Should US baseball players strike?

Time is running out for Major League Baseball to reach a deal that will prevent its players from going on strike.

Would you support the players if they took strike action?

A decision on strike action will be made on Friday, with the players threatening to walk out unless agreement over a new labour contract is reached.

The main sticking points are the levels of any 'luxury tax' imposed on big-spending clubs and revenue sharing.

The tax would be distributed to poorer teams by the owners, along with money from the revenue sharing scheme, which is also being resisted by the players because their salaries would be cut.

With billions of dollars at stake and the final month of the regular season under threat, baseball fans face an anxious wait as negotiations continue.

Would you support the players if they went on strike?

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If I was an indispensable employee I will squeeze every penny I could from my employer. Hail to the workers - a strike will be a good move. Anyway, where will the "extra" cash go to if people are crying greed?
Siyabonga Msomi, Durban, South Africa

Baseball players are overpaid and self-indulgent. No player should receive more than $1m per year. I look at teachers, whose role is infinitely more important, and many start at $30,000 or less per year. What a sick society we've become in terms of our priorities, don't you agree? Let them strike - it will be the death of baseball as we know it.
AL Fresquez, USA

They have taken the game away from the fans. For me to take my family to a baseball game it takes months of saving.
Frank Branchesi, USA

Someone needs to slap both sides to make them realize that they are squabbling over how to divvy up $3.6bn of our money - shame on all of them

Jonty Rees, Brit in USA

Don't be so quick to heap all the blame on the players - there are two parties in the negotiations. The owners are pleading to put a structure in place to basically put a cap on their spending, but they show no fiscal restraint when left to themselves.

They can put revenue sharing in place to level the playing field for the smaller market teams, and then it is their own prerogative on how much they want to spend on players. How about managing your business instead of wanting profits guaranteed by the players and municipalities? There is a line of eager billionaires looking for a chance to feed at this fan-funded trough.

Someone needs to slap both sides to make them realize that they are squabbling over how to divvy up $3.6bn of our money - shame on all of them.
Jonty Rees, Brit in USA

This should be considered as the climax to the American sporting season. Money battles money in an intense stand off, causing it to go to extra time while the team takes an extended time out - imagine the advertising revenue!
Matt, NZ

If the baseball players strike, it will be a great shame. It is only they and those commercially involved with the sport who will really suffer in the long run. With the gridiron season just around the corner, the fans will simply change channel, some of them for good.
Mike Walsh, USA (UK ex-pat)

It's appalling that the players should strike when they will still stand to earn millions after the introduction of the luxury tax

Jonathan, UK

Strike? The average salary in baseball is $2.6m, and the guaranteed minimum is $200,000 a year. Need I say more?
Jonathan Michaud, US

I follow the game quite closely and this strike is a joke - it's about multi-millionaires arguing over their next million. I'm on the owners' side - they are trying to keep all their teams from going further into the red by preventing spiralling salaries and distributing the wealth to the less well off teams like Minnesota, Florida, Tampa etc.

A fair few American baseball fans will stay away and turn their attention to the NFL which starts next week - a game which already has a strict salary cap - followed by Ice Hockey and Basketball which start in October.
Simon, UK

I think it's appalling that the players should strike when they will still stand to earn millions after the introduction of the luxury tax. They are showing themselves to be exceptionally greedy and puts the game at risk of financial ruin from spiralling wage demand.

It's also sad that this deal may fail as it looked like a genuine chance to make the Major League more competitive. Look how the NFL benefited from the Salary Cap - more teams winning the championship and less dominance by richer, popular clubs.
Jonathan, UK

This strike affects more than just the players, there is a whole menagerie of concession workers attached to each game that will be put out of pocket by this strike. Also, after the last strike the popularity of baseball decreased by 15% or so. So if the players win thier demands, all they will secure is a larger slice of a increasingly smaller pie.
David Liney, UK

Who cares? If they want to, then let them. It's not as if sport will stop if they do...baseball isn't exactly exciting. It's more about advertising and revenue than the actual sport itself, the sport is just an "aside" to the social aspects of baseball.
John Mc, England, UK