President Donald Trump sided with Major League Baseball owners who are proposing a hard salary cap as part of the next collective bargaining agreement, adding his voice to a contentious negotiation with the league’s players union.
“If you don’t have a salary cap you don’t have a sport. Because they can’t help themselves. You know, in sports they can’t help themselves,” Trump said Friday when asked about the proposal by reporters aboard Air Force One. “They should have done it a long time ago.”
Read More: MLB Proposes $245 Million Salary Cap That Players Union Rejects
Imposing a firm salary cap would represent a seismic shift in the economics of professional baseball. MLB is the only major US professional sports league that operates without a cap and the issue lies at the heart of what is expected to be the sports’ toughest labor negotiation in decades.
The cap was included in the owners’ opening offer to union officials, with each team also required to maintain a salary floor under the plan. The idea is vehemently opposed by the players union. If the sides cannot reach an agreement before the current collective bargaining agreement ends Dec. 1, owners are likely to lock out the players until a new deal is in place, ESPN reported. That threatens the prospect of a prolonged work stoppage.
The last time the owners proposed a hard salary cap was 1994. At the time, players rejected the idea, leading to a bitter labor dispute that resulted in a strike and the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years.