The Seattle Sounders were back home after two weeks training in Tucson, Arizona, and while the hope at Starfire Sports Complex was that they were preparing for a successful 2015 season, the unavoidable elephant in the room was the possible work stoppage that is threatening the start of Major League Soccer’s 20th season.
With the season set to kick off Friday—Seattle’s opener is on Sunday—the league and players’ union reps, including Seattle’s Brad Evans, are in Washington D.C. trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, and according to Steven Goff of the Washington Post, things aren’t going well.
Free agency is the big hang-up with negotiations—players say they’re prepared to strike if the league doesn’t offer some form of free agency—and the league doesn’t seem willing to budge.
From Goff’s story:
“It seems like [the owners] are giving up nothing of substance,” said one source, who requested anonymity because he is not permitted to speak on the matter. “They have shot down all of the players’ proposals [on free agency]. It’s shocking. The owners are almost wanting a work stoppage.”
For players, the only option is to prepare for a game that may or may not happen.
“It’s in the back of everyone’s head, but the only thing we can control at this point is how we prepare for Sunday,” defender Zach Scott said. “We have no control over what happens in the board room. We have great leadership in there, and hopefully something gets done. For both sides, the best possible outcome is that the games go on.”
Scott added that while players can’t do much about what’s happening in negotiations, they have been preparing for a work stoppage, whether that means making sure they have enough money set aside or have health insurance figured out should they lose coverage during a strike.
“The easy answer is, we can only control what we can control, but if it’s on the horizon, you’re thinking about bigger picture, thinking about, ‘OK, what do I do?’” he said. “People have families to support. Young guys have rent to pay. So yeah, obviously that’s hanging over everyone’s head. But it’s the best-case for both parties to get something done. No one wants the season to not start.”
“The only thing we’ve talked about is just making sure that our families are all right. If you’ve got family out of the country, to get them in the country. Make sure you have health insurance, figure out a way to sort that out.”
Meetings between the two sides could extend through Wednesday, and at that point a vote is expected before teams have to start traveling for games later in the week. While players say they’re willing to strike if they feel it’s necessary, they also admit that delaying the start of a season would be a disappointing outcome.
“We all are training hoping that things are going to get figured out and that we can kick off the season,” goalkeeper Stefan Frei said. “Trust me, no professional athlete wants to go through double-days in preseason and then get that dessert—that home opener—taken away from them. So we’re all hoping things are going to get worked out and we can play in front of our fans.”
Sounders coach Sigi Schmid also acknowledged that players might be a bit distracted, and said it has affected the way he does things, from waiting on making potential personnel decisions with the roster, to how he addresses the team this week.
“I’m sure it’s on their minds,” Schmid said. “One thing that I’ve held back off as a coach is I don’t want to go in there and say, ‘All right, here we go, let’s go,’ and then all of a sudden it’s not ‘let’s go’ for a while. I want to wait until that all gets resolved. I think everybody will feel better from both sides, and hopefully it will (get resolved).
“You just prepare as you would normally, but I think anybody would be lying if they said it didn’t enter the back of their minds. It certainly enters the back of your mind, but you just try to proceed as if things are going to go from day to day.”
And at least for a couple of hours on Tuesday, players were able to ignore the distraction of a possible strike while preparing for a game that might not happen.
“When you’re on the field training, you forget everything,” midfielder Gonzalo Pineda said. “Even if you are mad at your wife or something, you forget that. It’s just happiness and play around a little bit, and your forget everything else.”
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