New MLS expansion side Inter Miami defender, Ben Sweat was asked in a conference call last week on any plans he and teammates have to support the relief of Coronavirus, namely charitable donations and drives as soon by many primary sports figures and teams around the world.

Elsewhere, global soccer powerhouses FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid from the Spanish La Liga took a 70% pay cut, to keep the club going and staff and employees getting paid during the pandemic.  In the US, NBA starts contributed, some like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Zion Williamson picking the tab for arena workers’ pay checks.

When asked about what is planned, or currently going on in Major League Soccer on the Coronavirus relief front, Sweat said he is unaware of such huge gestures made by his Inter Miami teammates, or anywhere in the MLS.  And Sweat was also very direct and clear about why.

“I think if MLS and most MLS players were making the money European soccer players were, we might have done something on our own or individually to help,” Sweat said.  “It’s pretty easy when you are making millions of dollars a year to make a decision like that…we want to help the community and we want to help the staff members…that’s something maybe down the road to talk about.” Sweat added “But it’s not something we discussed internally”.

The MLS is rising in numbers of fans, attendance, sponsorships and that does lead to player compensation that came a long way.  Especially the Designated Player pay bracket that enables Major League Soccer to attract world-famous soccer stars.

But for now, there is still a big financial gap between the MLS and other top-flight soccer leagues around the world (such as the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga).  Stateside, the four American major sports leagues are also far ahead of Major League Soccer when it comes to league, team and player earnings.

Average MLS player salary in 2019 was around $350,000, and the median, ongoing salary is about half.  Ben Sweat made $200,000 in 2019, which is a great pay check by any standard, but not enough to pick the tab for the stadium expenses and staff until the Major League Soccer season reopens.

This is probably the reason for MLS players to be skipped and not take paycuts like their counterparts in other sports in the US and other soccer leagues around the world.

It was reported last week that the MLS will cut staff pay but as much as 25%, where most reductions will be done to the salaries of high-paid league executives.  As for the players? There aren’t any cuts announced for now.  Some say it is because the league wants to avoid the bad PR that may come from negotiating with the Player’s Union.

Another reason is that the minimum salary for a Major League Soccer player is around $70,000, so trying to negotiate with the union paycuts for some players but not others can get dicey.

And what makes these times even more uncertain for the Major League Soccer compared to other leagues is how to potentially kick-start the season again.  Other major sports leagues in the US and around the world are already considering playing in empty stadiums in an attempt to bring some money in from the high-paying TV royalties and contracts, which the MLS has a lot less of.

So, whilst other sports and leagues are going to go back into some form of action, the MLS may stay out of commission for longer, possibly carrying on the suspension and skipping the entire 2020 season, with hopes of starting an uninterrupted soccer season in 2021.

Major League Soccer celebrated this week its 25^th anniversary, and it sure came a long way since that first game a quarter of a century ago.  But the challenges that today’s difficult times bring show that the MLS still has a lot of field to cover.