NY Boston Fan

Forget hockey, here's a player/management dispute that Americans should actually care about:

Players rejected the U.S. Soccer Federation's offer to send their labor dispute
to arbitration and instead proposed on Monday that mediation be used in an
effort to get the regulars on the field for next month's World Cup qualifier at
Trinidad and Tobago.

If they can't come to an agreement, and the team ended up losing a couple of qualifiers and missing the World Cup, it would be a travesty. The US are in the North/Central America final six, with three going on to the World Cup in 2006.

I usually do anyway, but after reading this I feel inclined to side with the players, admittedly without knowing all of the details:

For World Cup qualifiers, players receive a minimum of $2,000 per game and
up to $6,000. Players make $2,000 to $5,150 for exhibitions, depending on the
opponent and the result.