By Ridge Mahoney
Is "greater freedom of movement" the same as "free agency?"
I would say not, but judging by the spin spun by MLS and subsequent coverage
of this critical facet of CBA negotiations, these terms are one and the same. MLS did an excellent job of equating the two, and perhaps for this reason much criticism has been aimed at the players for
“caving in,” whereas a more accurate portrayal might be the players “took what they could get.”
Early in the process, player representatives told me one of their
sticking points was the lack of leverage for players who were out of contract, had their options declined, or had been waived. None of them stumped for “free agency,” i.e., the unfettered
right to bargain and negotiate with all MLS teams, as would be the case if they headed overseas. But that is exactly what league president Mark Abbott implied in February, tossing
every player not under contract into a free-agency hopper.
While true free agency exists in American pro sports, it isn’t universal nor automatic. A baseball player is subject to
the arbitration process for several years until he hits the six-season benchmark of free agency. The NHL classifies players as restricted free agents and unrestricted free agents; the NFL uses the
same terms, and also has categories of “transition” and “franchise” players. Those leagues, however, are not single-entity leagues, and so comparisons to them are in many cases
irrelevant.
For restricted free agents, in some cases the player’s current team has a right of first refusal if it is willing to match or come close to the offer tendered by
another team, and is entitled to a draft pick if it loses the player. This isn’t all that different than how MLS mechanisms have worked, and may do in the future depending on how a special draft
is organized and implemented for those players.
There is no unrestricted free agency in MLS, but the underpinnings of single-entity, by definition, exclude open bidding for players. When
Abbott contended that unfettered free agency could yield successful legal challenges to the league’s single-entity status, he spoke the truth.
Of course, the league didn’t
publicly offer up any juicy alternatives; it used the negotiation and bargaining sessions to grind out a compromise with the players’ union. One “rule” of negotiation is not to offer
anything you know the other side will jump at; instead, you inch in that direction, yielding ground grudgingly, bit by bit, giving away as little as possible until agreement, forged by exhaustion as
much as effort, is reached.
Considering how far apart the two sides were when talks broke off Tuesday, it’s astonishing that even marathon sessions created a deal by early
Saturday, since there were five or six core issues that, due to their interdependence on each other, had to be evaluated collectively as well as separately. But on each major issue, the sides kept
talking and haggling and discussing; by late Thursday, both sides had gained enough ground to believe a deal was imminent, and to push through frustration and mounting fatigue to reach the summit.
Players who leave MLS after their contracts expire to play overseas and then return to the league are no better off. It seems ludicrous for their last MLS team to retain their rights, but
again, the single-entity structure doesn’t provide a lot of wiggle room. Players whose contracts expire or are terminated at the end of a season are simpler to deal with, via a single draft,
then players who might arrive at different times during the MLS season. A weighted lottery could be used, as MLS has done for certain players in the past, but the players agreed to leave things as
they are this time around.
If a player has gone overseas on trial and his return isn’t certain, a team can still claim his rights, as occurs in the SuperDraft. And as executive
committee member Pat Onstad pointed out, very few players each season come back to MLS from overseas. Many more are affected by being out of contract, terminated (option declined), or
waived, and wanted more security in the form of guaranteed contracts.
For those players, the union got what it came for.
It seems to really be in everybody's best interests to have some sort of way to keep the majority of your players employed within the league and so long as there was no mechanism for a player who was waved to hook up with another team in the league and at the same time having very few players with guaranteed contracts, meant that no player, fan or owner had much of a stake in how any of the teams play year to year...
I still see the single entity idea as having a detrimental effect on the real growth of a team's fan base since it limits the things any one single team can really do to improve itself...and hence improve the product on the field for it's fans.
The MLS has shown such a fear of repeating the excesses of the old NASL of the 70's/80's that they are painting themselves into a corner when it comes to showing a first class soccer organization... and so long as they employ so many cast offs from other leagues while waving many of their own players each June, the players really are never going to trust the league to look out for their best interests. The least the league can do, if it wants to actually have it's journeymen players stay...is to guarantee contracts of all those players who have put in a year or two in the league...it's also in each teams interest because they need to market themselves to their fans and it's a heck of a lot easier to sell something, even when it's not "THE BEST" than constantly changing horses in midstream... now if they could do something more than talk, when it comes to player development and either have some sort of loan arrangement with the USL or actually have a reserve team league again...until then they need as many proven professionals as they can retain. That is, if they expect their fans to pony up to pay for this stuff.
It does indeed look like the Players Union made progress. The one thing I have looked for but not found is what the players receive in terms of a Pension.
Does anyone know?
thanks
fred