So I'm going back on my promise once again, and it only took me a few hours this time. But this just couldn't wait, and when the itch to write something hits, experience has told me to take advantage of it.


So I'd like to talk a little about the difficulty, or lack of success, the players have had in getting their message out during the CBA negotiations.


If you're a regular around here and if you've read the Super Fun series, you probably know very well what the MLSPU is trying to pry out of the owners; guaranteed contracts, free agency, and higher salaries being chief among the demands. You've likely read thousands of words on each of those topics, from various viewpoints and with various conclusions drawn by writers that span the "what should happen" spectrum.


But the question before us is whether or not the Players Union has done an adequate job of educating the general MLS fan base of their situation; according to some prominent names, more people are buying into the "MLS will fail with a strike" fallacy than siding with the players in their struggle for greater rights.


Perhaps I missed this; in the little circle I inhabit, sentiment has solidly been on the side of the players. So much so, in fact, that I've taken it upon myself to play counterpoint on a few occasions, even as I back the players in their quest for greater rights. It's not that I believe what the owners say, or that I myself hold the opinion that a strike would be a death blow for the league, I just have a natural tendency to play devil's advocate.


My largest concern with a player strike is that I view what they can gain (with the note that I have no belief that the owners will budge on free agency) as less important than starting the season on time and with the show-off moments that the opening of Red Bull Arena and the debut of the Philadelphia Union will provide. MLS only gets so many chances to strut, and both of those are opportunities that shouldn't be missed. Apologies to my friends on the Left Coast, but media attention in this country is driven by the I-95 corridor, and in the long run the league and the players will be better off for having had those flashy showcases happen.


Jamie Trecker wrote in his Fox Sports post this morning that he's received hundreds of emails that indicate confusion on the part of the fans; even though I think some of that can be chalked up to the more under-educated fans emailing Jamie because they disagree with his viewpoint (people who disagree are always more likely to write emails), it is troubling to hear that so many have twisted concepts of what the players want.


I'm not going assign blame to anyone with the MLSPU, because I'm not really sure who's fault this is. Ultimately, it does come down to the hired PR firm, who probably should have done a better job of coordinating the message. I really wonder, however, if it was just a task too large for a group of players in a under-covered sport.


Where were the players supposed to go? ESPN wasn't going to give the issue much coverage prior to a labor stoppage (and even then, who knows how much time they'd give it), and the MLSPU were able to get quotes and explanations out through the biggest outlets the soccer world had to offer. It just so happens that not everyone visits those website (because the biggest American soccer news outlets are invariably websites), making it all the more difficult to get the message out.


Short of out and out moaning, which certainly wouldn't be constructive (and which some might argue they've already done), I don't know what else the players could have done. They reached out where they could, even deigning to talk to more than one amateur podcast. They tweeted their hearts out, they leveraged every "MLS has it wrong" piece, they used their most visible members as mouthpieces in story after story. Perhaps they shut it down at the wrong times (though if the league asked them to for the sake of the negotiations, I don't think we can blame them), and maybe they leaned on a foreign organization few have ever heard of just a little too much; but they did talk, they did attempt to explain themselves, and they did use the tools at their disposal.


Management had a built-in advantage from a PR standpoint throughout the process. Even if you put aside the infrastructure MLS already had in place, it benefits from the perception that professional soccer in the US is always destined for failure if the wrong choices are made. As the initiators of possible change, the players' image suffers by consequence. For many, it's hard to understand why they would want to rock the boat now, when everything seems to be going so well.

Public relations is part of any collective bargaining process. The two sides do their best to "control the message", either presenting their position in an effort to sway the public's opinion, or in the case of the MLS owners, say nothing at all.


Yesterday's sudden wave of noise from the Players was notable for it's ratcheting up of the rhetoric. Out of nowhere, it seemed, the players rattled their sabers, letting anyone who would listen know that the League is holding things back. Playing the victims, as they've done throughout, they carefully and methodically chose the moment to let fly with a controlled message.


It started with two prominent soccer writers (Ives Galarcep and Jeff Carlisle) posting stories on the matter, with direct quotes from Pat Onstad in one case and Joe Cannon in the other. It continued on Twitter and Facebook, where more than a few players drew attention to the aforementioned stories as well another piece, written by Richard Snowden at Soccer365, that frankly borders on propaganda. Sprinkling in other items to better turn fans to their side, notable players used social media as a tool in their campaign.

(Link goes to Snowden's Soccer365 piece)

Using calculated, coordinated, classic PR (or so it would seem to me; I have no public relations experience), the Players launched an attack on the League, and did so on a Friday evening the week before the negotiating deadline during the slowest part of the news cycle. That's clearly no coincidence, and indicates that the players who let fly with opinions (quotes in stories), links (on Twitter), and inflammatory statements did so because they were directed to.

(Cannon also linked to Snowden's piece)

The Players have failed, by some people's estimation, to get their message out properly. While many of us that scan blogs and soccer news sites daily may know where they stand and for what they're looking, it's probable that the interested-yet-less-connected MLS fan doesn't really understand their position. Yesterday was a clear effort to rectify that situation at a crucial time in the negotiating process. Another extension is unlikely if not impossible; actual play begins very shortly (starting with Columbus' series with Toluca in the CONCACAF Champions League).


As for Snowden and his latest salvo at Soccer365, it loses some of its thunder in light of his past efforts. After Snowden wrote a similarly toned piece call "This System of a Down Must Go", in which he made a factual error for which he was subsequently called out, I invited him on the American Soccer Show to discuss it. Perhaps because of the harsh reaction he received, he pulled out of the interview, even indicating to me that he may not write about soccer again.


None of this, of course, means that the Players are being intentionally misleading, or "spinning" things to their side unjustifiably; if they saw the need to fire a volley of PR on Friday because they want to gain leverage against the more powerful (in negotiating terms) owners, then more power to them. The way I see it, they'll need all the public opinion help they can muster to get even a few concessions from the League.


A work stoppage could be coming, and it could be in the form of a players' strike, as they've told Galarcep, Carlisle, and the Twitter and Facebook-following faithful. Or, this could be just another effort to turn the tide as much as they can before they head down the home stretch to a new CBA that they'll accept whether they're granted guaranteed contracts and free agency or not.


I leave you with this, from the Twitter feed of Steve Goff of the Washington Post. Unattributed (which is notable), it either reads as blustery nonsense or a true indication that the world is going to end (i.e., there's going to be a work stoppage):