See on Sunday MLS president Mark Abbott claim that management offered $60 million in new money, but as we’ve seen lately it isn’t all about the money for the players – something the league hasn’t quite figured out yet.

“It is unfortunate that MLS doesn’t see the modest changes we have proposed as being good for the league, especially since until these changes are made, more and more quality players who should be playing in MLS will not be doing so,” MLS Players Union executive director Bob Foose said Sunday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “It will also be a shame if the league’s refusal to improve its system results in a work stoppage.”

“This negotiation is not about huge raises for players, or massive new expenditures for owners,” Foose said. “It is also not about unrestricted free agency. Rather it is about basic fairness for our members, and their ability to make improvements to a player system that is one-sided and unfair.”

“It is unfortunate that MLS doesn’t see the modest changes we have proposed as being good for the league, especially since until these changes are made, more and more quality players who should be playing in MLS, will not be doing so. It will also be a shame if the league’s refusal to improve its system results in a work stoppage.”

Its coming down to player rights more than economics. Now that $60 million Abbott is talking about is spread across all the clubs over the next five years does include expansion teams next year and likely ones following that. That solid number sounds good but the league needs to come back quickly and elaborate on it some more.

Talks are expected to continue today in Washington. This week will be bumpy folks so stay tuned.

Don Garber it’s your turn to step up and talk.

On Friday the players spoke out saying there no way a deal was even close at this point. With several going out of their way on Twitter and in some reports to make their thoughts clear (part of a bad player PR ploy, according to Match Fit USA’s Jason Davis). I won’t even bring up the Soccer365 piece that sounded more like propagada than anything else.

“We feel the league’s not taking us very seriously at all,” said Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad, a member of the player’s union executive committee. “We’re pretty far apart at this stage.

But yesterday MLS president Mark Abbott went public for the first time in a while, explaining the league’s position on various labor issues. Now the ball is pretty much in the union’s court. From the sound of things the league isn’t ready for a lockout here and according to Abbott if the players aren’t wanting to play this spring it will be their call.

“We’ve communicated that the league doesn’t have an intention of commencing a lockout,” Abbott told the Associated Press.

Its coming down to one or maybe two big issues for the players here. Players want guaranteed contracts, option clauses and most importantly free agency.

At the moment not all contracts are guaranteed. Then again who’s contracts in any industry are guaranteed. Basically the players want a little breathing room in the summer when the secondary transfer window opens up. RIght now when that window opens up some players a rough time staying in a team’s plan when a foreign player becomes available.

Basically the league doesn’t want to be able to promise a player a full year’s worth of a contract while the players want to make sure their butts are safe for an entire season.

On guarantees and options Abbott said that MLS “would guarantee a significant number of contracts, not all contracts” and “would limit the number of team-allowable options that we have in player contracts.”

Now the biggie as we all know is free agency. Currently there are a couple big names like Kevin Hartman, Dave van den Burgh and Adrian Serioux who’s respective clubs are currently able to hold their player right’s within the league, basically not allowing them to move freely to another team. Any other team within MLS must negotiate with the player’s current team if he is to move within MLS.

The league isn’t moving on this issue and the players are taking a pretty hard stance on it as well. Right now the league doesn’t want a full fledge free agency system because of the court case they won against the players years ago regarding their single entity system.

The thing the league should realize more though is that lately it seems like they are losing more top young talent to other leagues in the world for nothing. Not every player leaving MLS to go to Europe gets a transfer fe. Half probably do but the other half doesn’t which means the league gets nothing in return.

Abbott did say that the league has proposed new guidelines to address issues involving players who are no longer wanted by a club but wish to remain in MLS.

“We have made specific proposals on how to deal with that and in ways that you do not need free agency,” he said. “We may want to bargain with those proposals, but we have made them.”

Whether or not the players are going for it remains to be seen. The sides met a few times this past week and, with a deadline looming Thursday, they plan to talk again Monday in New York.

Could another deal get pushed back again on or before Thursday? Abbott was pretty clear about where that stands.

“Clearly, no one is in favor of a work stoppage, but we spent years establishing the structure of the league to make it work and we did so against a background of repeated failures to launch professional soccer leagues in the United States,” he said. “What we would never do is compromise those things that we think are necessary for the continued growth and prosperity of the league simply to avert a work stoppage. We have to think about this in the long term and we have to make sure the right system is in place.”

Its not like the league begins play next week here but there are still four more weeks for something to get done. Both sides still now there is too much at stake here this year to not get something worked out.

According to the report the league has already rejected the players proposal of guaranteed contracts and for the elimination of club options on players’ contracts. Those two items are said to be very key issues for the players.

Officials for Major League Soccer and the union declined comment. But sources noted that last week’s session was the first counterproposal by the league, and that there was still time for more bargaining. The MLS collective-bargaining agreement expires Jan. 31.

The counterproposal put forward by the league last week offered to raise the salary cap and address some of the union’s quality-of-life issues by increasing travel per diems and improving hotel accommodations, but the sides remain far apart on a host of issues, including the salary cap, workers’ compensation, guaranteed contracts, option-clauses in contracts and FIFA regulations.

One player-side source acknowledged that the league had offered to increase the salary cap and players’ salaries but called the proposed increases “a joke.”

No doubt the players do need increases in salaries, especially at the bottom of the pecking order. You just can’t tell me or anyone that making $14,000-$18,000 a year as a professional soccer player is really worth it and that it is enough to live with in markets like LA, Dallas, Chicago and New York.

From the sound of things the players are willing to strike because they are said to having nothing to lose here by doing so. Things are still in the early stages though so its just a lot of hardball talk going around right now between both sides. I still believe things will get worked out by the end of January when the current CBA runs out.

I think the players know the damage a strike would do to the league. More than likely the players won’t get everything that they are asking, we know that to be true of past negotiations between these two sides. I’d say they will reach some common ground before long.

Today we’ve learned what the players are asking for at the moment thanks to the Sports Business Journal.

Two items, free agency and guaranteed contracts.

The first is the biggie folks. Free agency would totally change how things are done by the league and the players. First of all it would mean that muliple clubs could bid on a player when his contract is up, instead of the league handling the player’s contract to a certain club.

The guaranteed contracts portion is a little unclear since there are currently guaranteed or at least semi-guaranteed contracts already. My guess is the players don’t want to wait until a certain point in the season for their contracts to be fully guaranteed, they want them to be that way from day one.

I would expect that the league owners balk at both items. At the very minium they go for the guaranteed contracts but the free agency would totally change how the single-entity system works for the players and their conracts. I just don’t buy into free agency happening this time around for the players.

The players could striker over the issue if they want it that badly but I doubt it would get that far. I know none of us want a players strike after this season. That would be a killer thing to happen to the league.