Major League Baseball owners are proposing an even shorter season; MLS seems likely to avoid an owner-imposed lockout; Notre Dame-Navy will no longer take place in Ireland; and more.
MLB owners proposing even shorter season
Major League Baseball owners are preparing to propose a season as short as 30-60 games in negotiations with the MLB Players Association, according to the New York Post. ESPN.com similarly reported that the owners were prepared to propose a 50-game season. The owners’ initial proposal to players included an 82-game season, which the union countered with 114 games.
MLB players in March agreed to prorated salaries in the event of a shortened season, meaning that the length of the season would determine how much the owners will owe. The owners’ original 82-game proposal would have tied player salaries to league revenue. [NYP 6.1, ESPN.com 6.1]
MLS lockout possibility dims
Major League Soccer is poised to avoid an owner-imposed lockout of the players union after a “major breakthrough” between the sides on Tuesday, ESPN soccer analyst Taylor Twellman reported on Twitter. The owners were threatening to lockout the players if the union did not agree to terms for resuming the halted season by Noon ET on Wednesday.
The owners had been seeking to amend the league’s new collective bargaining agreement — reached in February but yet-to-be-ratified — to include a force majeure clause triggered if five or more teams suffered a 25% drop in attendance. Per ESPN reporter Jeff Carlisle, the owners backed off of the attendance-based force majeure plan on Tuesday. [Jeff Carlisle/Twitter 6.2, ESPN.com 6.1]
Notre Dame-Navy no longer taking place in Dublin
This year’s scheduled Notre Dame-Navy college football game, which was supposed to take place August 29 in Dublin, Ireland, will not take place as scheduled. In a statement Tuesday, Navy said it intends to stage the game at its home stadium in Annapolis, Md., on Labor Day weekend. The game will remain on the ESPN family of networks.
ESPN had originally planned to send College Gameday to the site of the game. [ESPN.com 6.2]
Plus: German Cup, NASCAR fans, Hoops Hall
ESPN will air the semifinals of the German Cup soccer competition next week, with Bayer Leverkusen-FC Saarbrücken next Tuesday and Eintracht Frankfurt-Bayern Munich the following day, both at 2:30 PM ET. … NASCAR is considering whether to let fans attend its upcoming races in Homestead-Miami and Talladega, Sports Business Daily reported Monday. Since competition resumed last month, all races have been staged in empty tracks. … The Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, headlined by Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and the late Kobe Bryant, will likely be moved to next spring, Hall of Fame CEO Jerry Colangelo told ESPN last week. The original dates of August 28-30, and the alternate dates of October 10-12, were “not feasible.” [ESPN PR; ESPN.com 5.27]
