Latest news with #playersassociation
National Post
15-07-2025
- Business
- National Post
MLB's 2027 work stoppage? Baseball folks already are talking about it
Article content Major League Baseball's all-star break is no longer a break, not for the people who run these clubs, anyway. Article content The draft, which is just about all-consuming for team executives, runs Sunday and Monday of all-star week. Article content Article content The trade deadline looms at the end of the month. When to rest? Article content 'Circle Dec. 2, 2026, on your calendar,' one exec said this month. 'If you have one of these jobs and you ever wanted to go to New Zealand or something, that's the time to go.' Article content It was a joke. But it's deadly serious for the sport. Article content On Dec. 1, 2026, the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the players association expires. The expectation throughout the sport: The owners will lock out the players then. That means general managers not only can't be in touch with members of their own teams, they can't be in touch with representatives of free agents. No calls. No texts. No deals. No trades. No business. Article content New Zealand would be kind of a bucket-list trip, wouldn't it? Article content This isn't to put a damper on Monday night's Home Run Derby or Tuesday night's All-Star Game, both held on the outskirts of Atlanta. It's to acknowledge that the threat of a work stoppage is very real and the people who run baseball operations departments already are considering how it will impact the way they do business. As in: Do I really want to commit three years to a player if one of those years could be all but wiped out? Article content That's not a doomsday scenario. Those discussions are happening in front offices right now. The last lockout produced the CBA that covered the 2022-26 seasons. It delayed the start of the 2022 season but cost zero major league games. The next one? Article content Article content 'Maybe I'm wrong,' one head of a baseball operations department said. 'But this one feels like it's going to be long.' Article content Another exec said, 'The owners are loaded for bear this time.' Article content What MLB wants without saying it directly: a salary cap. The Los Angeles Dodgers are spending $341 million on players this year, the New York Mets $332 million, according to Spotrac. The Vegas-bound Athletics are spending $77.1 million, the Miami Marlins $67.6 million. Not coincidentally, the Dodgers and Mets enter the all-star break in playoff position. The A's and the Marlins do not. Article content 'We do not have the kind of cost certainty, predictability and competitive balance mechanisms in our player comp system that the three other major professional sports have,' Commissioner Rob Manfred said at an investor event hosted last month by the Atlanta Braves, according to Sports Business Journal. 'That's just a fact.' Article content Two words he doesn't use: 'salary' and 'cap.' But you don't have to read between the lines to understand what he's saying.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
MLB players' association head acknowledges federal investigation into OneTeam Partners
FILE - Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark answers a question during a news conference in New York on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) ATLANTA (AP) — Baseball players' association head Tony Clark acknowledged a federal investigation into One Team Partners, a licensing company it founded with the NFL Players Association. 'We understand that there is an investigation going on right now and we have and we will continue to fully cooperate with that investigation,' Clark told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. Advertisement The government has not commented on its probe. OneTeam says on its website that it's 'the first multi-billion-dollar company built for athletes, by athletes." It helps license player rights for sponsorships, media content, video games and more. Clark defended the union's financial transparency with its members. 'An audit's done every year,' he said. 'The players as a group wanted to go through all of it. And so we went through all of it and then that group presented those findings to players at the board meeting.' ___ AP MLB:
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Rockets' Fred VanVleet elected new president of NBPA, succeeding CJ McCollum
Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet was elected the new president of the National Basketball Players Association during the Board of Player Representatives meeting on Saturday. He will begin a four-year term immediately, succeeding CJ McCollum. Advertisement VanVleet recently signed a two-year, $50 million contract to stay in Houston. The veteran guard won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019 and was named an All-Star in 2022. He also set records for the highest-paid contract for an undrafted player. McCollum, who was recently traded to the Washington Wizards, saw his term expire. He had served as NBPA president since August 2021. In 2023, McCollum led the players' association in negotiations to complete a seven-year collective bargaining agreement. He's expected to stay involved in the NBPA, moving into an advisory role. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rockets' Fred VanVleet elected new NBA players association president
National Post
08-07-2025
- Business
- National Post
The new NHL CBA is a capitulation by the NHLPA
Article content Now that the deal is signed and ratified and we have learned the key big-line items of the new deal, it sure looks like it. Article content Article content Sources had long suggested that the owners held all the cards going into 2026, when the current CBA expires, and that if the owners wanted to save a huge amount of money, there was no reason not to delay the opening of the 2026-27 season with a lockout. The players, they said, were in a real pickle. Article content Article content 'That is all they got,' one long-time league observer said of the outcome of this round of negotiations — no lockout, but very little else in their favour. 'This is absurd.' Article content Another called it a '9-1 win for (Commissioner Gary) Bettman.' The sole win? Teams are now on the hook to pay the player portion of payroll taxes, like Canadian public health fees. Article content 'That's all the players got of real value.' Article content The new deal, which the players voted to accept this week and was announced as an official deal on Tuesday morning by the league and the players' association, takes effect in September 2026. Article content According to reporting by The Athletic, the players will see a rise in the minimum salary and a surge in the playoff fund, plus no restrictions on what players can wear to games. Furthermore, pre-season has been shortened by eight days and the exhibition schedule will be only four games long. (The regular season will now be 84 games.) Also, post-draft rights retention has now been standardized, no matter where you are drafted from — whether players are from Europe, junior or the NCAA, teams will have four years post-draft to sign them. Article content Article content And European free agents will no longer be forced to sign entry-level deals. They will be treated just like every other free agent available to sign. Article content Article content But the players have given way on contract length. If a player re-ups with their team, they are currently allowed to sign an eight-year deal. If they sign with another team, it's a seven-year deal. The new CBA brings those limits down to seven and six. The rules around 'long-term injured reserve' have now been tightened — only players who are ruled to be out for the rest of the season will be permitted to have their whole salary pushed above the cap limit, otherwise teams will be restricted in how much of the injured player's contract can be pushed off the cap. Article content There are no restrictions on how often teams can retain contracts in trades. The current setup which allows for a third team to participate in a trade and simply retain a portion of the traded player's salary will essentially be eliminated. Third-team retention will still be permitted, but there will have to be 75 days between the two trades.
New York Times
08-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Sources: Despite new offer, MLS, players not close on Club World Cup bonus deal
Major League Soccer made a proposal to the MLS Players Association that would increase performance-based bonuses in this summer's FIFA Club World Cup, but the two sides don't appear close to an agreement. The league sent the proposal to the league on Friday, according to a source briefed on the discussions between the league and the union. The union responded forcefully to that offer in a statement on Sunday afternoon, calling the league's proposal 'retaliatory' and saying the league had 'ignored months of attempts by players to engage' until making its offer on Friday. Advertisement According to the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified in February 2021, MLS players would be paid a maximum of $1 million in prize money from the highly lucrative tournament. MLS teams will be paid a minimum of $9.55 million for their participation in the Club World Cup. The $1 million cap comes from section 10.8 of the CBA, which defines tournament bonus pools. That section lays out payouts for known tournaments, like the U.S. Open Cup, Concacaf Champions Cup and Leagues Cup. What it didn't account for at the time was a new FIFA-run tournament with unprecedented prize money. The new MLS proposal would give players the $1 million from the $9.55 million participation fee, as agreed in the CBA, but would add another 20 percent to any money earned beyond that — including for wins, draws and advancement to further rounds. In addition, MLS previously decided to pay LAFC players an additional $250,000 in bonuses for its win over Club America in the play-in game to the Club World Cup, which followed Club León's expulsion from the competition. The league also gave an option for owners to convert up to $750,000 of the $9.55 million participation fee into general allocation money, which effectively serves as cap space. All three teams opted to max out that $750,000, according to multiple sources. The Seattle Sounders staged a protest ahead of their game against Minnesota United on June 1 regarding the $1 million cap on the bonuses. According to multiple reports, Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer angrily confronted the team after the game for the protest. The source said the league had been in weeks of discussions with the MLSPA about the bonuses and that MLS communicated to the union on May 31 that it was willing to alter the CBA and expected to send a formal proposal on June 2 regarding the bonus structure. Advertisement The union's statement pushed back heavily both on MLS's offer and on its willingness to engage on the issue in the weeks leading up to the protest. 'MLS spent most of last week making threats and promising retaliation against the MLSPA and players because Seattle players wore T-shirts that expressed frustration over the league's refusal to engage about Club World Cup compensation,' the statement read. 'After ignoring months of attempts by players to engage, late Friday afternoon, less than 48 hours before LAFC and Seattle players were to take the field once again, the league finally provided the PA with their first proposal on this issue. As promised, this proposal was retaliatory in nature.' The union statement outlines the MLS offer as not adding any bonuses to the participation fees paid out by FIFA beyond the $1 million outlined in the CBA. The union statement then classified the 'back-end compensation' of 20% as being 'below the international standard.' An update on Club World Cup Bonuses. MLS spent most of last week making threats and promising retaliation against the MLSPA and players because Seattle players wore t-shirts that expressed frustration over the league's refusal to engage about Club World Cup compensation. More… — MLSPA (@MLSPA) June 8, 2025 In addition, the union said the league is attempting to strong-arm the MLSPA into making concessions around the CBA waivers that have been issued the past several seasons regarding offseason timing for teams participating in the Concacaf Champions Cup. 'The timing, substance, and retaliatory nature of the proposal sends a clear message: MLS does not respect or value players' efforts with regard to this tournament,' the MLSPA statement reads. 'Although not surprised, the players and the MLSPA are deeply disappointed by this message. Advertisement 'MLS's refusal to negotiate in good faith has created a major distraction for the players who should be focusing on preparing for a major international competition. However, players will not be silenced by threats from MLS. The players remain united in using their collective voice and demanding a fair share of the rewards earned from their hard work.' It is not clear what 'international standard' the MLSPA is using in its appraisal of MLS's offer. There have been few public details about what other teams are paying players for their participation in the tournament. The source said the MLSPA communicated a desire for players to receive 40 percent of all money distributed to MLS teams by FIFA, including the participation fee and any performance payments for results or advancement in the tournament. The discussions come at a delicate time for the league as it weighs major changes at the board level, including flipping the calendar to a fall-spring format. That change would require player approval and changes to the CBA. With the relationship between the league and the union seeming increasingly frosty, it could complicate those larger discussions. Inter Miami opens the Club World Cup against Al Ahly on June 14.
