MLS players are happy with new deal

A week has passed since Major League Soccer and its players reached accord on a new five-year collective bargaining agreement, ending months of sometimes acrimonious debate.

With MLS labor peace seemingly assured for the next half a decade, are the players pleased with the deal they struck?

“On the whole, I think we’re very satisfied with what we achieved,” midfielder Chris Klein, one of three Galaxy players involved in the negotiations, along with Landon Donovan and Todd Dunivant, said Saturday evening.

“Obviously, in any process like this, in business or in sports, when you do these agreements I think both sides go away feeling, ‘Maybe we could have gotten a little bit more, maybe we left a little bit on the table.’ That’s just the way they go.

“For the players, we got a very fair deal. We improved the working conditions for our guys moving forward. And some things we left for another day.”

The turning point in the negotiations might have come when the members of the MLS Players Assn. voted to authorize a strike.

“It was 383 to 2,” Klein said of the vote. “I think it says a lot about how passionate the players were that players making a median $88,000 a year were willing to sit out because of what we believe in.”

According to union figures, the average player salary in the league in 2009 was $147,945, but that was skewed wildly by the high-end players. A more accurate reflection was the median income of $88,000, with half the players making more than that amount and half less.

“No one wanted a work stoppage,” Klein said. “As players, though, we became very unified in the core things we were looking for. We achieved a lot of those things. We’re in a better place than we were in the last collective bargaining agreement.”

It was never all about money, but rather about player rights, especially freedom of movement for out-of-contract players.

According to former Galaxy player Peter Vagenas, now with the Seattle Sounders, it was also about perception.

“Quite frankly, the rest of the world looks at some of the rules and regulations we abide by and it sort of adds to the stereotype of this league not being top quality,” Vagenas told the Associated Press during the negotiations.

“I think Pete’s very accurate in what he says,” Klein said. “Perception is reality. Conversely, I think we have a lot of players in our league who want to go other places because of these same rights.

“We believe in this league the same way our owners do and we want it to succeed. You’re always going to have players leave, but I think you’re going to have more players stay if they think they’re going to have the same freedoms that they enjoy in other countries.”

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena said he was confident all along that a settlement would be reached.

“For some reason, I sensed that there was never going to be a strike,” he said. “I thought they’d come to an agreement and they did.”

Arena said the Galaxy players “weren’t on pins and needles all the time,” but added that there was “a sense of relief,” when a settlement finally was reached.