MLS, Sporting KC with the save: league, union reach deal paving way to play in Orlando

Fears that Sporting Kansas City players wouldn’t return to the field in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and potential Major League Soccer lockout were squashed Wednesday as the league and its union agreed to a revised collective-bargaining agreement.

MLS commissioner Don Garber had threatened to lock out the players Sunday night as discussions between the league and MLS Players Association broke down. There’s never been a lockout in the 25-year history of the league.

But after two more days of discussions, an agreement extending the current CBA through 2025 was ratified, paving the way for MLS to return to competition for the first time since March 12.

“An important part of that extension is the rolling forward of the CBA by a year,” Garber said in a Wednesday video call. “We never sought to renegotiate any of the terms of the CBA to address things like free agency, and what we were trying to do was just move it forward by a year.”

The new CBA accommodates the one-year extension and makes provisions for playing games during the pandemic, which has kept the league on ice since March 12. Sporing KC was 2-0 when play was suspended.

In the short term, the MLSPA agreed to a 5% annualized salary reduction for the 2020 season. Although MLS had already committed to paying players 50% of their salary whether play returned in 2020 or not, the league was pushing for salaries to remain at a 50% reduction for the remainder of the season.

Under the previous agreement, MLS players were set to begin earning 25% of the league’s media revenue beginning in 2023. They’ll still receive a portion of that revenue starting in 2023, but the percentage has been decreased to 12.5% for 2023 before hitting 25% for 2024 and 2025.

In the end, the new CBA is similar to the one the MLSPA presented to the league before Garber’s announcement of a potential lockout Sunday. The league’s push for deeper salary cuts had stemmed from the fact that Garber said MLS stands to lose about $1 billion during the pandemic.

“At the end of the day, if we didn’t believe that we were arguing for and advocating for things that were really crucial to the future success and viability of the league, I certainly would not have gone down that path,” Garber said.

Sporting KC players remained tight-lipped during the discussions between the league and union. But with those negotiations coming to a close Wednesday, winger Daniel Salloi acknowledged that he’d just wanted return to the field in 2020.

“I don’t care about the money right now, I just want to play,” Salloi told The Star. “I’m at the age where I should be playing 30-40 games a season to become better and better. This is the first step to save this year.”

Aside from the salary alterations, the revised CBA introduces two further stipulations.

The first involves returning to play for a tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex at Disney in Orlando. Garber would not comment on a start date but said COVID-19 testing would be provided to players and staff.

He also said that there is currently no plan for MLS teams to return to play in their home markets. But he did admit that, while he is confident the regular season will resume and conclude in 2020, postseason play could spill over into 2021.

“I’m happy we can get on the field again,” Salloi said. “But I’m hoping that after Orlando we can get back and finish the 2020 season.”

At issue during this week’s CBA negotiations was the introduction of a “force majeure” clause, essentially freeing the league and union of liability or obligation during an extraordinary event like this world-wide pandemic. ESPN reported that the owners backed off their desire to tie player compensation to reductions in attendance.

“Very importantly, we stated that we needed a clause that would address the possibility that events COVID could continue next year and beyond and try to manage through the impact of that,” Garber said. “This (force majeure) is something that exists in some pro sports league agreements, but I can assure you in our entire industry, and really all of our business globally, force majeure clauses are going to be a part of (more) agreements going forward.”

For now, MLS and its fans can take a deep breath and look forward to seeing soccer return relatively soon.

“So many times labor negotiations are framed when they’re over as ‘winners’ and ‘losers,’” Garber said. “The winners here is this league is going to go forward and the players are going to be able to have security for five years.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 3:43 PM with the headline "MLS, Sporting KC with the save: league, union reach deal paving way to play in Orlando."