Pat Martin asks whether MLS players are asking for too much in the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations, whose deadline has been extended from Jan. 31to Feb. 25, a month before the season’s start: “MLS players want guaranteed contacts? Ask the millions of unemployed Americans if they would have liked guaranteed contracts in their previous placesof employment. You earn your money, or you’re gone, plain and simple.”
The league can and should make minor concessions when it comes to the salary floor and cap, Martin suggests. A thirdof the league’s players earn under $35,000, with a select few earning as little as $15,300. Raise the floor to a more livable wage, around $30,000, and combine that with a modest raise in the current$2.3 million salary cap for each club, and it should be a win for both sides.