I was recently talking with my Dad, among other people, about the problems that MLB, the NBA, the NHL, and the NFL. It seems to me that they are all having money trouble and seem they don’t know why. Being a commissioner of a billion dollar organization might seem great on paper, but there seems to be the underlying theme that if you can’t handle money, then this is the job for you! I haven’t seen people with so much power be so careless with this many millions of dollars scramble to save their asses while still trying to be greedy. From the No Benjamin’s League, to the No Fun League, the Major League Boondoggle, and the kNuckle Head League (see what I did there), all of the leagues are in jeopardy of falling into a deep dark pit that is unsustainable and highly unfavorable to fans, like myself.
To kick things off, let’s start with the league that isn’t playing right now, or in my opinion, shouldn’t be playing right now:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL (BOONDOGGLE)
Most of their trouble began with the steroid era and the $100+ million dollar contracts that were handed out to players who you’d think “WHY IS WORTH THIS MUCH?” Bud Selig, God Bless Take Him, has been the worst commissioner I have ever seen. I mean how hard is it to order how an All-Star game will end? Alas, I’m not here to talk about that stupid incident or the dozen of other things that have crossed his desk and left a skidmark on the game of baseball, I’m here to talk about the financials of the MLB.
Let’s start a list:
1. Unsustainable contracts and ludicrous team revenues – The Yankees are a Billion dollar team right now. They are the only team in the MLB that does not have to pay for food vendors. That’s right, they can make their own food and sell it their fans at a profit. However, the Yankees just got beat by a team that only spend $55 Million this season on team revenue compared to their $215 Million. This, however, does not stop the Yankees from going out in the off season and purchasing every player that they want off the shelf for money that no one else can shell out. Sorry, to all those teams that seem to compete very well with sub $100M budgets but the Yankees will be purchasing your star players within the next year or two. That means that Cliff Lee, Carl Crawford, Albert Pujols, Adam Dunn, Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder, and Ryan Howard are just among the elites that could end being in pinstripes or leaving their respective teams for $150M+ contracts. Now, they can’t all end up there, but they will be in contention with each other just to get the opportunity to play in the shoebox known as Yankee Stadium. It does kind of bother me, as well as other baseball fans, that the Yankees can NOT win a World Series and then decide to clean up a Free Agent Market at their own will and have no one to regulate it at all. It is the downside to a free market system. Spend all you want and screw the teams that can’t afford it. They used to have a system in place which allowed teams to franchise their star players and keep them on salary. But alas, in a Supreme Court case, Flood v. Kuhn, baseball soon began its Free Agent market after realizing that Baseball was Interstate Commerce and thus violated its Anti-Trust exemption. This event did cascade the Scott Boras’ of the World, the Super Agents, the Holdouts, the large contracts, and George Steinbrenners of the world. Which leads me to the other part of the problem.
2. Teams Not Paying Players – Many of the signs of this point to teams like the Florida Marlins, San Deigo Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics and many other teams that can afford to pay for players, but have been hoarding the league-sharing profits from teams like the Yankees just to build giant stadiums instead of elite squads. That report for Deadspin about the financial records of the baseball teams who have millions in storage only to build stadiums and rob cities of their tax money is only the tip of the iceberg. It reminds me of when I was younger and people in Boston were making bumper stickers saying “Save Fenway Park”. At the time, I knew little about the financials about baseball and how tax money went into stadiums. Now that I think about it, saving Fenway was probably the best thing for Boston. Sure we may be only to sit about 35,000 people, but we still manage to win and compete. But the fact remains, if teams are going to compete they have to be able to pay players. It won’t work with a league wide profit sharing agreement, but it will work with a salary cap and salary floor. Meaning, that teams have to meet a certain payroll, much like what the NHL has. There was a point in the MLB where the Red Sox could’ve traded Manny Ramirez for the entire Florida Marlins and it would’ve been financially okay. That’s when you know there is a problem in baseball. George Steinbrenner may be praised for paying his players handsomely for talent, but at what cost to the fans?
3. How Much for those That? – Looking at this link, I see that Fenway Park is a pain in the ass to visit if you like to do see baseball games live. The Red Sox lead the league in Fan Cost Index, which is how much it is for a family of 4 to buy tickets, park, get 4 hot dogs, 2 beers, 2 programs, 4 sodas, and 2 adjustable caps, at the awesome price of nearly $350. Add in the fact that the parents will drink more than 2 beers, or the children will want more than a hot dog over the course of 9 innings, which could be about 4 hours now, depending on whether the Sox are playing another AL East team. As far as this statistic is concerned, buying an HDTV and splurging on the season pass on your favorite team is really what you should be doing instead of putting up with the crap of dragging someone to the ball game and paying through the ass.
4. The Super Stadium/Ball Park/Museum/Shopping Center/Hotel – I can’t exactly remember which book it was that I read it in, but one economist (Bradbury?), was talking about how when the Rogers Centre in Toronto opened, is right around the time that baseball stadium attendance blew up and ticket prices were growing like crazy. It was also around the same time that Ronald Reagan began cutting taxes for the rich like crazy. The Rogers Centre is part Hotel, part ball park, and part mini-mall. Now think about what each of those cost separately. Include land, taxes, licenses. Then think about adding about $100+ Million for players. Maybe another $30 Million for administration costs. Then add in the fact that your tax dollars paid for about 80% of that, over the course of X amount of years at a rate of interest maybe just below the discounted rate for being a hometown team. Now think about how much a company might charge to make a profit for 50,000 people to fill that 81 times a year. Add a retractable roof to your costs, as well as heating and air conditioning. Then add grounds crew. Sounds like a hell of a time doesn’t it? And your city might’ve paid for about 80% of it.
5. Health of Their Product – Let’s face it. 162 games plus 18 playoff games does not make sense. Derek Jeter holds the record for most playoff hits among other postseason stats. Well, I’m sure he wouldn’t be holding those records if the playoffs weren’t 7 game series a piece. He’s played in 147 games. Reggie Jackson played in 77 games. Babe Ruth played in 41 games. In 1980, Playoffs were a best of 5 series. A reasonable amount of games added to the regular season of play. No doubt that the Divisional series were either 3 or 5 games series. That’s a max of 15 games additional. Now we can’t have a playoffs unless there is a minimum of 15 games. The most embarrassing about playoff stats is that Carlos Beltran has 60 less plate appearance than the Babe, 50 less than Gehrig, and the 90’s Yankees are all over the hitting statistics for the playoffs. I’m sure if Babe Ruth played in 147 games in the post season, he would’ve shortened his career. Want a real stat, Ruth hit 15 HR in 167 Playoff Plate Appearances. It took David Justice 4 times as many at-bats to do that. There’s a trend here. More playoff game statistics means that players aren’t lasting as long as they could have. The season starts in April and goes until November now. It used to end in October. END IN OCTOBER. I don’t want to watch baseball all year long. Wrestlers wrestle all year long and they end up dying at 50. They don’t get an offseason. Think your Jeter’s, A-Rod’s, Pujols, Halladay’s, Sabathia’s, and other All-Star caliber players are going to withstand a year round season with no time to get healthy and stay healthy? I don’t think owners see it.
Prognosis: Looking at their record of waiting until the 11th hour to settle CBO’s and Players Association arguments, it doesn’t bode well for the MLB. Their commissioner is a slouch, who I thought I remembered saying he would leave baseball in 2009, which I was happy about, seeing that I would be out of college and thinking “Man, the economy sucks, but at least Bud Selig isn’t running the MLB anymore”. Nope. I was wrong. Bud just loves to screw up everything. Between Players using drugs, Teams robbing Cities of their Revenue to build a ballpark, and having their sport still not reviewed on instant replay is the reason why I think baseball will not recover as well from the this recent money crunch more than anything. Baseball has lasted a lot of things, but a deadball era at this time would do a number on everyone, seeing that MLB is part of so many moving parts in the machine of the American economy. I’m not going to say that Baseball will sink into entropic states and be put at a standstill, but something has to be done. Something will be done. I just don’t know what.
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