Major League Soccer's (MLS) commissioner Don Garber has revealed that the North American soccer league will suffer a US$1 billion loss in revenues due to impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, reports, www.sportspromedia.com/.

With play suspended since 12th March, it is hoped the 2020 MLS season could return this year after the league's executives and the players' union agreed on financial concessions in light of the Covid-19 hiatus.

Those negotiations also covered a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which now runs through 2025 and will also see salary increases delayed by a year.

Despite the total amount of economic concessions accepted by the union amounting to more than US$100 million, Garber has warned that the MLS is facing a shortfall in revenues ten times that figure.

Speaking on video conference on 3rd June, shortly after the CBA agreement had been reached, Garber said: "Major League Soccer will take a billion dollar revenue hit due to the pandemic. That's a function of lost revenue that, regardless of what we are able to do, is going to be nearly impossible to generate at the levels that we need.

"Our previous business plans and certainly the basis for the negotiation of the CBA were based on what the expected business for Major League Soccer would look like over the next five years. Obviously, that has changed."