Each day, I am waiting for the mailman to deliver 11 tickets for the Chicago Fire’s opening night game on April 10th. I’ll be joined by 10 friends and family who I have invited to see the game with me.
And since it is a World Cup year, soccer is all the more exciting. More people are going to become new fans of soccer after watching the World Cup the same way that people have become new fans of hockey after the Winter Olympics.
Except the MLS and the MLS Players Union might ruin it for us and themselves.
Yesterday, the MLSPU voted almost unanimously to strike if a collective bargaining agreement isn’t reached by March 23rd.
A strike? A shame if it comes to it. Soccer gets ratings just below hockey games, but the sport is gaining traction. There are a number of expansion teams, and the league is only 17 years old. A number of MLS teams are finally seeing profitability, but it should be noted that a lot aren’t.
We’re also in a recession. People by and large pay for food and rent before tickets to soccer games.
So why risk a strike which could cripple the league’s mindshare with current and potential fans?
The MLSPU wants a few things: better free-agent rights and more guaranteed deals. Currently, all contracts have to go through the league. The minimum salary for a player, $34,000, is considered quite low. Development players can get as little as $20,100/year.
Neither side is talking about what they’re saying in their meetings, so hopefully things are progressing well as they claim. For us soccer fans, a strike this early in the league’s existence would be heart-breaking. Major League Baseball didn’t have a strike until 1972, over 100 years after it was founded. The NFL didn’t strike until 1982, 62 years after it had its inaugural season. Even the NHL’s first strike was 75 years after it was founded. MLS having a players union strike after 17 years would make it a record for a major professional sport, an accomplishment no one wants.
How do you feel about the 2010 MLS season’s chances? Does the players union’s vote worry you? Do you think that the league and the players can agree on a new collective bargaining agreement?
(Photo: an empty stadium. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjohn2101/3093058319 | CC BY 2.0)
