Thankfully, there will be no work stoppage come February 1st in Major League Soccer. Though the two sides don't have a deal done, they have agreed on a two week negotiating extension, with a new drop-dead date of February 12th.
Goody. The specter of labor strife was beginning to weigh on the minds of fans with the expiration of the CBA rapidly approaching. If the extension buys the time needed to complete a new deal, then we can all relax; the important thing is that players can head to camp, teams can prepare for their season, and front offices can go about their business.
Unfortunately, the other result of the negotiating extension will be even more analysis, predictions, uninformed guessing, and general nonsense. Every blogger from here to The Bleacher Reports (blech, blech, and double blech), will now have even more time to spit out paragraph after paragraph of what each and every teeny tiny development might mean, and bring us no closer to any actual understanding
Player X said Y? Well that must mean that the owners are digging their heels in on guaranteed contracts! Will the players cave?
Everything that can be written, likely has. And even if there is something unique to say, does it really matter now? We know what the Players want, we get where the Owners are coming from, and until we know what the new agreement (assuming there is one, and I am, come February 13th) looks like, analysis without direct sources is just pissing in the wind.
I won't be doing it, I can tell you that much. I fully expect that whatever "gag order" exists will hold for the next two weeks; next time we hear from the Union and the League it will be in the form of a "Declaration of Good Feelings" in which both sides proclaim the future of Major League Soccer secure thanks to a new CBA built on a spirit of cooperation. Until then, I don't know what more I can say. It's not that I'm not interested, it's just that I'm more concerned with the actual results rather than the baseless speculation.
Two weeks really isn't that long, and I suppose I can dodge the inevitable blog posts, commentaries, and news stories that regurgitate old information for that time. The problem is discerning the difference between the rehashed and the genuinely new; I'm going to be extremely annoyed when I'm three paragraphs in to a piece to suddenly realize that the writer is leaning on things said three weeks ago. I'd imagine most of you will be in the same boat. Let hope the deal gets done well before the new deadline.
And so I make this promise to you, my loyal readers: There will be no new CBA posts in this space unless it contains or relates to actual and current developments. Will I crank out five hundred words if some player comments that "things are going well"? No. Will I be lamenting the plight of the Players or defending the current constrictions MLS places on them? No.
Instead, I'm going to move on to other subjects until words comes down from the bigwigs in New York that the deal is signed and every thing is hunky-dory, some time of work stoppage is in effect, or actual insight is available on the structure of the new CBA.
The final word, for now, on this matter is a simple nod to the good omen that the negotiating extension is for the prospects of an agreement.
We'll talk CBA again, don't worry; we just won't be doing it until something actually happens.
