The USWNT is again in a labor dispute that could delay their players’ appearances at NWSL pre-season camps – but a lack of urgency isn’t helping matters

In 2013, the first NWSL draft of college seniors took place in a couple of convention-center meeting rooms in Indianapolis, with someone running back and forth to tell the handful of assembled reporters what had just taken place in the adjoining room. Then preseason camps opened without US national team players – even those who were not traveling for the Algarve Cup were stuck in a labor-deal stalemate.

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The 2017 NWSL draft took place last Thursday in a massive hotel ballroom in Los Angeles, again taking place during the annual NSCAA (national soccer coaches) convention but no longer an afterthought. The assembled reporters – let alone the sections of VIPs, players and fans – would not have fit in the meeting rooms in 2013. The venue was almost big enough to allow the assorted elephants in the room to take a seat.

For all the progress the NWSL has made in its history, which may be brief but is already longer than the run of any previous top-flight US women’s league, the US national team is once again in a labor dispute that could delay their players’ appearances at NWSL pre-season camps.

What’s most surprising is the lack of urgency in the situation. Actual discussions between the team and the federation, which suffered from delays late last year, have been in limbo since the players’ union parted with general counsel Rich Nichols in late December.

US forward Alex Morgan, one of the players at the forefront of its “equal pay” fight over the past year, did tell the Guardian’s Donald McRae she wants to see a deal done before the SheBelieves Cup, a series of international friendlies starting on 1 March that will take place as scheduled despite the labor limbo. Morgan also shed light on what players are seeking at the bargaining table, confirming that players want to continue the practice of receiving an annual salary for being in the national team pool. Given the lack of big salaries in women’s club soccer, the stability of a salary is understandable, but it complicates “equal pay” comparisons with men’s national teamers who are paid only bonus money.

Yet Morgan apparently is no longer in an official leadership role. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this week that, as part of a general reorganization, the national team’s union has named three official representatives – Becky Sauerbrunn, Christen Press and Meghan Klingenberg. Steady central defender Sauerbrunn is the only carryover from a group of five players – including Morgan, outspoken two-time Fifa world player of the year Carli Lloyd, brash winger Megan Rapinoe and since-ousted goalkeeper Hope Solo – that signed a complaint the team filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year.

Sauerbrunn also has sought the advice of previous players. Shannon MacMillan, one of the key players in the USA’s late-90s success, said over the weekend at the NSCAA convention that Sauerbrunn had organized a presentation and conference call about the labor situation.

But players are still reticent to share much in public beyond carefully orchestrated appearances on shows such as 60 Minutes. A handful of reporters (not including this one) managed to break away from the convention for a rare availability with a few national team players at their camp in Carson, California. But Sauerbrunn said little on the labor situation beyond saying players “intend” to be in NWSL pre-season camps and are keeping bargaining talk “very internal.”

Dan Lauletta (@TheDanLauletta) Sauerbrunn said #USWNT players 'have every intention' of being in #NWSL preseason but again stopped short of saying it is not an issue

Dan Lauletta (@TheDanLauletta) Regarding CBA Sauerbrunn said team was "keeping it very internal" and left it at that #NWSL #USWNT

NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush is keeping his distance from the process. The league isn’t technically part of the negotiations, a point Plush tends to reiterate, but until a deal is done, the NWSL will have a lot of unanswered questions:

How many players’ salaries will be subsidized by US Soccer? How much will NWSL teams be allowed to pay non-US national team players? A clause in the previous labor deal limited that pay. Will US players be held out of NWSL preseason camps, as they were in 2013? (That year, in practical terms, only a couple of players were affected because many US players were in a national team camp. This year, the US team does not yet have any games scheduled beyond 7 March.)

“As everyone knows, we’re not part of that negotiation,” Plush said at Thursday’s draft. “So that’ll run its course. I know that our camps will open, and we will be ready to open camp. Our players will be excited to be there. Certainly, that’ll have to run its course, but when it does, they will be in camp as well. Obviously, you’d like everything to be perfectly tied off in time for the start of the season. But the most important thing here is, that the right deals get in place, we keep doing our thing, operating our businesses and our camps. And I have a lot of confidence long-term. These things just take some time.”

Pressed on whether camps could open without US national team players, Plush again stressed that it’s out of his hands.

“I’m not going to comment on what chances are and what could happen,” he said. “Again, it’s between the federation and national team representation. But I can guarantee you that our camps are opening up.”

Some of the players in Thursday’s draft are in national team camp this month, though they’re not among the “allocated” players whose salaries are subsidized by US Soccer. They expressed little to no concern about the state of labor talks.

“I haven’t heard much about the negotiations,” said Rose Lavelle, a University of Wisconsin midfielder selected first overall in Thursday’s draft.

Christina Gibbons, whose former Duke team-mate Natasha Anasi went to Iceland in 2014 instead of joining the NWSL, didn’t have reservations about joining the league.

“I’m very thankful the leangue has sustained through five years and I’ll have the opportunity to play,” Gibbons said. “I toyed with the idea of going abroad and spoke to some people, but I think after talking to people and learning more about the process, I decided the best way to grow and develop as a player is to stay here.”

The NWSL may soon have its own labor discussions, anyway. Players are starting to organize. And even though a few recent college alumni such as Canadians Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence have opted to play in France instead of the NWSL, Plush sees the league’s priority at the lower end of the pay scale, where some players have earned less than $8,000 for a full season.

“I’d say the 2017 priority is to raise that bottom end,” Plush said. “That’s an area we want to address first.”

And that’s an area within the NWSL’s control. The league can do little to counter off-season moves such as Lyon’s loan deal for Morgan or Chelsea’s signing of nimble US striker Crystal Dunn. Morgan and Dunn’s pay is still within the auspices of a labor deal with US Soccer that was supposed to expire 31 December but is still governing players’ contracts in the absence of a new deal.

And we have yet to see any tangible progress toward that new deal.