Posts Tagged ‘Charter Flights MLS’

MLS Commissioner Don Garber supports 100% Charter Flights next season

Posted: September 16, 2019 in Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, LA Galaxy, LAFC, Major League Soccer, Montreal Impact, Orlando City SC, Seattle Sounders, Vancouver, Vancouver Whitecaps, Whitecaps FC
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MLS Commissioner Don Garber in Vancouver, B.C. – Photo: Har Journalist

VANCOUVER, B.C – The current MLS collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on January 31, 2020. The possibility of a work disruption next season continues to grow as MLS owners and the MLSPA look to improve the league.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber, was in Vancouver ahead of Whitecaps FC’s 2-1 win over the Houston Dynamo on Saturday at B.C. Place. Garber appears ready for a strike.

“Certainly the league would be very prepared for a work stoppage. We are in the pro sports business, and all leagues are preparing for any outcome. You don’t go into any negotiation, on any deal that you’re trying to do, talking about the worst outcome. You try to talk about the best possible outcome. I’ve been in this job for twenty years, and this will be our fourth CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement). Every one of them is difficult.”

If there is going to be labour peace next season, the MLSPA must find some common ground on a wide range of topics. The most contentious issue is charter flights. Each MLS team is permitted four charter flights a season. If a team is traveling for an away match and use a charter, to and from their destination, that would count as two charter flights.

Several players have taken to social media throughout the season to share all the travel delays, frustration, and sleep deprivation they have endured while flying the not so friendly skies.

An vast increase in charter flights will be the hill the MLSPA dies on.

The NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB and semi-final playoff bound WNBA teams have charter flights.

Would Commissioner, Garber be supportive of 100% charter flights next season?

“It’s a difficult question to give you a simple answer to,” Garber bemused the question from Har Journalist. “Of course I would be supportive of 100% charters. In the context of everything else that the players are going to be looking for, it all needs to go into the pot. We mutually need to decide how an available pool of money is going to be allocated to a wide variety of needs.

Players are looking for increased compensation. They’re looking for increased movement, an increased number of charters. All that goes into a pot and is stirred around, and then you hope to reach an agreement on all things.”

As MLS continues to add new teams, the price tag for expansion fees continues to soar to $200 million. However, at the end of the day there is only a certain amount of money available in the proverbial ‘pot.’ If the MLSPA wants a massive increase in the amount of charter flights that are available to teams, they can point to sky high expansion fees.

The average cost for a full team charter flight ranges from $150,000 to $200,000 per flight.

Perhaps it would make sense if part of the money that owners earn from expansion fees went into a ‘pot’ to help pay for, and provide more charter flights.

“We do allow our teams to travel via charter on a limited basis,” Garber explained. “I can assure you that there will be more charter travel in the new CBA. Whether it goes all the way to 100%, I think it’s a function of how negotiations go.”

Having available charters is fantastic, but getting an MLS owner with deep pockets to actually use the charter flights that are available is a whole other issue. Several MLS teams don’t use all their charters.

The club with the most travel of any MLS team this season has used 1/4 charters. Whitecaps FC were caught in a storm in Kansas City, while trying to get to New Jersey for a mid-week match against New York Red Bulls. Vancouver was forced to use a charter on May 21, to get to Newark, for a match the next day.

How would Commissioner Garber, make sure owners actually use their charter flights?

“I would assume our teams are utilizing their charter allocation,” Garber said. “You’re shaking your head, so maybe not in Vancouver. I don’t know how many are, and how many aren’t. I would assume that all of our teams are utilizing the vast majority of their approved charters.”

“Does anybody know?” Garber asked the room full or reporters and his staff.

It would be great for players, fans, and the overall sport of more charters were available for teams to use. Players would be well rested, flight delays, and cancellations would be minimal, and the product on the pitch would be better. If MLS wants to take the next step and continue to evolve as a top tier league in North America, more charters are must.

Making sure MLS owners use all their charter flights is a whole other kettle of fish. That’s why Major League Soccer and the MLSPA could be headed for a lengthy work stoppage.

“It would surprise me if a lot of them were not utilizing them,” Garber doubled down.

“It would surprise me a lot, frankly.”

“I don’t know why they wouldn’t. This is the first time I’ve ever heard that they weren’t using it.”

The good news is that MLS owners and MLSPA have been talking. There is a mutual level of respect between both parties. It is hoped that they can continue with positive discussions behind closed doors as apposed to public posturing.

Planes, Trains, and not enough MLS Charters

Posted: April 30, 2019 in Major League Soccer, Vancouver, Vancouver Whitecaps, Whitecaps FC
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VANCOUVER, B.C – The life of a professional football player is often spent in airports traveling to and from matches in cramped conditions. While NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB teams on the road are whisked from their comfortable charter seats to hotels. MLS players are often left squished in economy and wondering if they’ll make it to their destination city at all.

It’s not uncommon for MLS teams to experience long layovers, delays, and cancelled flights. It’s all a part of travelling across a continent as big as North America. MLS players say that not having charters can have a negative affect on the overall health, rest, and recovery. Arrival in a new city can often occur in the wee hours of the morning.

Players are jet-legged, their body clocks aren’t able to adjust, they are not in the best position to go out and succeed on the pitch on matchday. The probability of making mistakes, injuries, and overall fatigue, rises when players are jet-lagged.

MLS goalkeeper, Zach MacMath, is in his first season with Whitecaps FC. The long distances that Vancouver frequently has to travel has come as an unpleasant shock to him.

“This is the first year, I’ve dealt with so many connecting flights out of Vancouver,” MacMath said. “I think it’s very important for the league to grow, and up the standard of play. It’s not something that I think is going to happen quickly. It’ll take time, and obviously a lot of money to make happen.” 

“I think if we could get to eight next year, and continue to build from there. You get four, but that’s a discretionary for each team. Not every team uses all four flights each year.”

MLS players want more charters, and they want them included in the next CBA negotiations. Vancouver Whitecap FC recently completed a three match stretch in the span if nine days. Vancouver played away to Chicago on April 12, home to LAFC on April 17, and across the continent to Orlando, Florida for a match on April 20.

The Philadelphia Union played away to the LA Galaxy on April 13, flew home and played Montreal, on April 20, and then flew out to Vancouver to play Whitecaps FC on April 27.

Neither Vancouver, or Philadelphia took a charter flight.

Philadelphia Union captain, Alejandro Bedoya, spoke to Har Journalist post-match in Vancouver on Saturday.

“Oh my gosh, the obvious answer is charter flights,” Bedoya said. “You look at the way we got here (Vancouver). We flew out of Philly, with a connecting flight in Chicago. We had to wait, sitting on a United airplane. I think they’ve got to have the smallest leg room in economy. It’s just so tight. We land at around eleven at night. We get to the hotel at midnight, which is three in the morning, Philly time, and eat dinner. It’s just ridiculous. It’s absurd.”

Each MLS team is permitted four charter flights each season. If Philadelphia had traveled to and from Vancouver on a charter. That would have counted as two seperate charter flights.

“That’s the obvious answer, charter flights,” Bedoya reiterated. “They need to put their money, where their mouth is. I’ll never forget about the article Robert Kraft had in Sports Illustrated about why he bought the (New England) Patriots a second plane. He’s talking about player safety, health, recovery. Here in MLS, we’re not there yet. We better be there, the CBA is up, and that’s going to be a strong talking point.”

Whitecaps FC’s, Russell Teibert, has spent his entire MLS career playing on the west coast in Vancouver. He has been on many lengthy road trips. He is adamant that more charter flights need to included in the next CBA negations.

The current CBA expires on January 31, 2020.

“The CBA is coming up,” Teibert explained. “That’s going to be something our players union is going to have to discuss. That’s something we need to discuss as a union going forward. All the teams need to be on the same page with that.”

“That’s something that I’m sure is going to be a focal point for our next CBA. I don’t think it’s something that we can address right now, because we’re stuck with the old CBA.”

“At the end of the day, it’s about getting what’s fair for the players, owners, teams, and organizations.”

The biggest reason why MLS doesn’t use more charter flights, is down to cost. It has been estimated that it would cost $20 million per year for the league, and roughly $1 million per team. The cost of flying an entire team on a charter flight, plus the price of fuel can quickly add up. Each flight could cost a team upwards of $150,000 per charter.

“The way we need to figure it out, is if we get better flights,” Whitecaps FC’s, Jake Nerwinski said. “We’re working with the league right now, to work on more charter flights.”

“It would make a huge difference. Going on two commercial flights is very difficult for guys, to be sitting in small leg room. It’s something that you have to get use to throughout the year.”

Whitecaps FC MLSPA union representative, Zac MacMath, wants more charter flights, and a much smoother process.

“It just makes the whole process a lot easier,” MacMath explained. “More guys in this league are use to the difficulties of travel, but it just makes life easier. It gets more recovery time, and more mobility to be more prepared for games.”

If cost is a concern, there is always the idea of sharing a charter. MLS teams don’t require a charter each time they travel. Cascadia clubs, Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland could share a charter. You could also have teams like the LA Galaxy, LAFC, and San Jose Earthquakes share a charter. The same could be said for teams in the midwest, south, and east coast.

“That could be a solution definitely,” Bedoya agreed. “I’m not calling for every flight to be a charter. There are flights on the east coast, or west coast that are just over an hour or two flight. You don’t need to fly a charter then. I think cross country, especially with a midweek game. There should be no doubt about it. I don’t care what anybody says.”

“Like you said, if you split them like that. Cascadia teams, and maybe the teams on the east coast. The New York teams for example. That could be an option. If you look at NBA teams they go on a west coast trip. I would have preferred that. Maybe our wives would be upset with us, but trust me. It would have been a lot better for us to play the game in LA. Stay in LA, and then have the scheduling in Vancouver the following weekend. That would have been a better solution.”

If revenues, and MLS expansion fees are as high as $200 million. There is no reason why there shouldn’t be more money for charter flights. A potential thirty-team league should not have tired players criss-crossing all over North America on commercial flights. It hurts the end product on the pitch. This is a league wide issue that has no legroom left.

NOTES: The MLSPA could not be reached for comment. MLS did not provide comment at the time of publication.