Baseball's perfect financial setup vs. the dreaded NFL

The baseball industry passed $6 billion in revenues this year, set another attendance record and is growing faster than any major professional sport with it's "flawed" system.

The fact is that in the history of professional team sports there has never been an economic system whose every aspect pleased 100 percent of people and there will never be one. So, in that sense, all systems are flawed, at least a little bit, from everyone's perspective.

Baseball's current system, one that has evolved from about 12 years of negotiations, however, is yielding tremendous results. It will not be changed at any time in the near future. Even if Simon decides to repeat the same old thread every week.

 

No, they didn't think otherwise, Steve.
If they were vested in the championship, they'd have watched the playoffs and Series. They did not.
People enjoy their nights at the ballpark. That's what keeps the business of the sport going. Attendance records fall because a ballpark is a nicer place to be than it's ever been; if we had this dreadful system and the copycat concrete saucers of 15-20 years ago, baseball would rank somewhere behind the LPGA in spectator interest.

 

Evolved? Please. The evolution was basically the players' union kicking the owners' asses time and again.

I don't see it getting changed, either, but that doesn't mean it's right or should not be debated.

 

When you have an inkling about what is being discussed, I will ring your little bell. For starters, let's learn the definition of passivity, come back in 10 minutes, and I will toss you a Milk Bone.

Best for you not to venture outside of your ubergauche cut-and-pastes (and that single word that you have figured out to be an effective putdown).

You embarrass yourself. This discussion is an adult dialogue, and you are a 5-year-old muddying the floor.

 

New stadia... new stadia.... new stadia.

ONLY reason seamheads can hang onto that driftwood.

 

Boom goes the dynamite.

Bingo.

 

Boom goes the dynamite? For me?
I have made it, at last.

 

While the PA is assuredly very strong, to suggest that the current contract resulted from the PA imposing its will on the owners is dead wrong. The owners are extremely rich and powerful as a group, Bud Selig has kept them very united and they have extremely good representation (and have had since the mid-'90s). The contract is the product of a fair negotiation between competent and well-represented parties.

I would agree that in the '60s and '70s and '80s, the players had better representation than the owners, who as a group were clinging to the past and foolishly tried to impose their will on the players in every negotiation only to be outwitted by Marvin Miller and Don Fehr. In the negotiations that followed the '94-'95 strike, the owners for the first time tried negotiation (rather than trying to break the union) and it has resulted in two consecutive agreements without a stoppage as well as unprecedented industry growth. (If you haven't already, I'd suggest reading John Helyar's Lords of the Realm which is the best reported and researched book ever written about the baseball industry. He goes into all of this in depth.)

FYI, I believe your Pittsburgh club has turned more than $10 million in post-revenue sharing profits in each of the past three seasons despite fielding unattractive teams, according to Forbes. And, of course, owners make their real dollars when they turn over the franchise.

 

Cran, the issue of my allegiances and what I think of the Pirates has been addressed repeatedly on this thread as well as on the Hot Stove thread this week. So I'm just going to ignore that last part except to say for the 10th or 15th time or so in the past week that the first thing baseball needs is a salary floor to keep the Pirates from doing that. Or at the very least, MLB needs to start enforcing the rules about putting the money from revenue sharing back into the team.

And you can say what you like about the more recent contract negotiations. I see a PA that still gets its way every time. Not that it is the only factor in keeping the system as it is. Another factor is owners of teams such as the Yankees wanting to keep their advantage while those like the Pirates don't bother to fight for a more equitable deal as long as they can still find a way to turn a profit.

Again, growth of the game still doesn't address the issue of fairness. I am not predicting some financial doom if the system doesn't change. That would be ridiculous at this point. But I do believe the current system compromises the integrity of the game, even if some franchises with low revenues still manage to compete.

Is a player who uses steroids and still sucks cheating? What about a pitcher who doctors the ball and still can't get anybody out? I think the answer is yes in both cases.

And yes, I understand that steroids and doctoring baseballs are against the rules and spending $200 million a year on payroll is not. But the truth is giving the teams with the largest revenue streams an advantage is good for the financial health of the game as long as baseball can continue to maintain at least some competitive balance. The big revenue streams are in the big markets. And having the big-market teams succeed is good for the television contracts, among other things.

Doesn't make it right. Just means it is profitable.

 

Baseball would rank behind the LPGA? Jesus. Talk about throwing shit against the wall. Do y'all actually listen to yourselves anymore? :

Fuck this argument. I'm going back to bed.

If anybody thinks either one of these systems is "superior," when both are clearly successful, then you've got your head up your ass or a hard-on for one of the sports, or the sport has a hard-on up your ass, I don't fucking know which. Goddamn.

 

It wasn't so much "kicking their asses" as baseball management behaving, time and time again, in a way that was contrary to US law and to CBA's that they had freely signed.

 

The LPGA comment was ridiculous (not mine), but your over-reaction in this past wasn't much better.