Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber announced on Friday that Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen has been fined an undisclosed amount for comments made earlier in the week during a radio interview with RSL's flagship radio station, ESPN700. The comments that he was fined for were in regards to the current collective bargaining agreement talks as well as free agency.
Here are some of the comments he made during his interview:
I think there are some really fair offers that have come from the league. The perennial issue is that "we want free agency," but that can't exist where everyone's employed by the same employer.
How do you have free agency when you're going to go talk to yourself at the next employer? That's not going to change. That's a "go-nowhere" conversation. When you look at all the owners, they've all been in pro basketball, baseball, football, and that was the one thing they all vowed they'd never do is go through that again.
They've tried it twice, it's been defeated by the courts. It's just a foolish place to waste time. If that's still open, it's just foolish.
The rest, there's some great agreement everyone can reach, but every time I read "we're going to work on free agency," well, you know, that's one of those real waste-of-time conversations. I think everyone's very intense on it. I know that the league and the owners are seriously looking at that.
Hansen had to know he would be fined for making remarks like these. He has to be smarter than that when the questions are asked. Free Agency would be hard to work in a single entity league, but it is something that should be talked about. Players want more of a choice of what club they play for after their contracts are not extended instead of having to rely on the re-entry draft.
Here's to hoping that the 2015 MLS season will start on time and Hansen will think before he speaks next time.