kerr Jr. played a lot of places (including N.E.) and is now coach at Harvard...

Many of us who have been around since the NASL days are bitter over Sr.'s participation in the NFL motivated labor movement that resulted in a brief walkout by players and, ultimately, hastened (if not precipitated) the demise of the league...

To say that he fought for a union since '96 is completely wrong and totally revisionist... the players could have had a union in '96 (well, organizing one probably would have carried the process into '97) but this would have prevented Kerr from getting the players association (it wasn't a union) from attempting to get the league structure declared invalid... the fact that this strategy backfired so completely, to the detriment of many players who would have benefitted from a collective barganing agreement over the past 10 years, is laid at his doorstep and that of the NFL players association (who funded most of his effort to sue the league and who never had the interests of US soccer in mind).. of course, those MLS players who naively bought into his notions are not blameless, either... the fact that the players now recognize that this path was complete folly (kill the goose before it can lay ANY eggs, much less golden ones) is why Kerr no longer has any involvement with the MLS union, AND NEVER WILL... after the loss of the lawsuit, this sentiment was made perfectly clear...

Kerr Sr. allied himself with the NFL players association to fight this legal battle which would have been the destruction of division 1 soccer in this country for the forseeable future... he is no friend of soccer in this country or of those who support professional soccer here...

Rand

 

I remember them talking about this in some behind-the-scenes with Landon Donovan piece.

 

Well said, Rswensen.

By the way, a few people wrote that the players traded free agency for other benefits. That's not the case. The lawsuit loss pretty much said the players had no legal right to free agency. What the players traded was their claim to free agency, which one could argue had little value.

I think the players got a good deal considering their lack of leverage.

I think MLS should also be pleased because they have happy employees and no pending legal battles. (Antitrust suit is completely dead and all contract questions will go to arbitration.)

The fans should be happy too, because they'll be no strike in the foreseeable future and the rising salary cap means teams will be more likely to keep their rising stars.

 

I would assume this means that the players salaries will be reported. This will help us armchair GMs decide which players they want as well as other things...

 

The press release doesn't say anything about a rising salary cap.

 

I misread. I thought the 40% increase was the salary cap, not the minimum salary. My mistake.

 

Expanding roster slots and raising the minimum salary are both announced things (assuming the union ratifies the agreement)....the cap is going up, even if this release doesn't mention it.

 

The "salary cap" (or at least the labor costs for each team) is going up due to the fact that the agreement stipulates health insurance and pension plan... I think that was why the salary cap hasn't gone up the past few years, the owners wanted to know what the extra "damages" would be from the contract before moving (of course, I could be completely wrong about that;-)


rand