The Columbus Crew head into Tuesday's CONCACAF Champions League
quarterfinal without a labor contract, the first Major League
Soccer team to play a competitive game since the five-year deal
expired last month.
Negotiations are set to resume Tuesday in Washington, D.C.,
with George H. Cohen, director of the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service, at the bargaining table.
"I'm not really optimistic at this stage," Crew midfielder
Brian Carroll said Monday. "Things are not going well. Guys are
unified and ready to do what we need to do if we're not going to be
treated better than we have been. Guys are fed up and it's about
time players are treated better. That just means rights. We're not
really talking about money here. We'll see what happens, but I'm
prepared to do what I have to do."
While management has said it won't lock out players, the MLS
Players Union hasn't issued a similar no-strike pledge. Players
want greater free agency within the single-entity league, which
negotiates contracts on behalf of all teams, and want a higher
percentage of guaranteed contracts.
"The league is trying to make it into a monetary thing, so
it's pretty comical when they bring that up," defender Danny
O'Rourke said. "I've had numerous people that have read about the
basic rights that we want as players and they say, 'You guys didn't
really have that already?' It's kind of a joke. We're hoping the
league realizes they are treating us bad and they step up."
The league's first labor contract was set to expire Jan. 31,
then was extended twice but ran out Feb. 25 when players balked at
a third extension.
"They're always going to make us look like the villains. Any
athlete who argues for more money to play a game is always going to
look bad," said goalkeeper William Hesmer, the Crew's player
representative. "Weave said over and over again that this is not
about money. This is about basic rights and them being more
transparent in the way they do business."
A league spokesman declined comment Monday.
While MLS president Mark Abbott said last month that owners
proposed giving an additional $60 million to players during a
five-year deal, union head Bob Foose said the league's proposal
would slow salary growth from 5.9 percent to 4.8 percent annually
and from a total of 33 percent over five years to 26 percent. He
said the league includes salaries from future expansion teams as
part of additional spending.
The first MLS game is March 25, when the expansion
Philadelphia Union is set to open at Seattle. But the Crew have an
early start because they were the only MLS team to advance to the
final eight of the Champions League. The New York Red Bulls were
eliminated in the preliminary round last August, and D.C. United
and Houston failed to advance past the group stage in October.
Mexico dominates the quarterfinals, with Pumas UNAM at
Honduras' Marathon and Pachuca at Guatemala's Comunicaciones on
Wednesday, and Cruz Azul and Panama's Arabe Unido on Thursday in
the final first leg match. The second legs of the home-and-home,
total-goals series are next week,
Crew president and general manager Mark McCullers said the
threat of a strike could be the reason behind a decline in ticket
sales.
"Our numbers are a little behind last year and may be
attributed to that, but overall it hasn't been a huge factor," he
said.
After playing at Toluca on March 17, the Crew host Toronto FC
on March 27 in their league opener.
"They're human beings. This thing is probably affecting them
a little bit, but hopefully they're going to get that agreement
with the league and we're going to focus on playing soccer," Crew
coach Robert Warzycha said of his players.
