As Major League Baseball ponders various scenarios in which the 2020 season could commence in empty parks without fans in attendance, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic write that empty-stadium games could prompt ownership to ask that the players make further concessions in terms of their 2020 salary.
The two sides already reached an agreement on service time, player salaries and a broad framework for an abbreviated draft late last month. Within that agreement, players agreed to prorated salaries that are directly proportional to the reduction of total games played.
Rosenthal and Drellich suggest, however, that the league “made it clear to the union that economic adjustments would be necessary if games were played in empty parks,” while many on the players’ side of talks believe that the already standing agreement addressed games without fan and/or games at neutral sites. Unsurprisingly, agent Scott Boras ardently pointed to the preexisting “good faith agreement” regarding empty-stadium play while implying that seeking further reductions would be in violation of said good faith.
It seems rather perplexing that the players wouldn’t have pursued precise language expressly underscoring that even neutral-site games without fans in attendance should fall under the purview of the currently agreed-upon salary reduction parameters. That agreement, after all, was unanimously ratified by all 30 owners back on March 27. At that point, the idea of televising games without fans was already widely being speculated upon and surely being discussed by the league and MLBPA. Word of the potential “Arizona” plan trickled out not two weeks after that agreement had been settled.
The owners’ claim in all of this would undoubtedly be that addition of television revenue would not be enough to cover the cost of operations in conjunction with the elimination of gate revenue. Such claims wouldn’t be able to be proven with books closed to the public, but it’s easy to see all 30 owners aligning on that front whether or not the sentiment holds true in actuality.
At this point, all parties involved are flying blind for the most part, as there’s not yet any certainty regarding when or if play will resume, where games will take place or how many games could be played. There’s also been talk of expanding the postseason format, which would create additional revenue on all sides that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Without those details set in place, fiscal specifics are impossible to glean. All of those issues will factor into further negotiations — if it is indeed determined that the existing language leaves ownership ample latitude to pursue such reductions. It’s easy to imagine a contentious set of secondary negotiations eventually being necessary once the logistics can be more clearly defined, though.
At least as pertains to the 2020 season, commissioner Rob Manfred wields the ultimate hammer, as his position gives him the right to unilaterally suspend player contracts due to the declaration of a national emergency. While one would hope that negotiations wouldn’t get to that point, the threat of such extreme action could indeed be powerful leverage against the MLBPA.
All of this comes at a time when the current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in December 2021. Advance collective bargaining talks were already reported to be in place well before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Any rising tensions that stem from further back-and-forth on more immediate issues figure to impact those CBA negotiations whenever they resume in earnest.
Owners will win this one
It’s kind of hard to feel sorry for guys who have been making about 600k a year at the very minimum to 30 million a year to play a game. I have much more compassion for normal people living paycheck to paycheck who have been laid off indefinitely from their jobs and minor league baseball players who already were getting paid poverty level money. I am a baseball fan but most major sports have gotten completely ridiculous with current salaries.
so the real question is, do you want the money you spend on sports going to those people that are playing the sport or to the owner? Most franchises are worth in the large hundred of millions to billions. Do you like to think that your money being paid for the product or the person who owns that product?
Screw the Owners and the Players. Look at how everyone is complicit with the steroid scandal years ago and the Astros scandal last few years. The players whining about it were going to play this season because they have no integrity or care about the fans. If the players really didn’t like it why didn’t they tell Vince McMahon I meant Rob Manfred that they won’t play until Bregman, Altuve and the other criminals are banned for life.
They have lost 80% of their revenue. teams will fold if they have to pay players.
I think the point here, is that you won’t be spending money on sports if there are no fan games….so less money for everybody.
Their real revenue is TV money both their local deals and national, fans in the seats are 20%.
The owners get my money. They are expected to cover everyone’s ass in pro baseball from the players, both MLB and now MiLB, to the concession workers.. They take on huge financial risks every year and especially with every free agent contract. The only risk the players have is whether or not they make the team. I would love to be the 25th man on the roster, sitting on my ass at the end of the bench and making half a million dollars while blowing bubbles with my chewing gum. Every player is Alfred E. Newman: “What, me worry?”
If the owners go broke, where will the money come from? Then perhaps it would be time for the players to worry.
Side note, Scott Boras and good faith do not belong in the same sentence.
Totally agree!
Assuming that is correct…Then it’d make sense to lower salaries by (that revenue – whatever the costs are) wouldn’t it?
A bit of both.
600K will well north of what I make.
(they have a unique talent mind you).
I doubt TV does cover the total cost.
The avg revenue per ticket in CO is over $90.00 from what I here.
SO 2.5 million fans is about 235mil.
No way a lot of teams have revenue to handle payrol.
It would wise for both sides, not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
sigh
So is it fair to assume in a dispute between you and your fellow employees vs management you’d side with management?
That’s essentially the argument you’re making regardless of the dollars involved.
When the players become owner and take all the risk we can talk. Until then….
“When the players become owner and take all the risk we can talk. Until then….”
The risks? Most sports franchises have been making money hand over fist and increasing in value for decades.
Think about this: if the game were played with replacement players, would you still watch it? Conversely, if all owners were replaced with other extremely rich people (or groups of people), would you still watch it?
No risk? Depending on what happens next in the world, who knows what franchises will be worth? In time, big market clubs will likely be fine but smaller market clubs may not recover. Will teams in FL suddenly get fans to consistently turn out to watch? The point I’m trying to make is there certainly is risk. A new owner that just paid billions may see his team lose value and at the same time see his personal wealth take a significant hit. No one could have anticipated this and so even with diversification, there hasn’t been more risk in recent times than today.
rct – in real life, a faltering business gets rid of employees. If there is no league there is no reason for the players to be paid. Hence, my comment.
Your argument of having replacement players is idiotic considering there won’t be games played by anyone thanks to this pandemic.
I tried it with replacement players once. It didn’t go over very well. And then when it was over the players that play got blacklisted because they cross the union lines play.
“I have much more compassion for normal people living paycheck to paycheck who have been laid off indefinitely from their jobs”
Actually, what you’re saying here is that you have more compassion for the extremely rich owners who make millions from ‘a game’ than you do for the players who make them money.
If you have such an issue with current salaries, then stop giving MLB any of your money. I have a feeling you’re a big supporter of the free market. MLB players get paid what owners are willing to spend. There’s no reason players–without whom the game would be far inferior and less watchable–should make less money while the owners should make more. There’s nothing ‘ridiculous’ about the player salaries when you look at how much money is being made by professional sports leagues.
I hate billionaire owners a lot more than I do millionaire players. Common freaking sense.
Unfortunately we … the idiot fans …. are the ones that will lose in the end no matter what
Get a life.
Protect yourself and your loved ones.
In the words of Sonny in “The Bronx Tale”
Mickey Mantle doesn’t give a sh.t about you so why should you give a sh.t about Mickey Mantle.
Sure, I agree with you for the established players. But what about the fringe guys who toil in the minors and then get their shot at a couple of years as a bench player in the MLB? In normal times, maybe they make a couple of million over 8-10 years (including the minors), but then they have to go start another career in their mid-30s. That’s fine in normal times, but a few of these guys are not going to get the modest payoff that makes it worth it.
So George Clooney made 10 million in 2016 pretending to be someone he is not. If he goofs up they reshoot it. But a baseball player is overpaid? Lmao
i agree. let them both (players and owners) feel the pain and burn in their guts for a while. Normal people are trying to figure out out how to keep their houses, utilities on and put food on the table and these jokers are having to “cut back” their lavish playboy lifestyles. booooohoooohooooo.
Screw them. When they stop charging ridiculous amounts of money for tickets, parking, concessions maybe i’ll start attending games again. If they cut out the ridiculous amount of commercials and shorten the games back down to 1-1/2 – 2hours like AAA than fans will come back in droves for regular season tickets, but until then. NO THANKS!
In the last CBA, the MLBPA accepted a clause giving the Commish the right to suspend 100% of salaries if baseball is halted due to a national emergency. So to my thinking, this has already been negotiated and agreed, and that is the starting point for any negotiations.
Wouldn’t exactly call it a starting point, but would call it a huge hammer that the MLBPA knows is close by waiting to come swatting down should they not pretty much give owners a fair chance to recoup losses every team will sustain the longer this virus locks the game out.
Remember this all of you take all you can for free and give back nothing people.. The game has been around for over 100Y, 2 major World Wars, made it thru civil rights protests, epidemics, another longer Cold War just fine. People themselves may be weaker now than then, but the game itself survived.. Just like the people of those times.
Think about what is good for all, rather than what is good for just yourself and free might help this game and the country survive further.
I have to say that these players are obnoxious claiming they need more money! Why should They be making millions of dollars to do something that others would do for the love of the sport! I say cut all their salaries back and if they don’t want to play then don’t, call up players from the farm league who would play for reduced MLB salaries. Then lower the cost for tickets so that people can afford to go to more than one game per year. It costs a family of 6 about $1000.00 to go to a game. These players are obviously not playing for the love of the sport but there are plenty of people who would play because they WANT to not because they get rich playing.
A family of 6 can sit in Lodge Box Seats (infield) for $456. How do you get. 1000. dollar price out of that. If they choose to sit in the most expensive seats that is a free choice.. If you want to spend $500.00 for food again a free choice. Going to a 3 hour ballgame and spending 1000. is up to the individual. They can go for less that half of that. Lodge box seats are some of the best in the stadium. Covered by the Reserved seating and only 1 level up.
The owners are the dirt worst
Like it or not, it’s the society we live in. Things won’t be changing any time soon.
I would not be too sure about that. Pandemics have been historically radical about bringing change to societies.
Thor… I agree. Depending on how long this “great pause” lasts, I think there may be some profound changes ahead. We have had the once in a lifetime experience of seeing what the world looks like when most everything stops. This is an incredible moment in time.
I agree, the ownership class in America is the worst. They’ve run this country into the ground and been inhumanly corrupt. All America produces these days are guns and worthless speculative hedge funds.
Gun sales are way up. No mass shootings since pandemic started. Go figure.
As long as it’s legal gun sales. More time to hunt, more guns maybe. No Covid in the bush.
No mass gatherings… derp
Then don’t watch.
Stadiums are paid for with your tax money. When your team is good, it brings a ton of jobs and foreign money into your city. Owners are supposed to be smart business people entrusted with running a public organization.
Quit.
Sure and the Houston players are great, honest folks. Without these players (if they chose not to play) others would replace them. If the owners cop out, there is no baseball. You want to see baseball then get used to it, nobody ever said life was fair.
so are the players.
best they probably get is like a 1/8 reduction in salaries. they already made an agreement so they’re not getting too much back maybe they take a bit more but they give a bit more back later. (kick the can down the road so to speak)
Players are going to have a big awakening this off season. There will not be a big free agent market and pay will go way down. No revenue means less spending money for free agents. The market will be flooded with players because teams are not picking up options and avoiding arbitration.
I anticipate more players going to Korea and Japan to play. Those two countries took it serious from the beginning so they already have the virus under control. They went back to work in waves weeks ago so their economies aren’t going to be nearly as devastated. Plus they don’t have a buffoon running their respective countries.
jemp2006 should quit watching CNN. Both countries are still in lockdown.
Literally everything you said is wrong/illogical here. Korea (I’m assuming you meant South) and Japan both have restrictions still in place and not all jobs have returned. Players are not going to play in Japan or South Korea over playing in the US because there is much more profit to be made in the US (not just from your contract, but marketing and promoting your likeness). I would guess that not a single baseball player would choose to play overseas because of the president. If they did feel that way, they would have left earlier.
Japan today declared a national emergency over COVID-19, deaths and cases rose
Stop watching fake news, your the idiot for believing CNN or CBS etc. Fox news at least can prove what they say.
“your the idiot” ?
LOL
The wilpon family celebrating as we speak
lol
lol
Bobby Bonilla will still get his full paycheck.
The MLBPA will fight it no doubt, but the Owners will come out on top.
If games are played without fans, I wonder how the TV ratings will fare. Obviously, it’ll be huge right at the start, but once the “baseball is back” emotion passes, I honestly wonder if vast numbers of people would continue watching. I (obviously) don’t know… I’ve sure seen plenty of resistance to even minor changes in the game, and removing the fan ambience from a telecast is anything but a minor change. Will necessity override resistance?
Again, I truly have no idea, but I won’t be terribly surprised if the viewing audiences for non-fan games drops drastically and rapidly. Thoughts?
@Hubcap:
I agree. Massive early numbers, especially if it beats the NBA and, to a much lesser extent, the NHL back to play. If the NBA comes back with the playoffs then I don’t think the numbers will massive, but they will probably be higher than average ratings by a fair clip.
And I do think they will tail off after the excitement wears off. I’d imagine the All-Star game might get better ratings than usual as well… assuming their is an all star game.
Right now, fans just want new content. Some it seems don’t really care about the health and safety aspect… which is frightening.
Where are all the people who say that ticket sales/prices are not related to the players salaries? I remember that being said quite frequently on here within the past year
it’s a minor drop in the bucket compared to TV revenue. That said, the owners will no doubt milk it for all it’s worth.
Stadium revenue is about one third from what I’m reading. The owners will lose that plus revenue from their own stadium naming rights. TV revenue will also be down if games are televised in non-peak hours, which seems likely. The owners can threaten no games, no pay so they are in the driver’s seat.
“that ticket sales/prices are not related to the players salaries?”
They aren’t in the way that you think. Ticket prices are based almost solely on what owners think they can get away with charging while still turning a profit. What people are willing to spend on tickets is what drives ticket prices. It’s basic economics.
If the owners could pay all of their players $50,000/year while charging $1,000 a ticket, they would.
It doesn’t have a lot to do with it. Some sure. It’s more of a way to judging interest, more for mid/smaller markets.
If for example the pirates had 100m in stadium revenue (instead of 45), after the stadium/city dues are paid.. they’d probably have 40-50m extra take in to put back to the team whether its facilities or on the field…… hopefully
The owners will use revenue as an excuse to cut salaries, but not increase salaries to keep up with soaring revenues. They tie the two together when it’s convenient for them.
The issue here is that the two sides reached a comprehensive agreement, and the owners now want to change the terms. In the meantime, the draft is down to five rounds and amateur players ready to turn pro are getting shafted, while MLB has lined up the draft to be cut in half, so they can eliminate affiliated baseball in 42 cities across America.
There has been no risk to owners due to revenue sharing. There are clubs that receive more revenue sharing dollars than their entire payroll, while all but one franchise is now valued above $ 1 billion.
OK. But will the players make money then off the TV deals if they get a salary reduction?
TV would be the only source of revenue to pay whatever salary they collect.
Will the trash cans be allowed to attend?
Only if they can bring their date the buzzers.
Trash cans sit empty in San francisco looking for rubbish collectors.
Athletes have a limited window to make money. Totally understandable. Owners have to make money also. They have a lot of liabilities and team employees to pay. Salaries are structured under the obvious assumption that owners are getting TV rights, selling tickets, and selling advertisement. Not being able to sell tickets should be a no-brainer that paying athletes their full salary is unachievable.
One more reason that the books should be public, to ensure an equitable solution is created for both parties.
That’s not how business works, Mo. Only businessowners get to see the books. It is up to the union to stand up for players, to get that “equitable solution” you seek.
You’re forgetting that we the public have given them an anti-trust exemption to run monopolies in part for the public good, the argument being they could not function without monopolies. This is not the same kind of private entity relationship.
so the owners want the players to risk contracting the virus and take a pay cut. the players would be stupid to agree to that since the owners have already agreed to pay the players for 2020 regardless if there is a season or not.
I crack up when people complain about a players minimum salary being high and impact players getting multi millions. How much does an actor like George Clooney get to pretend he is somebody. If he goofs they yell cut and shoot it til he gets it right!
“It seems rather perplexing that the players wouldn’t have pursued precise language expressly underscoring that even neutral-site games without fans in attendance should fall under the purview of the currently agreed-upon salary reduction parameters.”
Tony Clark still “leading” the player side, the same bumbler that oversaw the last CBA? It would be more surprising if he had accounted for this possibility
The players already have a 170 mil guarantee no matter what. If they play half a season without fans do they still expect to get half their salaries? I don’t see how the owners will agree to that. MLB is in trouble for this year that’s for sure. Too many financial, logistical and medical issues to overcome.
what if players refuse? will the owners lock them out? lol!
Then we get to see Shane Falco.
I want the ball!
Who cares who wins. They have killed the sport.
Realistically speaking.
If we are talking about not playing with fans.
Couldnt the mlb find some rural area, build temporary fields, say 8 or 10 fields, and just play ball there?
I’m sure you could find some states up north or space in Texas to stage the temp fields.
I’d love to see the score of some game played out in a little league field in North Texas.
Would they institute a ten-run mercy rule?
I’m guessing nobody would score. You want to face MLB velo at 40 feet?
Stanley Anderson would.
Do people think owner net worth listed on Wikipedia is their checking account balance, and it’s all business as usual regardless of the team’s cash flow?
While MLB TV revenue, both national and local, make up a significant portion of team revenues, gate revenues are still very important. So yes, very easy to imagine that playing games without fans would cost the owners a significant amount. Plus most teams have a stake in concessions and parking as well, to varying degrees. That all goes away in fanless games as well. I have said before, it is unlikely baseball can pull off a season without fans if the players are not willing to take a hit on salary. Teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox might be ok, but there are a lot of teams in the league that would rather cut bait and cancel the season without player salary concessions. How this plays out will be as much about the money as it is about the virus.
Your closing sentence is poignant and, in my opinion, very correct. “The Money” is the name of the elephant in the room… and if anybody has any questions left as to whether MLB is primarily a sport or a business, they likely won’t when all this is done.
Rays and Marlins players shouldn’t have to give back as much.
I hope that since the Rangers staff is getting a pay cut by 20 percent or so, that they can maybe pay like 2% more than other teams. That plus what Shin-Soo Choo has done, we are out here looking like saints (especially compared to our cross-state rivals).
If as a business owner I see my revenue drop substantially I can’t be expected to still pay 100% of the payroll. Baseball is no different.
That said, the Union long should have sought to tie a salary floor to a percentage of the overall revenue in the game, say each team’s take from the revenue sharing pool. It is ridiculous that teams have payrolls lower than their take of revenue sharing.
I’m pretty sure you’ll see some form of a “floor” with the new CBA. The MLBPA wants it, big market owners (tired at seeing low revenue teams just keep Revenue Sharing dollars) are almost sure to demand it.
The players don’t get paid by attendance. The owners have no legs to stand on here.
Player money comes from the team, and team money comes from a wide variety of sources, including revenue from ticket sales and all the auxiliary money fans spend at the stadium. When team revenue drops, employee (player) compensation will drop, one way or the other.
Does it say in each and every players contracts that the Owners will cut their pay based on the number of fans in the stands???
I’d say No. Lawsuit city come This Off-season!! Both sides.
The owners are rich people who generally understand business WAY better than the players do. If you think any revenue disputes between owners and players will be resolved in favor of the players, be ready for a shock. It’s not how it should be, but it’s how it is.
No, it’s in the CBA they agreed to and the recent agreement they made. The players really need to get better people to negotiate for them
An so are the players. If you don’t think there the flip side of the same coin I pity you? they are both make dollars hand over fist compared to 99% of Americans. Let them feel the pain for a while.
ridiculous. You act like the MLBPA is a strong union, which it hasn’t been for 20+ seasons and that is besides the fact we are under a national catastrophe ATM.
Union is weak, already in the last CBA bargaining for frivolous items, such as a chef for specialty items in the clubhouse(!?!) rather than anything which could actually be for the good of members shows this union now (and leaders) is rudderless from the top on down.
You think savvy business owners (most part) don’t realize this? I’m fully expecting ownership to have their way with regards to negotiations regarding getting back to play and pretty much the next CBA and I think it’s sad also. Team rep choosing is a popularity contest among teams, not whom is the smartest and brightest who could do the most good, just like the MLBA chief.
They did (and are doing) this to themselves.
No games, no pay. Force Majeure.
The fact that the MLBPA didn’t cover themselves with more robust contract language is ridiculous – but not at all surprising. It’s the latest in a long line of negotiation failures from them.
players may vote not to take the deal.
MLBPA needs to hire competent people again. When someone like Boras talks about “good faith” it often means they realize they got snookered for not getting it in writing. The owners are rolling the Union and having a darned good time doing it. For those fans enjoying high-paid players taking it in the teeth, though, I’ve got to ask, have they looked at where almost all those stimulus dollars went to? Not a heck of a lot to the family in the bleachers.
Sounds like a lot of future lawsuits to me!!
Time to open up the books.
Ya, right…..that ain’t happenin’…..
I suspect the owners will use their obvious advantage here to get better terms in a new CBA. These aren’t the owners of the 80’s and 90’s, who were mostly pampered inheritors. These folks are pretty bright. And let’s remember Manfred works for them, not for the players or “the good of the game”.
I’m sure they remind Robby of that. Often.
Well, there’s been talks about expansion and that might be able to help them mitigate the losses of the 2020 season.
No doubt the Dolan’s are leading this charge to pay the players less.
Revenue sharing, while it impacts player salaries, is essentially an agreement between owners as I understand it. It’s never so simple but reducing the following year’s allocation by the amount of any “underpay” of player payroll (or requiring a payback of that difference) relative to that allocation would seem to address the pocketing the profit aspect. it’s not called profit sharing after all.
That creates a “soft” floor, at least. Even tho receiving teams could still run low player payrolls, they wouldn’t directly profit from the equalization payments. If a team can’t otherwise generate enough revenue for day-to-day operations on their own, maybe they shouldn’t have one?
So how will this affect the Lux tax limits. The limits should stay the same then, not prorated, even if players play for less. This would allow more teams to get involved with players and drive spending up if this season ever gets underway.
Just another way of realizing we are temporarily in a new normal.
Unfortunately we … the idiot fans …. are the ones that will lose in the end no matter what
Get a life.
Protect yourself and your loved ones.
In the words of Sonny in “The Bronx Tale”
Mickey Mantle doesn’t give a sh.t about you so why should you give a sh.t about Mickey Mantle.
I don’t need to go to a multi billion dollar stadium to see a slow moving game and watch players that have .270 BA’s making 25 million a season while I pay hundreds for a ticket and transportation etc,etc. It’s somewhat ironic it’s taking a pandemic to turn this out of control sports mess into chaos. Men and greed getting their comeuppance!
At least it’s still acceptable to call an owner of a team, the owner of the team. Meanwhile, in the NBA…
The problem is that it’s players vs owners, not players banding together with owners. I think both should feel the hit, the owners a little more so because they bear the risk of owning a business. If they have a decrease in net income of $90M before considering any change in players’ salaries, I think the players’ salaries ought to go down around $30M and the owners should bear the other 2/3.
I typically side with owners, in these matters, but not this one. Players have guaranteed contracts and already made concessions once. I understand revenue will be lost, but so will costs, and they’re billionaires, that’s part of risk of owning a business. U dont have to stock concession stands, pay ppl to sell programs, work gates, attend parking lot, and if u play day games no lights or anything. Plus ur still getting ur tv money, which is a major source of revenue, and if players dont play, u lose that too.
They agreed to a CBA that allows this.
Sorry, but small-market teams wouldn’t survive under the scenario of having full payroll obligations, even if only for a prorated season. No business can lose 30% of its revenue stream and also cough up full payroll money to boot — and survive.
The owners have already advanced them two months salary. They’ve acted in good faith.
`It’s actually 43% that owners would lose. Ticket sales provide 33% of revenue league-wide. Parking and concessions are another 10%.
Therefore, if players were willing to accept 57% of their contracts as a base (prior to proration for games played), we could theoretically have baseball in fanless ball parks.
“Ticket sales provide 33% of revenue league-wide. Parking and concessions are another 10%.”
I see where you are going here and i’m kinda with ya but that number is probably closer 50% than 60%
Much of that does not make it into the Team or MLB coffers. It varies by team and deals for stadiums, vendors and the hosting city on what the teams actually end up with.
MLB has always refused to open their books. That speaks volumes. Last years gross estimated at just under 10 Billion.
49 percent of local revenues go into the revenue sharing pool, to be divided unevenly. The smallest market teams receive more than enough revenue sharing to cover their paltry payrolls.
there was talk the other day about playing in the spring leagues. well okay i’ll take whatever baseball i can get, fans or no.. but…
since universities are closed and likely empty. Open up their fields and play there. sure the camera and stuff wouldn’t be up to MLB level but good nuff. It would give more of a childhood feel to the game and bring more fun out of it.
Also housing would be a non issue since the campus would have dorms and kitchens if needed.
Have only one pair of media guys for who ever is the home game to broadcast on both tv and radio. the visiting teams fans would just have to deal with it.
Once the quick tests are more available… testing them before every road trip to help reduce the risk of them spreading it between themselves… This should be a viable option
watching them play would also be kind of a throw back to what we used to have to watch games. COuld also give the universities bit of income… .. . like the larger ones need it lol 😉
The unsaid elephant in the room is: just how much do people REALLY miss sports? Sure, we’re all ‘used’ to having all the sports we want 24/7, but how much of that feeling of loss is just because life is different? I’d argue that the longer they go on without games, the more people will realize there are other things to do with their lives. It might take a while, but it’s coming. Additionally, apparently, this COVID-19 thing is eating up a lot of earnings/savings, so discretionary spending will be the last thing to come back, probably taking even longer than the peoples’ aversion to crowds. I think all the leagues are going to be in for a rude awakening if they think everyone/everything will get back to “business as usual” business, and revenue-wise.
I would watch 10 games a day if I could
Bottom line? The fans loose either way. How many like me have opening, day and other tickets unusable to this point, sitting in a drawer? Millionaires can afford a loss much easier than us commoners.
Your ticket will be replaced so don’t worry, 2021 is coming next March. Baseball will be back then
What about robot fans. 1000000 fans March is 1000000 fans
There’s not going to be any baseball this year so let’s all chill and wait for 2021. If one player on a team comes up with the virus the whole clubhouse is on quarantine? No team can afford to have this happen.
I do my job whether 50,000 people are watching me or not. The pay’s the same. Major league players are in the top 1% of the top 1% of the top 1% of everyone who has ever played baseball so it makes sense for them to be well paid. Those two considerations make me believe that fans should have to pay for televised games. Let’s see how much they really miss baseball when they have to pay for it. I’m already charging people to watch me work. It’s great, no one’s here, just the way I like it. Want baseball? Pay for it. Fund the athletes.
Screw the owners AND players. Bunch of whining entitled brats making 10’s of millions of dollars to play a damn game. I love baseball but when it costs you $20 to get a nose bleed seat, 15 dollars for a beer, $20 to park, and the games are ridiculously long at 3-1/2 – 4 hours a night during the week. FORGET IT.
Let them starve a while. Maybe they’ll realize the LUXURY that we’ve given them from our hard earned paychecks and the lavish lifestyles they’ve lead for decades meanwhile the real American (aka the fan) slaves away to pay for their playboy lifestyle salaries.
Let them feel the pain a bit. When they’ve reduced ticket prices and concessions down to reasonable levels maybe the fans will come back. Baseball is in trouble.
I smell strike and season shut down. that’s fine by me. Let them (Players and owners) feel the pain like ordinary working class Americans (the 99%). Bunch of self entitled spoiled brats.