The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knock-out cup competition in American soccer. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the U.S. The 105th edition, held in 2018, was contested by 97 clubs from the two professional leagues sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation: Major League Soccer (MLS), and the United Soccer League, and also amateur clubs in the earlier rounds of the tournament after qualifying through their leagues. The overall champion earns a total of $300,000 in prize money, while the runner-up receives $100,000, and the furthest-advancing team from each lower division league receives $25,000. In addition, the tournament winner qualifies for the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League.
The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is the labor organization representing the professional American football players in the National Football League (NFL). The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president Eric Winston and executive director DeMaurice Smith. Founded in 1956, the NFLPA was established to provide players with formal representation to negotiate compensation and the terms of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The NFLPA is a member of the AFL–CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States.
The Major League Baseball Players Association is the collective bargaining representative for all current Major League Baseball players. All players, managers, coaches, and athletic trainers who hold or have held a signed contract with a Major League club are eligible for membership in the Association.
Tabaré Ramos, known as Tab Ramos is an American former soccer player who currently serves as head coach of the United States U-20 team.
The NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the basic contract between the National Hockey League (NHL) team owners and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), designed to be arrived at through the typical labour-management negotiations of collective bargaining. The most recent agreement, tentatively reached on January 6, 2013 after a labour dispute which cancelled 510 regular season games of the 2012–13 season, was ratified by the league's Board of Governors on January 9, 2013, as well as by the NHLPA membership three days later on January 12, 2013. The current CBA is a 10-year deal, the longest in NHL history, expiring after the 2021–22 season.
The United States soccer league system is a series of professional and amateur soccer leagues based, in whole or in part, in the United States. Sometimes called the American soccer pyramid, teams and leagues in the United States are not linked by the system of promotion and relegation typical in soccer elsewhere. Instead, U.S. Soccer (USSF) officially defines leagues in levels, called divisions, with the top three sanctioned directly by the USSF.
In professional sports, a replacement player is an athlete who is not a member of the league's players association and plays during a labor dispute such as a strike or lockout, serving as a strikebreaker.
Sunil Gulati was the President of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) from 2006 to 2018. In April 19, 2013, he was elected to a four-year term on the FIFA Council. In March 2014, he was unanimously re-elected to a record third four-year term as USSF president; having been elected initially in 2006 and re-elected again in 2010. Gulati is also a senior lecturer in the economics department of Columbia University. He is the former president of Kraft Soccer for the New England Revolution in Major League Soccer.
Ugochukwu "Ugo" Ihemelu is a retired Nigerian-born American football player.
The Canadian soccer league system, also called the Canadian soccer pyramid, is a term used in soccer to describe the structure of the league system in Canada. The governing body of soccer in the country is the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA), which oversees the system and domestic cups but does not operate any of its component leagues. For practical purposes, Canadian teams are often members of leagues that are based primarily in the United States.
Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 season, with continued plans for future expansion. The WPS was the highest level in the United States soccer pyramid for the women's game.
The MLS Players Association, also referred to as the MLSPA, is the union of professional Major League Soccer players. The MLS Players Association serves as the exclusive collective bargaining representative for all current players in MLS.
The 2011 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournament proper features teams from four of the five tiers of the American Soccer Pyramid. These four levels—Major League Soccer, United Soccer League's Pro League, the USL's Premier Development League, the National Premier Soccer League, and the United States Adult Soccer Association— each have their own separate qualification process to trim their ranks down to their final club delegations in the months leading up to the start of the tournament proper.
The 2011 National Football League Player lockout was a work stoppage imposed by the owners of the NFL's 32 teams that lasted from March 12, 2011, to July 25, 2011. When the owners and the NFL players, represented by the National Football League Players Association, could not come to a consensus on a new collective bargaining agreement, the owners locked out the players from team facilities and shut down league operations. The major issues disputed were the salary cap, players' safety and health benefits, revenue sharing and television contracts, transparency of financial information, rookie salaries, season length, and free agency guidelines. During the 18-week, 4-day period, there was no free agency and training camp, and players were restricted from seeing team doctors, entering or working out at team facilities, or communicating with coaches. The end of the lockout coincided with the formation of a new collective bargaining agreement prior to the start of the 2011 regular season.
The history of soccer in the United States has numerous different roots. The modern-day game is often considered to have been brought to the United States through Ellis Island in the 1870s. However, recent research has shown that the modern game entered America in the 1850s through New Orleans when Scottish, Irish, German and Italian immigrants brought the game with them. It was in New Orleans that some of the first organized games that used modern English rules were held.
Women's soccer in the United States has developed quite differently from men's soccer. Until the 1970s, organized women's soccer matches in the United States existed only on a limited basis. The United States is now regarded as one of the top countries in the world for women's soccer, and FIFA ranked its national team No. 1 in the world after its championship victory in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.
The NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a labor agreement which reflects the results of collective bargaining negotiations between the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and National Football League (NFL) team owners. The labor agreement classifies distribution of league revenues, sets health and safety standards and establishes benefits, including pensions and medical benefits, for all players in the NFL. The first collective bargaining agreement was reached in 1968 after player members of the NFLPA voted to go on strike to increase salaries, pensions and benefits for all players in the league. Later negotiations of the collective bargaining agreement called for injury grievances, a guaranteed percentage of revenues for players, an expansion of free agency and other issues impacting the business of the NFL. The NFLPA and team owners have negotiated seven different agreements since 1968.
The U.S. Women's National Soccer Team Players Association (USWNSTPA) is a labor union representing women soccer players in the United States, including the United States women's national soccer team. In 2016, the union was in a dispute with the soccer league over the end date of the collective bargaining agreement. U.S. Soccer says the agreement goes through the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The Players Association maintains it can be terminated at any time. On March 31, 2016, five members of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging wage discrimination as women soccer players earn less money than players on the men's team.
