MLS CBA uncertainty leaves Union's season opener in doubt

After two preseason training stints in Florida, the Union are back in town and are preparing for Saturday's season opener against the Colorado Rapids at PPL Park (4 p.m., 6ABC).

There's just one small problem: the game might not happen.

Major League Soccer and the MLS Players Union are locked in contentious negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement. With the first game leaguewide of 2015 set for Friday night - Chicago at Los Angeles (10 p.m., UniMás) - time is running out to get a deal done.

It's not just a matter of the salary scale and salary cap. Indeed, it's not just a matter of MLS players earning free agency for the first time in league history. It's about smaller things, too, like how often teams can fly charter instead of commercial.

And of immediate concern to the Philadelphia Union, it's about how many players they'll be allowed to carry on their roster. The original compliance deadline of last Friday has been extended twice - first to Monday of this week, then to Wednesday - and could be extended again.

Right now, there are 28 players training. Only one, draft pick Eric Bird, is unsigned. All the rest are officially on board, including draft picks Dzenan Catic and Raymond Lee and the last remaining trialist, 18-year-old Cameroonian midfielder Eric Ayuk Mbu.

Union technical director Chris Albright played for 15 years in MLS, the last two in Philadelphia. As a player and now as an executive, he is plenty familiar with down-to-the-wire labor strife.

"We can't really weigh the uncertainty when we prepare the guys every day," Albright said Tuesday as the team practiced at Penn. "We're preparing like we're playing on Saturday."

Albright did say that while "everyone has got their guesses" about what the new roster rules will be, carrying 28 players seems a reasonable place to stand for now.

"I think we're in a pretty good place with our roster," He said. "We'll see what comes out of the potential agreement, and how that maybe changes some things going forward, but right now we feel comfortable where we are."

The Philadelphia native didn't want to comment too much further than that - not least because according to Sports Illustrated, MLS headquarters threatened anyone on its side of the negotiations with a $250,000 fine for speaking out.

So far, the only management voice to speak out has been Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen. Last week, he told Salt Lake City's ESPN Radio affiliate (which also broadcasts RSL games) that discussing free agency is "a go-nowhere conversation."

Whether or not to allow free agency in MLS - and how that affects the league's single-entity structure - is the biggest roadblock in CBA talks. Players say they'll strike if they don't get it; owners have long refused to even consider the subject.

"When you look at all the owners [in MLS], they've all been in pro basketball, baseball, football and that was the one thing they all vowed they'd never do is go through that again," Hansen said. "That can't exist where everyone's employed by the same employer... How do you have free agency when you're going to go talk to yourself at the next employer?"

In the wake of those remarks, MLS slapped Hansen with the biggest fine in league history. It was $150,000, not $250,000, which raised some eyebrows about whether the goalposts had moved.

But it was nonetheless notable that a majority of the players on last season's RSL roster made less in a year than what Hansen paid out in one check.

Albright has reason to feel comfortable.

No, the Union don't have a star of the caliber of Orlando's Kaká or New York City FC's David Villa – who will face each other at a sold-out Citrus Bowl in Orlando on Sunday (4:30 p.m., ESPN2) if a CBA is signed. But the Union did take first place at the IMG Suncoast Pro Classic tournament in Bradenton before coming home, scoring 13 goals over five games.

Four of those goals came from new Venezuelan striker Fernando Aristeguieta. He's expected to lead the Union's attack this year, and so far he has lived up to the billing.

Aristeguieta was the last piece of an offseason shopping spree that also included 6-foot-5 defender Steven Vítoria and speedy forward C.J. Sapong. Add those three guys to an already-strong midfield led by Maurice Edu, Cristian Maidana and Vincent Nogueira, and Jim Curtin is within his rights to be optimistic.

"We didn't want to completely blow it up and bring in a completely new group, because we did believe in the group we had," Curtin said. "The acquisitions we made were key ones - it's not just bench players or role players. These are guys we're expecting to come in and be in the starting lineup."

Now it all comes back to whether those players will be on the field Saturday afternoon. Reports surfaced Tuesday from the Washington Post and ESPN that after a few days of progress, CBA talks were breaking down.

The Post's Steven Goff reported that MLS owners took a hardline stance Tuesday and rejected all of the players' proposed compromises. Among the few offers on the table was a token proposal that would grant free agency to players age 32 or older with 10 years of playing time on the same team.

But as longtime soccer writer Jeff Crandall noted, the list of players in MLS' entire history who would qualify for free agency under the owners' proposed terms is not very long:

Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl reported last Friday the identities of three specific owners who are in the bargaining room: Dallas' Clark Hunt, New England's Jonathan Kraft and Vancouver's Greg Kerfoot. Goff reported very late Tuesday night that Hunt has been one of the hardliners. That's no surprise, given the Hunt family's longtime reputation for being among MLS' most spendthrift (read: cheapest) owners.

Vancouver Whitecaps player rep Steven Beitashour told reporters in Vancouver that a strike vote could be called Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Goff surmised that D.C. United players could walk out of Wednesday night's CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Alajuelense at RFK Stadium.

A major update came Tuesday night from ESPN's Jeff Carlisle, who reported that the service time provision has been bargained down to "players who are 28 years or older, and who have been in the league at least eight years - and not necessarily with the same team."

This came later Tuesday from ESPN's Taylor Twellman:

Canadian Soccer News' Duane Rollins reported that other American pro sports unions may be willing to help the MLSPU bolster its strike fund, out of solidarity and a dislike of the single-entity system. It would not be without precedent, as Rollins noted: the NFLPA gave financial assistance to the MLSPU during the last CBA negotiation in 2010.

This time around, the NFLPA might not be involved. Carlisle was told by the NFLPA that the MLSPU "has not reached out" to it.

As of when I wrote this post, the Montréal Impact's CCL quarterfinal second leg against Pachuca at Olympic Stadium was still scheduled to be played.

There is no official deadline for the players to call a strike. Unofficially, though, Carlisle reported that the Fire are set to fly to Los Angeles on Wednesday morning and practice at the StubHub Center on Wednesday afternoon. If Chicago's players don't get on the plane, that will be a big sign.

Brian Carroll and Danny Cruz are the Philadelphia Union's current player reps. They were in D.C. for negotiations on Tuesday, and as such were absent from practice.

Curtin was a player rep for much of his 10-year career in MLS. So even if he can't say much publicly, you can be sure he understands what the current generation of players is going through.

"I'm sure they'll come to an agreement," he said. "Hopefully sooner rather than later."

The clock is ticking.