Sporting KC players turn focus back to soccer after new agreement with owners

Benny Feilhaber walked off the Sporting Park field late Friday afternoon, signifying completion of his first training session with Sporting Kansas City in nearly a week.

Feilhaber and three of his teammates — Jacob Peterson, Graham Zusi and Chance Myers — spent three days in Washington this week, negotiating the parameters of a new collective bargaining agreement that was finalized Wednesday evening. The MLS Players Union voted in favor of the five-year agreement.

Sporting KC’s representatives, however, voted to reject the deal, Feilhaber and Peterson said Friday, speaking publicly about the negotiations for the first time.

“For me, it wasn’t something I was ready to sign off on,” Feilhaber said. “Having said that, we are on board with the union. We know it’s a democracy. The union decided to accept the deal. At the end of the day, we’re back playing what we love. That’s a good thing.”

The deal guarantees Sporting KC will take the field at 6 p.m. Sunday for its season opener against the New York Red Bulls — a match Feilhaber said was very much in doubt as recently as three days ago.

The players initially voted to strike late Tuesday night. After they notified the league of their decision, the owners ratified their final proposal the following day.

“It was never a bluff,” Feilhaber said.

Free agency stood as the initial stalemate in the negotiations.

The final deal includes a limited form of player movement. Players who are 28 years old with eight-plus seasons of service in Major League Soccer will be awarded the chance to choose their next playing destination.

Their contracts, however, will have ceilings on potential salary increases, which will be based on their previous earnings. The players sought to erase those ceilings, allowing teams to bid against one another on the open market.

“Without getting into the details of it, we felt like there was more out there to be had,” Peterson said. “But regardless of the results, we felt we went in there and voiced the concerns of our locker room. Ultimately, the majority of the group voted to sign the deal. We accept that.”

The players’ final vote signified a belief that the offer would not improve following a strike. Even though Sporting KC’s representatives lied on the other side of that vote, Feilhaber and Peterson separately stressed Friday that it’s time to turn the attention back to the field.

That process started with Friday’s training session.

“There’s no animosity between the players here and the owners here,” Peterson said. “I don’t think there’s any point in bashing the guys who voted another way.

“I had a problem with the anonymous sources who came out and said things about players who voted to accept. As players, we need to be united in this together. The majority of the guys felt the was the right deal. That’s something we have to accept and move on.”

This story was originally published March 6, 2015 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Sporting KC players turn focus back to soccer after new agreement with owners."