The Major League Soccer Players Association and MLS announced on Friday that they have reached a preliminary agreement on a revised collective bargaining agreement.
The CBA was approved by the union’s board of directors and negotiating committee with a vote of 24-11, according to a source. The deal will now be sent to full players’ union membership for a vote, which can take place as early as Saturday. A simple majority is all it takes to ratify the agreement.
MLS Schedule: Season Begins April 3; MLS Cup final on December 3
– Carlisle: Where MLS stands for labor bargaining
The deal would then have to be approved by the league’s board of directors. That is expected to take place and would pave the way for the opening of training camps on February 22nd and the start of the MLS season on April 3. It also prevents a termination of the CBA and a ban on players, who were threatened by MLS if no deal could be reached.
MLS announced that the proposal on the table would extend the CBA for two years through 2027, a clause the league had fought for since the start of negotiations and something that had been a sticking point in the talks.
The extension has the effect of delaying the jump in compensation that normally accompanies a new CBA. More importantly, such an extension puts the league significant distance from the 2026 World Cup – jointly hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico – and removes the influence of the MLSPA to negotiate improved terms leading up to the tournament. and the years that follow.
Sources told ESPN that among the player benefits in the proposal are no cuts to salaries in 2021, along with improved free-agency conditions in 2026 and 2027, which would qualify players aged 24 and with four years of service. The old deal required five years of service.
The players would also receive a 10% overall salary increase by 2027 and improved salaries for players classified as senior minimum. In terms of the revenue-sharing deal for the next media rights contract, the players will get a percentage of the difference between the new deal (plus $ 100 million). In 2023 and 2024, that percentage will be 12.5% (a decrease of 12.5 percentage points in 2024) and from 2025 to 2027 it will be 25%.
Negotiations on the revised CBA were reopened after MLS invoked a force majeure clause on Dec. 29 due to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the slower-than-expected rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, MLS expects it to be another year ahead with few or no fans in the stands. Given its reliance on game-day earnings, MLS says its finances will be severely impacted and players will have to bear some of the sacrifices.
The union had argued that the approach to MLS was not done out of financial necessity, but rather out of financial expediency. The MLSPA made $ 150 million in concessions over the life of the deal when it signed the previous CBA last June.
Invoking the force majeure clause opened up a period of 30 days for both parties to negotiate a revised collective labor agreement. Because no agreement was reached within that time frame, both parties could have terminated the collective labor agreement. But MLS was the only party to threaten such a maneuver, stating that failure to reach an agreement would not only end the CBA, but also shut out the players.
The threat of work stoppage gave the league greater leverage, and MLS used it to good effect, making the major concessions it sought at the outset of the talks.
This is the third time in the past year that the two parties have negotiated a CBA. The two sides reached an agreement in principle last February, but neither side formally ratified the deal. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, MLS reopened negotiations, with the two sides agreeing on a revised deal in June. In that deal, the league managed to insert the aforementioned force majeure clause.
Sources told ESPN that the force majeure clause will not be in effect until December 1, 2021, but can be invoked after that time.