On previous episodes of the Major League Soccer Talk podcast, we have approached the potential players strike from the media’s perspective (Grant Wahl, Steve Davis), the (former) player’s perspective (Claudio Reyna), as well as the legal perspective (our February series). Today, we get more of a fan’s perspective, though a fan’s perspective that’s informed by covering the league day-to-day. Bruce McGuire (du Nord) and Drew Epperley (WV Hooligan) are two of the internet’s most prominent bloggers, and on Thursday they joined me to provide another perspective on the league’s labor problems.

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From CONCACAF’s Champions League Website

While the current labor negotiations are currently on everyone’s mind and rightfully so, the Columbus Crew had to take care of their own business and that was traveling down to Mexico to face Toluca in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League Quarterfinals.

After a two all draw at Crew Stadium last week in the first leg Columbus were ready to go down and try for history as well as a possible upset, but the match started in Toluca’s favor. So many chances for the home side in the first half and a couple of times it would be Will Hesmer making some brilliant saves or the crossbar would help him out as well. On one replay you saw the ball hit the near corner bar and land directly on the goal line, but never crossing it entirely.

But Columbus would get their chance to dent the scoreboard as a penalty was called just inside the first minute of stoppage time. A hand ball was whistled down by Referee Edgar Duenas and it would be Guillermo Barros Schelotto who took the spot kick and converts in the 2nd minute of first half stoppage time. Columbus leads one goal to nil & three goals to two lead on the Aggregate at the half.

Toluca of course came out to start the second half and attacked to get level. They were on a run in the 46th minute and converted a goal, but it was called back because Duenas called for a penalty to Toluca. On the replays there seemed to be no foul inside the area and Toluca would get a second chance to score the equalizer & Hector Mancilla did so in the 47th Minute. It was one all on the scoreboard, three all on aggregate with Toluca ahead on away goals two to one.

This match was getting very exciting and you never know what was going to happen next. The Crew were called for a foul just five feet outside their area and in the 57th minute, a fabulous free kick by Sinha nails the bottom of the crossbar and crossed over the entire line for the two one lead. But the Crew was determined to equalize and did so in the 70th minute. Danny O’Rourke attacked down the near side and crossed the ball into the area; Steven Lenhart who was the hero in the first leg would try to score. He hit the far post and the rebound went towards Schelotto who converted his second goal of the match and the aggregate leveled at four as well as the away goals leveled at two a piece.

What a great second goal Schelotto converted, but sadly it all went for not two minutes later. A foul just outside the Columbus area again and Sinha with another free kick situation. Just one solid smack into the near upper 90 and Sinha takes the aggregate back for Toluca. A foolish challenge by Eddie Gaven just a couple of feet outside the area allowed Toluca to take advantage.

Any hopes for a fantastic finish and a possible third equalizer of the match for the Crew would be for not as Steven Lenhart in the 80th minute would be shown a red card for an off the ball foul and the Crew were down to ten men for the rest of the match. Even though Columbus was eliminated from Champions League play, I have to say that they looked fantastic on the field.

If Frankie Hejduk & Guillermo Barros Schelotto weren’t suspended for the first leg, this series could’ve been a little bit better. But honestly credit goes to the players and the coaching staff of Robert Warzycha for getting them ready to play and battle to the end. But now we have to wait for this coming August & September to see if the Crew gets a second chance along with defending MLS Cup Champions Real Salt Lake, Runner up Los Angeles Galaxy & defending US Open Cup Champions Seattle Sounders FC will get a crack to win on Mexican soil. But hopefully this strike from the MLS Players Union is avoided.

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If you thought that MLS and its players union had until March 25 to avert a work stoppage and get a new collective bargaining agreement done, the timetable has moved up a bit.

Multiple reports, quoting sources close to the investigation, have stated that the players will strike on Monday, March 22, if a new deal isn’t done.

Talks are still ongoing in our nation’s capital, and Landon Donovan is going to jet over to participate in the discussions.

While he agrees with some of the things AEG CEO Time Leiweke said Wednesday, his comments echo the other sounbites coming from the players’ side of the table in recent days.

“There are realities to the business that we’re in and unfortunately for too long the business has been one-sided,” Donovan told ESPN. “We need basic rights if we’re going to continue playing. We want rights that are afforded to other players in other countries around the world that we don’t have here.”

His tone is a little more, well, olive-branchy than some of the other quotes we’ve seen.

“Tim more than anybody has put his neck on the line for this league and for players in our league but what was not accurate was all the talk of how much money is affecting this,” Donovan said. “I think we’ve made it clear from the beginning that we’re not into the idea of bankrupting the league and asking for tons of monetary increases. We just want basic rights other players around the world get.”

The owners are amping up the rhetoric as well.

Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts weighed in on the debate in the Salt Lake Tribune today.

He said a strike would be “absolutely devastating” and added that, “I don’t know how Major League Soccer survives it, to be honest. It’s that serious.

“If we don’t play this year. It’s not going to be in anybody’s best interest.”

That’s something that everyone can agree on.

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AEG CEO and President Tim Leiweke claims only a couple of MLS clubs will make money. (Photo: Getty Images)

Thanks to Dave Clark at SounderAtHeart, we have a better idea if MLS owners are actually losing money, a key part of a recent public relations effort (see Leiweke and Wolf) to take the labor debate to the fans.

The idea that MLS is losing money is one of the key (if not the only) ideas that have some MLS fans on the owners’ side (though as we found out here, there aren’t as many as the most vocal commenters might have you believe).

As Tim Leiweke told the Los Angeles Times yesterday, “There are only a couple of [MLS] teams that will make money this year.”

Such claims, as well as claims about free agency inherently increasing labor costs, deserve discussion, criticism.

According to Clark, who took information from a Portland Timbers’ public disclosure to update the 2007 Forbes study, we can be confident two teams made money (Seattle, Toronto). There are five other clubs who are within his margin for error (Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas, San Jose, Los Angeles, Houston).

There are a couple of caveats to Dave’s work. First, as he readily admits, it’s based off of incomplete information. The Portland disclosure was detailed but not the bottom line, and his work is dependent on it.

Soccer United Marketing is expected to pay $1.6 million to Portland in each of the next five years, according to public documents.

Second, the numbers don’t count the money clubs get from Soccer United Marketing. Dave points out that they are technically separate entities. In the interest of not confounding the data, he keeps the SUM disbursement out. If the $1.6 million was included, Chivas USA and New England may have also made money last year.

Finally, the numbers do not include disbursements from expansion fees. Seattle paid $30 million to come into the league. Each team in the league should have received $2 million from it. Merritt Paulson has said that the Portland fee was $40 million. Perhaps that fee and not Seattle’s should be counted on last year’s books.

Regardless, things look much better for MLS clubs if you consider these fees. With them and the SUM number, the potentially profitable clubs expands to include Colorado and Kansas City – 11 of the 15 clubs that played last season.

This is also within the context of an economic downturn, the premise of Dave’s column. If you buy into that premise, the 2009 numbers could be considered near the bottom of the range of outcomes for an otherwise growing league.

Dave’s work is not exhaustive, and the viability of including SUM and expansion fee revenues may not be strong. However, thanks to the Portland release, Dave’s legwork, and the foundation provided by the 2007 Forbes research, blind trust of the owner’s claims may be more naive than we had previously thought.

There are a few other concepts that need to be further explored.

(polls)

Through the years I have been very skeptical of owners in professional sports claiming they’re losing money, particularly in the context of labor negotiations or bargaining for public stadia. There has always been a disturbing lack of transparency. Owners are not required to open their books – I don’t begrudge them for that. But when asking for public financing or posturing for fan support, there is a need to be transparent , if for no other reason than to establish trust.

Particularly in baseball and football, we’ve hear numerous “this market is not viable unless” arguments made as stadium initiatives approach ballots. It’s all part of the game. You can’t fault owners for doing what’s best for their business. However, we need to keep these motivations and the tricky world of corporate accounting in mind.

Until the owners can be more transparent, their claims of losses deserve a more critical discussion.

In the bigger picture, this profit argument has become a bit of a red herring. Sports franchises are as much about accruing equity as they are turning a profit. Two years ago, the Los Angeles Galaxy were valued by Forbes at $100 million, but a snap shot of a single-season’s balance sheet would make it seem the club is a bad investment. Yet, were AEG to sell the Galaxy at the end of 2008, they would have received a huge windfall. How do you reconcile that profitability except to see single-season balance sheets inadequately describing the viability of franchise ownership?

Like the SUM and expansion fee monies, the accrual of equity has to be mentioned in this conversation.

Shown here during last season's Western Conference final, Home Depot Center factors into Los Angeles Galaxy's high franchise value. (Photo: Getty Images)

In the short team, it is in a franchise’s best interest to take losses in order to accrue this equity, or increase the franchise’s value. If you look at a single season’s ledger, you miss this effect. Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, bought the team in 1999 for an estimated $800 million. It is now worth $1.1 billion. FedEx Field had a lot to do with that, just as Home Depot Center has a lot to do with Los Angeles being MLS’s most valuable franchise.

These benefits matter, particularly when an ownership group seeks to borrow against the club to get financing for stadia and other infrastructure improvements.

Even if we cease looking deeper into these losses, there seem to be very few people asking why some teams are making money and some are not. Between two and 11 teams (depending on which numbers you want to look at, above) are close to or exceeding break even. Yet all franchises are playing by the same rules. How have some been able to make their situations work while others have not? It is possible that there are just some bad markets, inviable teams, or maybe some management groups that are not doing enough to compete (be it at the turnstile or in the points column)?

There is another, more esoteric debate: A sports teams even designed to make money? Are they possibly turning into the toys of the Mark Cubans, Paul Allens … Roman Abramovichs of the world? And if so, what does profitability matter if there are people willing to pay the price of ownership? All those owners do is threaten the owners who, for whatever reason, are not capable of similar levels of support.

Were the players asking for substantial increases in wages, we could perhaps overlook all the confusion regarding losses and profitability. But the players and owners had agreed to a 17.4 percent increase in the salary cap. Increased expenditures on wages was not the issue, no matter how much the owners now want to make the players out to be so off-base.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber and his clubs have been able pushing their lack of profitability as a key component in their public relations battle. (Photo: Newscom)

Owners have been intimating that free agency will increase costs. Common sense tells you that’s a difficult argument to make, given a salary cap. It will change how rosters are managed, and it might drive more mid-level talent to the NASL or Europe. But it won’t increase costs.

As part of their public face for this battle, Major League Soccer seems to be confounding increased costs with free agency in an attempt to keep control of the players. They want to be able to have the control to say “Well, Landon, we have this two year option we can exercise, or you can sign this longer contract and make more money. Either way, we have you.”

They want to be able to tell players, “Well, you can play at the first level of soccer in this country, but since you can only can only play for this team, you’ll have to take what their budget allows.”

They don’t want a player saying “but these other teams have money, so why can’t I go there.”

As teams compete with each other for player services, the price for that single player will increase, but overall costs won’t, thanks to the salary cap.

If the owner’s suggestion is true and free agency will send costs out-of-control, why bother with other cost-control measures like a salary cap?

It’s a hole in the owner’s public stance, a public stance that seems short on answers and transparency. Until the owners can reconcile some of these issues, it would be too trusting to believe their public face.

This is not to say the owners are misleading the fans, but just because they say something – be it about profits or the effects of free agency – does not mean its true.

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For the last couple of weeks, we’ve read with interest as players have sounded off about the ongoing labor dispute between owners and players.

Today, the owners strike back.

AEG chief executive Tim Leiweke spoke at length with the Los Angeles Times in a story published today, and to say he took a few shots at the rank and file would be an understatement.

“Here’s our issue, and I’m speaking on behalf of AEG,” he said. “We have spent to the tune of $300 million on soccer. We have spent money on facilities. We at one point owned six of the 10 teams to keep the league alive.

“I don’t even know how to react when I hear the players now saying that we have treated them poorly and they’re going to strike. The fact is, the Galaxy isn’t going to make money this year. There are only a couple of (MLS) teams that will make money this year. … So when I hear them talk about striking and shutting the league down, I’ve got to tell you, they’re going to lose us when they talk like that.

“We do this out of passion. If this were a business, we would have quit this 10 years ago.”

I’m sure George Cohen, the federal mediator for the ongoing talks between the league and its players was thrilled when he read that in the Times this morning.

I can’t say I’m surprised that an owner has finally fired back after reading article after article featuring quotes from players criticizing the league.

“We have been fighting this battle for 10 years,” Leiweke told the Times. “Some of these (players) forget what we have put into it and they’re acting like the hard work and the money and the time and the energy and the passion that we’ve put into this, they all seem to forget about that.”

I think its even more telling that this article is the most significant news coming out of the negotiations. It’s specualtion on my part, but I have to believe that, if a deal was close, Leiweke wouldn’t be shooting his mouth off like this.

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http://www.blogtalkradio.com/feuersteinsfire

The first show will be this Wednesday March 17th at 2:00PM Please click the link so you can get to the page & listen to the show.

Guests: Blake Compton of the Hudson Street Hooligans discusses the Columbus Crew’s 1st leg match against Toluca in the Quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League.

NY Daily News writer and New York Red Bulls beat writter Michael Lewis also of Big Apple Soccer. Audio from Red Bulls Media Day as well. Discussing Landon Donovan & his Everton loan spell.

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Landon Donovan took a plane from London to Los Angeles on Sunday, wrapping up his 10-week loan spell with Everton.

After hitting an In-N-Out, he’ll be getting set to start the MLS season with the Galaxy.

Maybe.

As I’m sure you’ve heard, his fellow MLS players have voted to strike if a new collective bargaining agreement with the league isn’t reached by March 25, the scheduled opening night for the league.

We haven’t heard much from the league in recent days, but players are still making their case in the media.

Seattle keeper Kasey Keller told the Associated Press, “This is truly a case of guys who could make more money going out and getting a job, but they’re trying to live out the dream.”

He went on to add, “I understand where the league was coming from five, 10 years ago when it was up against the wall if we were going to still have a league. That’s now no longer the case and some of the things they were able to get away with just can’t happen anymore.”

Well, somebody had to provide the “it’s not all about the money” quote.

And, just in case the league needed something else to worry about, David Beckham ruptured his Achilles’ tendon and will likely miss the 2010 MLS season.

If there is one.

There’s still time to get a deal done, but we’ve been saying that since the old agreement expired in January.

The silence on the owners’ end of the table is somewhat telling.

The players union, it seems, is gearing up for a fight.

A season – one with an expansion team, shiny new stadium in the New York area and a promised World Cup-bump for the second half – hangs in the balance.

Which way, I wonder, will it tip?

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Sold out crowd at Lockhart Stadium for Miami Fusion v DC United

I had the sudden realization Sunday that if aliens descended on my town and were asked to find any life of Major League Soccer in South Florida, the only thing they would find is MLS trading cards in the bargain bin of the local dollar store. Seriously.

Sadly, Major League Soccer is extinct in South Florida. The nearest MLS team is 1,000 miles away. The last time I saw anyone wearing a MLS jersey was more than two years ago. And the last time there was a trace of a MLS team in all of Florida was nine years ago.

I sound like a broken record, but the reality is that if it wasn’t for television, I would be — as the Brits say — a miserable old git. It’s practically my only outlet to watch the professional game. And even then, the amount of MLS coverage is few and far between especially when compared to the smorgasbord of European soccer on US TV.

Yes, I go watch my kids play AYSO games. Yes, I attend Miami FC matches in the USL, now NASL or whatever temporary league name the USSF gives it, but the reality is that it’s not MLS. It’s nowhere close to a MLS experience. It’s nothing like when I was a Miami Fusion season ticket holder when most of my life revolved around when the home team played at Lockhart Stadium.

Many critics may argue that South Florida had its chance and failed at Major League Soccer. But that’s a far too simplistic explanation. The reality is that it was a combination of drastic mistakes everywhere from the back office staff to poor marketing and a failed attempt to target the Miami-Dade community, most of whom didn’t want to drive the short distance to Fort Lauderdale. But the main culprits were, in my opinion, the ownership of Ken Horowitz who decided to pull the plug too early just as the team was becoming successful both on and off the field, and the failure of Major League Soccer to find an investor willing to take over from Horowitz.

The reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of soccer fans around the United States, or perhaps more, who are in a similar boat to me and have no local MLS team to follow. Arsenal is just as “local” to them as is Chicago Fire. There’s little bond between MLS and these isolated soccer fans, so the next best thing is either the USL or NASL or, more likely, television. And as I’ve discussed previously, when it comes to the TV war, MLS almost always loses.

So in communities such as South Florida and tens of other large metropolitan areas around the United States, we have to be patient. But the longer we wait, the more the new soccer fans will gravitate to what is most accessible — which is European soccer on television. And the longer the wait, the harder it will be for new MLS teams to make the local team its passion instead of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur or whatever team he or she supports.

If you’re fortunate to live near a MLS team, count yourself lucky. Go watch games at the stadium and support the beautiful game. There are huge amounts of soccer fans nationwide who would jump at the chance to go see a MLS team.

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Before ESPN or Fox Soccer Channel begins the live broadcast of a Major League Soccer game on a Saturday evening, many soccer fans are burned out. They’re burned out from watching a smorgasbord of European soccer that has been on television all day.

Take a typical Saturday on US cable and satellite television, for example. Soccer fans in the United States can watch 7 live English Premier League games (more than anytime in US history), 1 live Serie A game, 3 La Liga matches and 2 Bundesliga games. That totals 13 live games (i.e. 26 hours of live coverage) before a Saturday evening MLS game begins on television. And those 26 hours don’t include the handful of European games shown on delay or the EPL-centric shown on Saturday mornings such as the Barclays Premier League Preview Show and Fox Soccer Match Day.

On top of all of that, Fox Sports International launched a new channel on March 1st, Fox Soccer Plus, that is 100 percent European programming featuring games from the Premier League, FA Cup, England national team, Coca-Cola Championship, Champions League, Carling Cup, Serie A and four, yes four, rugby cups and tournaments.

My question again is where does Major League Soccer feature in all of this? Or, for an even broader question, where does U.S. soccer feature in all of this and how can it compete on television? The answer is that it simply can’t. The battle has to be won in the streets.

That battle is a difficult one especially when you’re competing against soccer TV networks who are showing games in HD, launching new channels, improving their broadband offerings and putting most of its dollars into advertising its European soccer coverage. At the same time, it’s hard to convince a family to spend their hard-earned money by going to see a live game for their local team when it’s much cheaper to stay at home and watch it on television.

So how does Major League Soccer (or the USL, NASL or WPS for that matter) convince soccer fans that it should either (a) attend one of their matches on a Saturday night or (b) encourage them to watch one of their games on television especially given the fact that there were 26 hours of live European soccer coverage shown earlier in the day?

It’s a massive question because if Major League Soccer is unable to figure out how it can do that, it could lead to the death of the league. Seriously.

I’ve discussed before that there needs to be more local Major League Soccer teams across the country. I also believe it’s important for Major League Soccer, USL and NASL to work more closely together to promote its teams across the United States so there’s no excuse that soccer fans don’t realize there’s a local team near them. For example, why isn’t there a website or tool that soccer fans in the US can use to find their nearest teams? And, unless I’m blind, why is there no 2010 schedule of NASL and USL matches on either the official NASL website or USL website even though one does exist?

And yes, the product on the field needs to be improved to bring people to live soccer matches and to encourage them to watch it on television. But is there anything else that local clubs can do in addition to that?

I don’t pretend to have all of the answers, but I would like to hear from you – the passionate supporters of soccer in North America – what you think the MLS, USL, NASL and other leagues can do to ensure that large numbers of soccer fans go to local games each week and watch US soccer on television. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. I look forward to reading your insight.

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