1PM EDT Conference Call with Garber, Foose and Cohen

by Dave Clark on Mar 20, 2010 8:14 AM PDT in Sounders: MLS Regular Season

Its all over twitter now, and speculation about details is all that remains.

Here's the AP story that says a 5 year CBA has been reached.

Major League Soccer and its players called a joint news conference for Saturday and were near agreement on a five-year contract that would avoid a strike scheduled for next week, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The sides were working on finalizing details, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made.

Seriously.

In other news the Sounders had a closed door scrimmage last night -First Team v Second Team. On the 2nd Team Fucito scored twice. On the first Ljungberg did. Jaqua started for the 2nds, as did Scott. I'm assuming that Parke started at RB and Levesque at RW for the 1sts.

24thMinute will be carrying the conference on their live stream.

http://www.24thminute.com/2010/03/its-called-football-live_20.html

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Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssss!

by Robert on Mar 20, 2010 8:15 AM PDT reply actions

Sane heads finally prevailed

In a World Cup year, MLS would have been committing suicide if they would have had a strike. Now, we can all get ready for Thursday.

by Coug1990 on Mar 20, 2010 8:30 AM PDT reply actions

I'm really curious to find out what the details are

I hope, for the league’s sake, that it was a true compromise, and that the players didn’t just end up giving in. I understand that the owners are concerned about the financial state of the league, as well they should be, but MLS can’t prosper if it comes to be known as anti-player. Unlike all the other American sports, there are too many other places to play, places where a player would make more money and a higher level of play. Move the pendulum too far away from the players and any player with a modicum of skill will stay away.

by CarlosT on Mar 20, 2010 8:40 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

Don’t know for sure but the union isn’t gonna say that they caved during the teleconference. However it makes me wonder if they did drop the free agency demand.

by gstommylee on Mar 20, 2010 8:52 AM PDT up reply actions

No matter what they got they will say

We achieved significant gains in rights, but in the end we sacrificed to avoid a strike.

by blakec on Mar 20, 2010 8:54 AM PDT up reply actions

Yay!!!!!!

I hope this is true.

by blakec on Mar 20, 2010 8:55 AM PDT reply actions

My best guess

Owners agreed to some kind of dispersal draft for players that aren’t resigned, similar to the waiver draft. There was a bump in the salary floor (there wasn’t a salary cap in the old CBA, just minimum spending) to somewhere around $2.6 million. Contracts will be guaranteed for the current season. I’d say all those issues could be reasonably considered compromises.

by Jeremiah Oshan on Mar 20, 2010 8:57 AM PDT reply actions