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Seems like every sport has CBA expiring soon.
The current deal expires at midnight on Saturday, and executives from Major League Soccer and the MLS Players Association are scheduled to meet in the Washington, D.C., area starting today in hopes of striking an agreement on a new CBA.
With one month until the start of MLS’s 25th season, and just three weeks until MLS teams are set to take the field in the CONCACAF Champions League, the pressure is on to get a deal done quickly, so as to avoid a work stoppage.
The terms negotiated by MLS and the MLSPA will determine the short-term direction of the league and its clubs and directly affect the lives of the roughly 700 players currently in MLS. How players are allowed to move and how teams are allowed to spend their money could both change, perhaps significantly. Any shifts would materially alter how MLS operates.
Major League Soccer and the MLS Players Association have agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that will run through the end of the 2024 season. The deal will allow teams to spend more on players and grant them more flexibility in how that money is distributed across their rosters. It also includes several major gains in player rights, including, for the first time, a share of revenue from media rights and changes in free agency eligibility, mandatory charter flights and increased minimum salaries.
The CBA includes several significant changes addressing many of the MLS players’ demands. It also contains some wins for the league, including the continued existence of targeted allocation money (TAM), restrictions on the percentage of media rights available to players in 2023 and 2024 and continued caps on increased compensation for free agents.