MISL Owners, Players Agree to 4-Year Deal

Major Indoor Soccer League owners and the MISL Players Assn. reached an accord on a new four-year collective bargaining agreement Monday night, lending a great deal of hope to the future of the 10-year-old league.

The future of the Sockers is also brighter because Ron Cady, team president, said Monday night that Ron Fowler will go ahead with a bid to purchase the team out of a federal bankruptcy court. Cady said, however, that Fowler will make a new bid, and that it will be for less than the $825,000 offer he made earlier this month.

“With all of the troubles this league has gone through, almost folding, it’s obvious that an MISL franchise just isn’t worth as much as Ron had offered,” Cady said. “We’ll sit down today and come up with a new number and submit it to the court. We are hoping for a expedited hearing so we can get this thing going forward for good.”

Monday’s agreement came several hours after the owners rejected, by a 4-3 vote, an offer that was made by the Players Assn. Friday.

“The owners told them a few of the problems they had with the first offer and they came back with another proposal,” Cady said. “We talked for about 50 minutes and got everything straightened out.”

The agreement calls for:

--A maximum per team salary cap of $850,000 and a minimum cap of $750,000.

In April, when players and owners reached a collective bargaining agreement, it was decided that $900,000 would be the salary cap for each team. Then, last week, owners asked that the cap be cut to $675,000 per team.

Players countered with a proposal of a $900,000 maximum and $700,000 minimum. That was amended to the numbers approved Monday.

The Sockers, who asked that their salary cap remain at $900,000 to accommodate players who are close to signing, will be allowed to have an $875,000 cap next season with $25,000 available for developmental players.

“We had to have that if we were going to go ahead with our offer to bankruptcy,” Cady said.

--Guaranteed player contracts to be lowered to no more than $90,000 per player by owners.

--Eight- or 12-month player contracts. The owners had wanted only year-round contracts, but the players preferred the option of a shorter period.

--A four-year bargaining agreement with the players having an option to renegotiate if each team’s gross-revenue average exceeds $4.7 million per year. Since each team averaged only $3 million in gross revenue last year, it’s unlikely this would happen. But players wanted protection in case the league is able to sign a television deal during the next four seasons.

--Per diems to remain at $31 a day for the next two seasons.

“Both sides understand that this agreement will stabilize the league,” MISL Commissioner Bill Kentling said.

The league still must wait until Wednesday to hear whether a new group of investors in Tacoma is ready to proceed in efforts to restart the Stars’ franchise. Former Tacoma Coach Alan Hinton, who along with Jim Manza is among the group’s leaders, said Monday he is confident Tacoma will be able to go forward.