MLS Looks to Extend Current CBA in Exchange for No Salary Reductions

(photo by Matt Kremkau)

Major League Soccer has sent a proposal to the MLS Players Association in order to extend the current CBA by two years instead of reducing player salaries. The move comes as the league hopes to start play in mid-March while also looking to soften the blow of COVID-19 in 2021.

"As of today, we have 20 days to work together to reach an agreement," said Don Garber on MLS Soccer's website. "We are laser-focused to reach an agreement with our players, ready to sit down with them, day or night, to try to reach an agreement. So there has to be a real sense of urgency for both the MLS league office, our ownership and certainly from the player pool and the MLSPA."

This comes after the league decided to trigger a clause in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement that forced a renegotiation of the terms due to the pandemic. Now, both parties must come back to the table in order to create a new deal that benefits both sides. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen. However, the league has not experienced a work stoppage in over 25 years of existence.

"We've got to solve this together," said Garber. "I think we did solve it together last spring, and we've been able to work through difficult CBA negotiations since the first one that we had 15 years ago. So, I'm confident that we'll get together and we'll do work, and then hopefully we'll be able to get an agreement after that work has been done."

The league is looking to begin play with a one-month to mid-March. If that is possible, games will more than likely happen in a similar fashion to how it did in late 2020 with mostly empty arenas.

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