MLS, Players Union Save Season, Agree to New Five-Year CBA

Soccer By Ives’ Ives Galarcep puts it simply to MLS fans: “You can now start to party and get ready for the 2010 season.“That’s what MLS and their Players Union permitted American soccerheads to do today, averting a strike by agreeing to a new five-year Collective Bargaining Agreement. The players may have been coerced to coming to terms by a threat that would resonate with most fans: the MLS notified the union that, in the event of a strike, medical, dental, and vision insurance would expire beginning on March 31.

Was that what got this deal done? Perhaps; the result isn’t perfection. Though there are guaranteed contracts in this deal, how many is unclear, and I could see the “re-entry draft” for players who are out of contract eating into what was touted as “greatly improved compensation” for players.

But why, how, and how much are far less important for fans than what, and what the two sides have done is erase the doom and gloom of just a few days ago, and replace it with sunshine breaking through the clouds. MLS still isn’t nearly as big or as perfectly structured -- or as profitable -- as it wants to be, but reaching a deal ensures that it will be bigger and better than nothing.

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