How Does This Work Again?

Anyone else wish the Philadelphia Union would have joined

next year to avoid confusion with the MLS Union?

I’ve been thinking about writing some stuff over the past few weeks, but never really found the time to put pen to paper, or whatever the 21^st century equivalent of that is. (Finger to keyboard? That sounds like something from an old AOL chatroom.) Anyway, now that Mark wrote and broke our nearly three-month silence, I figured I might as well too. We’re not monks after all.

Two of the biggest stories outside of Vancouver since I last wrote both involve Collective Bargaining Agreements in the two professional sports Mark and I follow the most. Not the happiest of things to write about, but hopefully I’ll have something to post tomorrow in a lighter vein should the Yanks win in Amsterdam and the Terps in College Park later today. For the record, I’m not expecting either to happen.

MLS

The lack of an agreement on a new CBA is the biggest story of the offseason in domestic soccer. I still think the best read is from our friend Brian Strauss at Fanhouse. It helped me wrap my head around the free agent issue unlike anything else I’ve read, and I’ve read a lot about this. While the overall content is great, I have a problem with two arguments made by Strauss.

The first comes in this paragraph in relation to what happens after a player’s contract expires or a team decides not to exercise its option:

“If another club is interested and is willing to pay market value, MLS will make that deal. The league assumes that the new team is willing to pay some consideration, in the form of a trade with the original club, for the right to that exclusivity. If the suitor doesn't want to deal, it then risks losing that player on the waiver wire. The old club isn't going to keep the player on the books if he's not part of its plans, and it has no right to any compensation it doesn't make a meaningful effort to negotiate a new contract.”

Looking at this from an NFL perspective, LaDainian Tomlinson was just cut by the Chargers. LDT hasn’t been his Hall of Fame self the past couple of years and is on the wrong side of 30. However, if Tomlinson were an MLS player, the Chargers would likely receive a fifth or sixth round pick if another team were to sign him. It’s the idea of restricted free agency versus unrestricted and the latter just flat out doesn’t exist in MLS.

When you look at Kevin Hartman, who is no longer with the Kansas City Wizards, you can’t tell me that another club in MLS wouldn’t mind looking at him. New York surely can’t be feeling good moving into Red Bull Arena with Bouna Coundoul between the sticks. Colorado and Dallas are two other clubs that immediately come to mind. Or, what happens in Houston if Onstad goes down with an injury or Kasey Keller blows out a knee on Qwest Field’s turf? As Strauss says “[t]he league assumes that the new team is willing to pay some consideration…” meaning that Kansas City, who might not be willing to just throw one of those teams a bone, can dictate Hartman’s future. And on the flip side, how much is RBNY really going to look at him? Even if Hartman agreed to a much-reduced salary, Red Bull would also have to toss in some sort of compensation on top of that. At the least MLS must have a pre-arranged compensation as the NFL has with the tender offers teams are making in these days leading up to free agency.

Like most followers of this league, I just haven’t seen a justification for why that “consideration” is still a part of the way MLS does business. Some sort of restricted/unrestricted determination needs to be made. My thought would be to do something like five years as a professional to reach unrestricted free agency. If you’ve played in another league, like Christian Castillo who signed with D.C. United in the offseason, then you have to stay with that team for three years before you’re unrestricted. Though I doubt free agency is really going to affect these international signings as much as the Hartmans of MLS.

The other bit I disagree with Strauss is in the final paragraph where he basically says Hartman and Dave van den Bergh aren’t the ones who put fans in the seats. I agree with that statement taken at face value. But I wonder, outside of the DPs in MLS, how many players actually brings out the fans.

Come back to United where I would put a lot of money on the fact that very few people came out specifically to see Troy Perkins. However, once he left to go overseas United went from back-to-back Supporters Shields to missing the playoffs in back-to-back years. Slightly different case, of course, but it will be interesting to see how Kansas City -- who admittedly have more problems than just who is playing in goal -- do without the all-time leader in MLS wins and shutouts. Hartman and his bleached locks may not put fans in the seats, but winning does, and you need those veterans to do just that.

Otherwise with the CBA, I don’t understand why guaranteed contracts can’t be agreed upon for a season once the first game is played. Well, I can see why the owners don’t want to do so as they can drastically change a team when the summer transfer window opens, but that seems like an easy concession. On the flip side, I’m with them on not having contracts guaranteed for more than a year. It’s pretty similar to the NFL, just sans multi-million dollar signing bonuses, and a much better situation than you see in the NBA. If it were the NBA, in the near future you’d be hearing a trade involving Bobby Convey’s expiring contract.

My take on the ending? Both players and owners know they have to start the season and get through the World Cup. As I read somewhere -- I apologize to the source for not citing -- the players’ best opportunity will be just before the playoffs and I can’t disagree with that. The playoffs are almost free money in terms of gate revenue for owners and a delay could put off one of the few times the league is showcased on ABC in MLS Cup. Just a hunch though.

NFL

It certainly appears the salary cap is gone in the NFL. And it’s no surprise that, a year after spending $100 million on Albert Haynesworth (in the same way MLS spent $250M on Beckham) the Skins are rumored to be going after Julius Peppers and Darren Sproles. I figure with Peppers and Haynesworth they’ll pay about $20M per season and one of the two will give a full effort on each defensive play. Though that might be generous.

As much as I love the Redskins, and it’s tough living within walking distance of Ravens Stadium, I hate Snyder. The lack of a salary cap is the only way he can win. Period. Even so, they won’t win next year as it would take at least three years to fill all the holes in their offensive line, wide receiver, defensive line, and quarterback.

The biggest surprise though is we haven’t heard any rumors about TO coming to FedEx. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time though.

Like I said, I plan on being back tomorrow -- or Friday depending on work and likely hangover -- with a look at the U.S. probable loss against the Netherlands and Señor Night at the Comcastle.

- Pat Walsh