MLS at crossroads as players talk strike over free agency

As Major League Soccer nears the beginning of its third decade, the topic of free agency and the league’s reluctance toward it could prompt the players to strike.

Major League Soccer is preparing for its 20th season and organizers and owners within MLS dream of a day when the circuit isn’t thought of as a second- or third-tier league on the world stage.

MLS players are in favor of that goal, too, but the league doesn’t seem as enthusiastic about a concept that is a given in most of the soccer world—unfettered free agency.

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While commissioner Don Garber is fond of using the phrase “league of choice” as he tries to navigate MLS to a most prestigious level, that choice is not something current players in MLS enjoy

And they are ready to fight for it.

“You can see the landscape of other professional leagues in the United States, in which free agency comes in many different forms. Soccer’s different,” FC Dallas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy told SI.com. “Throughout the world, soccer has unrestricted free agency. It is there. It’s the norm. Certainly we’re working toward that. We feel like if we’re going to be a league that’s one of the best in the world, I think it makes sense to abide by those rules.”

The collective bargaining agreement for MLS and the Major League Soccer Players Union expires at the end of the month and the league has no interest in free agency—unrestricted, restricted or in any other form.

The players will have the option to strike as of Feb. 1, but likely won’t exercise that option that quickly.

There are six weeks until the scheduled March 6 kick off to the 20th season and that deadline could get the sides to come to some sort of middle ground more quickly.

Five years ago, the sides agreed to the re-entry draft. Veterans who were not re-signed or had their options declined were subject to the draft and got to exercise some movement … just not free movement, as negotiations were exclusive to the team that chose the player in the re-entry draft.

That’s about as far as MLS is willing to go—the re-entry draft was its compromise in the last negotiations.

The union claims free agency will help the league draw and retain better players. The league doesn’t quite see it that way.

“Because we function in an international market and the clubs that we are competing against for players are not subject to our salary budget, to have free agency within the league doesn’t provide us with the certainty that the union says it does,” MLS president and deputy commissioner Mark Abbott said. “When the union says they can offer cost certainty under free agency, it’s not true because we have to compete against clubs all throughout the world.”

The players are ready to strike. U.S. men’s national team player Michael Bradley, who is a designated player with a $6 million annual salary with Toronto FC, says he’s ready to walk out—a clear sign of the players’ solidarity on the issue.

Kennedy, a member of MLSPU’s executive board, summed it up this way:

“This league has developed in a way where it’s just not the same league it was 20 years ago when they made all these rules to protect the teams. We feel like now is the best time to start moving the rights for the players forward to align with the growth of the league. The last CBA prepared us for this one. We digested it, we’ve taken it in and we’ve planned and prepared for this moment.”

It’s so cute when a league grows up and MLS may be ready for one of those rights of passage for sports leagues in North America—a work stoppage.

Just like the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL.

As Major League Soccer nears the beginning of its third decade, the topic of free agency and the league’s reluctance toward it could prompt the players to strike.

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