As The MLS Referee Lockout Begins, 3 Reasons You Should Care

But this labor dispute is about a lot more than whether the right calls are made in the right moments. And there’s reasons even the most referee-skeptical of fans should care about this work stoppage. Here’s three of the biggest:

1) The Lockout Is A Data Point

There are scant few reliable and neutral indicators to show outsiders the true health of MLS, a reality that has only become more true since the league struck its 10-year, worldwide-streaming deal with Apple TV that started with the 2023 season.

Player salaries are only disclosed month after the season begins, and reliant on information published by the MLS Players Union. Apple has shared very little data regarding viewership and subscription to its MLS Season Pass service. And yet the continued messaging from MLS commissioner Don Garber and the league office is that the arrival of Messi last summer, coupled with the approaching 2026 FIFA World Cup on U.S., Canadian and Mexican shores, means the league’s well-being is almost guaranteed increase into the near future.

There are many factors that can contribute to a labor impasse. But the possibility that finances in the league are tighter than is being let on is one of them. And it’s an explanation that gains credibility when you also consider the league has scaled back on its broadcasting costs in Year 2 of producing games for MLS Season Pass.

If the league truly is in a much better place financially than in the recent past, and still has cut back on broadcasting operating costs and failed to strike a new contract with its MLS match officials, that says something else about its leadership.

2) Referees Are Responsible For Player Safety

Referees face the most scrutiny over the calls they do and don’t make over the course of the games they commandeer. But arguably their most important role is in looking out for the physical and emotional safety of players, a role that has been highlighted by incidents in MLS and abroad recently.

Referees have to act swiftly during health crises like the one that afflicted Luton Town’s Tom Lockyer in the Premier League this season, or Denmark’s Christian Eriksen at the 2020 European Championships. And they are also charged with leading anti-racism protocols that we’ve unfortunately seen enacted three times in the previous three MLS seasons, following allegations of racist verbal abuse directed toward players on the field by other players.

Those are the kind of situations where experience and preparation are often magnified most. And while it’s certainly possible replacement officials would handle such challenges smoothly, it’s virtually impossible that they will be relying on the the same depth of training if and when such issues arise.

3) The Future Direction And Leadership of PRO

While there have always been some gripes with officiating in MLS, in recent years there were also some fairly public wins.

The biggest — under the direction of former PRO general manager Howard Webb — was the league’s relatively uncontroversial implementation of Video Review and the use of a Video Assistant Referee, or VAR.

Whereas other domestic leagues continue to experience considerable blow-back to the introduction of the technology, it was welcomed in MLS in part because of Webb’s insistence that it not be used to “re-referee” the game.

But Webb departed the role for a similar job in the Premier League following the 2022 season. His successor Mark Geiger did not bring the same impeccable reputation from his own refereeing career, and has not been nearly as public in the role. And now he may be seen as one of the primary players in a fraying relationship between match officials and their overseers.

That likely isn’t enough by itself to lay the foundation for another change of leadership at PRO. But it could potentially make Geiger more vulnerable than Webb ever was.