More collective bargaining nuggets from Jose Romero

2009-12-21 09:04:00

Let me start by clarifying something about the MLS CBA talks. Owners ARE part of the negotiation process. But some want the league to amend its stance and give the players more rights, while others prefer the status quo. So they are not all on the same page here, which further muddles things.

That doesn't clarify things at all. What about the CBA talks are you trying to clarify? What, exactly, gets muddled?

Let's start with one thing - if it were in fact true that there were some owners who were prepared to cave to the players' demands, and that there was infighting among the owner group, then that would a bombshell. And if those owners were, say, the owners of Seattle, still the newest team in the league, well that makes things pretty interesting, doesn't it? So if that's what we get out of this, why does Creepy Jose toss it out there like things make sense all of a sudden and then go on to talk about Portland's head coach?

I mean, WTF?

Let's stop and recap what we've learned about Sounders FC's involvement in the CBA negotiations from Creepy Jose. So far:

1) Romero and Keller claim that Sounders FC has more influence than other clubs, and should use it to craft the new collective bargaining agreement.
2) Then Romero says Sounders FC cares about the players but is (pointedly?) keeping out of negotiations. In that same post there's also the story about the unpaid bonuses from the summer friendlies.
3) Then to clear things up Romero says "Owners have a role" (which owners? Sounders FC?) in the CBA negotiations but they all don't agree, which makes things complicated.

Is number three supposed to explain numbers one and two? Why would Sounders FC owners have influence, but not use it, but have a role, but some owners disagree, so it's hard to explain? This is almost as convoluted as going steady in middle school. Is anyone else seeing someone who's getting heat for saying a little too much and is now trying to reel it all back in but is in fact making things worse, perhaps on purpose?

Let me put on my fake coach's hat and paint a picture. Sounders FC has more money than god after a season where we drew more fans than anyone imagined. We're trying to slip our players a little extra money wherever we can because we can and because we want word to get out that this is "the Sounders way" so other players will want to play here. The other MLS owners or the league office find out about the friendly bonuses and get pissed because, well, that's not how the league does things. They like to keep the players broke and dependent on them.

And the Sounders FC front office is like, what? Are you kidding? And MLS is like, yeah, that's how we run the league. So Sounders FC front office tells the players, who then think Sounders FC is on their side, and make those comments to Romero about how Seattle should write the new CBA. But then MLS is like, no, you have nothing to do with the negotiations. Tell Romero to correct it.

So they do, but then someone somewhere (could be players or management) green lights the story about the bonuses the players didn't get, and now MLS HQ is *royally* pissed and they come down on the Seattle front office. I can hear the phone call now.

"What the fuck are you doing? We've maintained a fucking blackout on the MLS stance in these negotiations since day one, it's all been the players jacking off to the press."

And the response is "Wasn't us, it was the players."

"Bullshit. We know how you tried to run the bonus thing, and when we put a stop to it, you told the players 'Oh, it wasn't us. Blame MLS.' That's exactly how that shit got out there. You call Jose Romero the fuck up and you tell him that you guys have absolutely nothing at all to do with these negotiations because you have fucked things up for the last time. You've not done one bit at the table, and all you're doing now is making us look bad. So shut. The. Fuck. Up."

And so now the Sounders front office has to distance themselves without totally going back on what they said earlier, and we get the last bit from Romero which is code for "Yeah, we're not involved in negotiations because no one else wants us to pay bonuses no one else pays their players. And we still think it's shit so we're going to be snarky about it and imply that there's discord and confusion among the owners in the negotiations. We could try to influence the league negotiation stance, but mostly we're just pissed we can't run things the way we want to, and think this would be a good time to embarrass MLS HQ."

I'm not saying that's what happened. I'm just saying.

Feel free to posit your own scenario that explains the progression of Romero's posts in the comments.

Fake Sigi out.

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