An Open Letter to MLS And The Players Union; You Cannot Afford a Strike!

Now that we have seen the end of a great MLS season in 2009 and the completion of the 2010 MLS Draft, it is time to look at the collective bargaining agreement between the Players Union and Major League Soccer that is set to expire on Jan. 31.

For those of you who do not know about the current collective bargaining agreement, here is a look at some of the basics that each of the 18 teams in Major League Soccer must abide by.

The current labor deal was created in 2004 between the labor union and MLS, and it famously was added on in 2005 to allow each team to have one designated player (which is known as the Beckham Rule).

That player would take up only $415,000 US dollars of cap space, and could cost as much money as the team felt was necessary.

Currently, each of the 18 teams have a salary cap set at about $2.3 million (US) and has room for 20 players on each roster.

But now that the current labor contract is almost up, there has been little progress on a new labor agreement, and a potential lockout could ensue if there is no labor agreement made by Jan. 31.

In their labor negotiations, the players are asking for a higher salary cap in order to get higher wages to avoid working a second job as a professional athlete, which is necessary for many of the players due to the average MLS salary being around $30,000 dollars.

Also, the players association is asking to get guaranteed contracts (which 80 percent of the players do not have), league control of contracts, and better benefit plans.

Meanwhile, MLS is trying to continue to make the league into a stable sports organization and not make it become like the defunct NASL financially.

Overall, MLS is starting to finally pull in profits and is getting global recognition for some of their players (most notably David Beckham).

In the next several seasons, MLS plans on introducing new clubs in Portland and Vancouver and to build soccer-specific stadiums for their teams.

But now that the labor contract has less than three weeks remaining before it collapses, it's now time for these two sides to prevent a strike at all costs. A strike right now would become a major stain on the league for years to come, and it will hurt the development of MLS tremendously.

Both sides must realize that in order to maintain the development of soccer here in North America, MLS must continue to operate.

With 2010 being a World Cup year, the opportunities for soccer are endless, especially if the US National Team makes a deep run, and it's up to the owners and the players union to resolve their differences for the good of the league.