The Third Half: I've Had Enough With the Lack of Championship CBA Progress...From All Sides
I’ve finally hit my breaking point and had enough, from everyone associated with the USL Championship.
As the USL Championship CBA negotiations have ground to a complete halt it’s time for an uncomfortable conversation to be had. Are the USLPA, USL HQ and the clubs themselves actually doing everything possible to get a deal done? From my vantage point the answer is a resounding not even close.
Players/USLPA
As I opined last month, the USLPA lost all leverage in negotiations the second players reported to camp without a deal. That gave USL HQ all the belief in the world they could offer nothing and the union would take it. Connor Tobin and the USLPA demanded pro standards first before pro/rel, laid it all out on the table and now in my opinion look ready to back track from that position.
It is my opinion the USLPA had an golden opportunity with USL HQ backed into a corner after announcing a first division (I’ll still believe it when I see it) and promotion/relegation to get all their asks. If we know they’re backtracking on image rights what else are they backtracking on? This CBA with what USL HQ has said on the record was the opening to codify an agreement down the divisions for actual long lasting changes. Right now, I think they’re blowing it by giving a perception in public that the current status quo is okay. This USLPA is acting like they are negotiating their first CBA as a union.
Let’s look at compensation. Considering the current PLS and the fact the standards for men’s division 2 matches women’s division 1 let’s start there. A quick glance at the NWSL’s salary (note word salary and not compensation) shows the minimum salary for 2026 is $50,500 (page 22 here). Connor’s ask was significantly less at $42,000 in total compensation. There’s even a line in the NWSL CBA that states “excluding bonuses, other incentive compensation/benefits” when discussing salary.
While I understood asking the Super League sides to start at $42,000 compensation in year one that is not an excuse to use that baseline in perpetuity for both the Championship and Super League. If you eventually settled with a minimum compensation at $50,500 rising every year of the CBA that included full health insurance for all players and housing, that’s about the lowest level of compromise I could see tolerated. That’s also keeping the current level of mutual terminations and no unilateral terminations.
Players, with no CBA and March getting closer in the window, don’t think these clubs who have been pushing unilateral terminations don’t see an opening to try. It wouldn’t shock me if a club saw their preseason and decided a full blown overhaul was needed, cut players and make last minute loanee and signings on the cheap. Again, I’ll take being called a cynic.
I get it, striking is not something to be taken lightly. But it’s been obvious for the last month USL HQ doesn’t take you seriously and not caring if the league improves or not. You already sacrifice enough, now is the time to take a nothing to lose attitude. It’s time to make it clear if a deal isn’t done a strike is on the table.
Owners
I’ve also had enough of the USL Championship owners. I’m sick of hearing about your griping and complaining about teams and ‘how you do the right thing’ in private but don’t have the guts to call out the bad actors in public. Are you afraid you won’t get the potential carrot of the first division, a division that may not happen at all? Are you afraid that with higher standards you’ll have to continue to raise your game to keep your competitive edge? Are you afraid you’ll actually have to professionalize your clubs and you’d rather claim to be Championship on a League One or amateur budget? Are you scared you’ll actually have to treat players as something other than a disposable commodity?
I’m also sick of you crying poor when you do the bare bones minimum to market your product. Sorry, but the odd post on the mutant bird, the sky is blue, the fake picture show and broken clock doesn’t count. You are a community entity, act like it. Start pounding the flesh and getting your players out in the community. Begin to actually get on the local TV and radio and do actual interviews promoting your product. You want the community to invest in your club, invest in the community. I’m not talking about pay for play soccer camps or your prop pieces at halftime that should be more available than on your half heartedly updated YouTube channels. Some of you want to make the move to a first division? Some of you don’t deserve the amateur leagues.
Owners, I don’t get it. I don’t get the owners at the top being scared of losing their competitive edge. I don’t get why you wouldn’t want to develop your club to be the best it can be. I don’t understand why those who do and gripe in private aren’t making a concerted effort to see the league they play in better themselves…even if the only excuse is to improve any possible sale value. I don’t get wanting to play in the USL Championship but act like your League One or worse. If you don’t want to improve your standard, other leagues are available for you to join to match your actual ambition.
At this point all of you are culpable to some degree. If those who are ‘doing the right thing’ don’t want to say anything publicly it’s high time you started making the calls privately to demand changes. And I’ll say it again, if I’m Brooklyn and Jacksonville it’s time as a first year club to get your prepared statements ready in case, in my opinion, the inevitable eventually happens.
USL HQ
USL HQ, I might be the sickest of you in this entire mess. This impasse is mostly on you in the Tampa tower. You want to talk a big game about promotion/relegation and having a first division but ignoring the fact that MLS has a pretty robust CBA. If you can’t get a deal done for the Championship, how the hell do we expect you to negotiate any other CBA, regardless of division, in good faith? Instead of actually working towards lasting change that will rise all teams in the league USLHQ want to ignore the fact having a CBA actually helped you get traction these last few years.
For every Rhode Island, Jacksonville and Brooklyn there’s New Orleans, Palm Beach, Atlanta, and Buffalo that’s all talk and no action. You have no problem running your yap about ‘we have all these ownership groups at the ready or talking to us’ without the actual success rate to show for it. You can hawk Rhode Island around all you want, but they did it on their own. Instead, USL HQ spends more time going “see what they did, we can help you do that…for a taste” than being serious about a deal.
Maybe, just maybe, get your heads out of your own backsides and realize if you can’t get an agreement for the Championship, who in their right mind is going to think you can come to a new agreement with League One or even your potential first division. Your poison pill provisions are only poisoning USL. New ownership groups are going to want a foundation of stability, not seeing others being so cheap it makes them wonder if they want to be associated with you as a league. If they can’t build stadiums and produce a good product on the pitch while doing so or if all they care about is having a ‘professional’ team for the sake of turning over their roster every year without earning any significant transfer fees to put into the club, maybe they aren’t the owners you should be listening to.
If the USLPA’s ask can’t be agreed to about seeing professional standards for professional leagues (because no matter how you slice it if their announces do bear out the leagues will have to have some togetherness with their CBAs to handle the moving up and moving down the leagues) than maybe it’s time to ask the ultimate question: is this current leadership at USL HQ competent? They can hide around the franchise moniker but sometimes McDonald’s has to go into a store and go ‘not good enough, fix it now’. Better yet USL HQ what are you, a professional soccer league or a Wal-Mart version of the Catholic Church? If all you care about is land, get out of the soccer business because if all you care about is the land you don’t care about actually growing the game.
I’m tired of wondering if at 1 pm on March 7th I’m pulling into the Hodges Stadium parking lot for Sporting Jax v Hartford Athletic’s 3 pm kick…or even watching March 6th’s Derby Derby in Lexington. I don’t want to see a strike or lockout. I want everyone to lock themselves in a room and not come out until a deal is done.
I don’t care what it takes, get the damn CBA done. One that doesn’t screw the players and shows you actually are interested in moving the game forward.