Major League Soccer is on its way to return to action, and hopefully join the NBA in Orlando to become the second major sports league in America to resume games in a tournament format hosted in the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.
On Wednesday, Major League Soccer’s executives reached an agreement with the MLS Player Association (MLSPA) in which the players’ union had agreed to a 5% paycut and a total reduction in other benefits that will amount to around $100 million less in compensation for the 2020 MLS season, as well as a performance bonus cap of $5 million for the season.
In addition, TV rights for games, of which 25% of fees were supposed to be handed to the teams’ salary budgets has been halved for the 2023 season and will be 12.5%. In 2024 the fees will increase again to 25%. There are also salary increases that have been pushed to 2022 and will resume for every year thereafter until the end of the agreement in January 31, 2026. This means that this collective bargaining agreement covers the league and players until the end of the MLS 2025 season.
As the deal was announced on Wednesday, Major League Soccer’s 26 clubs are expected to arrive at Orlando at the end of June and start training and preparation for a tournament that will resume the MLS 2020 season in empty courts that are purposed for TV broadcasting, or as MLS Commissioner Don Garber dubbed the format: “Soccer Game Studios.” Garber said: “Labor negotiations are never easy, it was more difficult, but fortunately we’ve been able to reach agreement and collectively we’ll work to get back to playing.”
All 26 MLS Teams are supposed to head to Orlando around June 24t, and will prepare and train for playing three games that will count as MLS Regular Season fixtures. From there, the 16 teams that come on top will enter the next round, according to reports. The MLS has not released yet any official details on the tournament format, but Garber did say that there is a $1 million prize and trophy on the line. There are expectations for these games to be a way for the MLS to salvage some lost income from TV broadcasting contracts, which are reportedly worth $90 annually.
When asked more about the return of the 2020 season, MLS President Mark Abbott, who joined Garber when speaking to the press said: “Our goal is to play the season in 2020. There’s an opportunity to go into even deeper December than we were before…the first priority is to complete the 2020 calendar.”
