Playing an 82-game season without fans in attendance and with players still making prorated salaries would cost Major League Baseball over $4 billion in free cash flow, as per a document presented from the commissioner’s office to the MLB Players Association earlier this week, The Associated Press reports.
Beyond the obvious medical and health concerns due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of player pay has been one of the major obstacles in any attempt to launch the 2020 season. The league has made the argument that players will need to accept further salary cuts than the ones already absorbed by the MLBPA as part of the March agreement between the two sides, as going ahead with a season without the added revenues of fans at ballparks would create too much of a financial burden for the league. The players, on the other hand, have argued that the March agreement has already settled the matter, as players were to receive a prorated version of their original 2020 salaries based on how many regular-season games ended up being played. In the event of an 82-game season, players would already be losing roughly half of their initially agreed-upon salaries.
The report from the commissioner’s office, a 12-page document titled “Economics of Playing Without Fans in Attendance,” details the purported losses facing the league under the current arrangement. Every game would lead to a loss of roughly $640K, and all 30 teams would face losses of at least $84MM, as per a chart of projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The Tigers are at the bottom of the list with an $84MM projected loss, while the Yankees would lose $312 in projected local losses — far more than the $232MM loss projected for the Dodgers, who place second on the list. (This ranking doesn’t factor in money gained from MLB’s national media revenues.)
The AP piece details many of the main points of the report, including various figures detailing how projected 2020 figures will drop significantly from projected revenue for the year (before the pandemic wreaked havoc on the world), and how these numbers stack up in comparison to revenues generated by the league during the 2019 season.
While there is no question that all parties will take a big financial hit from the abbreviated 2020 season, the MLBPA has maintained that the losses faced by the league and team owners aren’t as dire as claimed. To this end, the Associated Press writes that the players’ union “already has requested a slew of documents from MLB” for further clarification about the details of the original 12-page presentation. Earlier reports have indicated that the owners will propose a 50-50 split in 2020 revenues with the players, which the union has already shot down as a non-starter in negotiations since the MLBPA views such a split as a version of a salary cap.
Honestly, who cares
You care enough to comment
How else would you know that I didn’t care.
Funny story, none of us care that you don’t care.
I do
No you don’t, you’re just drunk.
I don’t care that he doesn’t care but I do care that all of you don’t care that he doesn’t care.
I dont care either but maybe I do
I’m apparently the only one who actually does care…but I’m sure no one cares that I do
I care. America cares.
I care a lot, and so does Faith No More
You read the story so you must care
I am not sure why reading all your posts of caring or not caring has to do with me having flashbacks of learning back in elementary how to use words in a sentence.
Who cares? Every employee that’s been laid off and who most likely won’t be rehired in the next couple years as the country readjusts to life after corona.
Seriously.. boo hoo a company that profits so much money for playing a child’s sport due to inflated costs on tickets, concessions, apparel etc will not make their 4 billion?? Why would fans even care to read this news? Figure out a way to play the games otherwise you’ll loose even more!! The fans are the reason you make money. Take care of them and forget about your deep pockets for once.
It matters bc it affects agreement w players to play out the 2020 season. Saying “who cares” is silly.
Are you wanting an exhaustive list…? It’s going to take a while to come up with one for you.
The owners are the biggest bull rap artist there is
Please explain to me why any player who hasn’t reached free agency for their first time can make more than the qualifying offer?
Qualifying Offer is about 17.5 million a year or thereabouts. Player X is in year 5 of his career (doesn’t get free agency for the first time until after year 6). Player X is a hitter. He slugs 58 home runs, has 155 RBI, 232 hits, 45 doubles, 16 triples. He wins the MVP and triple crown. MONSTER YEAR.
His team knows he’s going to command massive bucks after the next season when he hit free agency for the first time. Because of this, they offer him a 7 year extension at 21 million a year. He takes it.
The 21 million is higher than the Q.O. This is how it happens.
That player probably commands 25-20M per year
That player is getting a bigger contract than what Trout got.
Doesn’t happen, Trout does it for many year’s . 1 player has 1 good year and won’t get Trout type money Could be one year wonder , can you say Davis (Orioles)
Why? Because they are business men who managed to be lucky enough to buy a baseball team to make money off of? Every business runs the same way these teams do.
We all know it’s a business blah blah blah.. as a business they should focus on a way to produce their product. Not complaining about the amount of money they will lose.
you mean just like the players have been doing?
Yes including the players
As a business, they should, by definition, be concerned with the money they will be losing.
Yes and they do not have a business with the fans.
LOL, you’d fail business 101.
Bull Rap is an up and coming genre. One of my favs!!
They’re at the top of the Horse Hit list.
I’m personally a big fan of Goat Soul.
Many on here clearly prefer Cuck R&B as their preferred genre. They just lap it up!
wth is Bull Rap lol?!
It’s a sub genre of Bunny-Hop
A convenient leak to paint the players in a bad light.
To be clear (from what I understand reading this), they project that there would be a 4 billion dollar loss, not that MLB will operate at a 4 billion dollar loss
Yeah, MLB is still going to make considerable money from media rights (assuming there is a season). Fangrpahs touched on this a little while back.
If they were going to operate at a $4 billion loss, they would have to file bankruptcy and shut down.
Well let’s be more clear about it, no one is taking a 4 billion dollar loss, that is spread around 30 teams and if you are worried about an 84 million dollar loss as a team, that is like 1/4 of a garrit cole.
It says above that the tigers are taking an 84 million dollar loss with the Yankees taking around 300mm meaning most will tale less than 100k likely
What Johnrealtime is trying to say is that it’s not OPERATING at a loss of that, rather, from prior revenue projections, they will lose $4B from THAT.
I understand John. The wording of articles does not state they’d operate at a loss at all. It states they will lose $4B. Those are not the same thing.
Now, I haven’t read this 12-page report.
Thank you Daw(e)some. I was trying to clarify as I could see people reading this and thinking “see, owners are losing money!”. As I’m sure they want this to be interpreted
The thing that keeps coming to my mind is that we’ve been hearing for years about how “ticket prices do not effect this…” or “ticket prices are a result of supply/demand”. Now the owners are trying to claim that ticket sales are such a major contributing factor to their income and they are going to lose massive amounts of money because of the lack of fans? Which one is it?
I’ll add to this a little bit….
MLB made a record-setting 10.3 billion in 2018. I don’t think the 2019 numbers have been released yet, but I would be surprised if the figure was much smaller and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was larger. 2018 marked the 16th consecutive record of growth.
So, that should tell everyone they were projecting growth and came up with that 4 billion dollar figure.
But for argument’s sake, let’s say that 10.3 billion figure is the bar. MLB still stands to rake in over 6 billion.
How anyone can think Snell–or any other player–is the bad guy here is ridiculous. MLB owners want to renegotiate the deal to widen their margin of profit at the expense of the players. It’s that simple.
And they knew full well what the risks were. There were plenty of reports and projections suggesting the very real possibility of games being played without fans. They weren’t so naive that they allowed themselves to be duped by Tony Clark and the players’ union (there’s a strong argument that the opposite happens). They could have had a clause in the deal that addressed games played in empty stadiums. They elected not to and here they are crying foul while they still project to pull in billions.
It really is comical how Snell is being made out to be the face of players and all that is wrong with the situation. But it’s worth noting that there are a number of other players getting plenty of attention for all the right reasons elsewhere. Doolittle laid it out really well a few days ago on Twitter. It’s a pity ESPN didn’t interview him the same time they interviewed Snell.
I think the issue with Snell was just his attitude/tone about it, given the scope of everything else going on in America today.
At the end of the day, it’s easier to find a player like Snell than it is to find a new MLB team owner.
I’d say MLB players as a whole are well compensated for their in-season time.
If a player is concerned with maximizing his earnings then said player should sign 1 year contracts at maximum value. Put up a big number the previous year, get paid more.
Owners are putting their money up as the risk in this case.
Lets be real this is a negotiation
Players had Rd1 – Review; Snell March 11 on Twitter “If it gets me it gets me”
Snell May 14 – ‘ I gotta protect my family and get mine ‘
Only fair Owners get Rd 2
This is how it works
Yeah, that’s not how it works.
Blake Snell did the owners a favor. He did a terrible job stating his point and gave the masses a “selfish player” scapegoat.
For once, a player’s Union is operating from a position of strength because of the already agreed-to deal. Snell cost the MLBPA some of that public negotiating power.
Agree 100%. Blake Snell looks like a real prima donna jackass right now. Not going to help the public opinion of the players at all
There is no public negotiating power or influence for either side. His comments may have looked bad to some fans on the surface, but it means nothing–especially with a contract already in place. Owners aren’t going to negate the deal and be in breach of contract, risk losing billions.
The owners have zero leverage right now. They might try to make the next CBA more complicated, but that was probably a given before any of this.
Missing out on profits is not the same as losing money.
Exactly.
Yeppers
An arbitrator should determine if the March agreement precludes further adjustments.
If that is the case, and I was an owner I would simply not have a season.
Thus explaining why you are not an owner. “If I can’t make this much money, then I want to make even less money!!”
as if you are.
It depends on what the exact finances are…if it would cost the owners more money to have a season than not have one, they might just decide to scrap it. None of us know how much the teams are actually making/losing…they’re private companies, and it’s all speculation.
That’s not the case though. They are not actually going to lose 4 billion dollars, they are gonna get $4 billion dollars less in profits, than would be typical. Its worded weird but ur reaction is why they word it that way. Somebody reads they’re gonna lose $4billion, omg the players need to take a bigger cut. But if u read owners are gonna make $4 billion less than usual, who gives a crap. And they’re just talking about ticket sales, they’re not counting the billions made in local broadcasting rights, national tv deals, or merchandising. They arent losing any money, just trying to con fans into pushing players into absorbing their profit decline.
Idiotic. Instead of making less money playing the season, they make virtually no money & see the value of their franchises plummet (which is where the REAL money is made in franchise ownership) based on damage done to the game? Unless MLB is comprised of 30 ownership groups populated by imbeciles, any threat not to play when allowed is a bluff.
If no season is played the owners owe players $0. They’d save money not having to spend money on salaries, room and board, travel to and from team hotels, etc.
They lose money in the long run by cancelling the season. It would be very short sighted to cancel the season as a punishment for the players and the union. MLB needs to attract fans, not push the remaining ones away.
HosedLion –
Apparently you have forgotten to consider that while they’d save $$ from player salaries, they’d lose out on 100% of TV and advertising revenue as well as a big hit in merchandising. That figure would be way, way more than the 4 billion they are worried about now. In addition, they’d have to lay off/let go a large amount of front office employees and stadium workers. They’d also lose fans by the thousands and the popularity of the sport would plummet even further. The owners have a HUGE financial incentive to play the season, with or without fans.
“Unless MLB is comprised of 30 ownership groups populated by imbeciles, any threat not to play when allowed is a bluff.”
Really? It’s actually a brilliant plan, depending on the actual finances involved. First off, none of us know whether they will make or lose money…they’re private companies. Perhaps the costs associated with playing 82 games with players being paid at their contracted (pro-rated) salaries really will negatively influence the bottom line, and if that’s the case…why play? If it costs them more money to have a season than not, why play?
However, the elephant in the room is the new CBA on the horizon. Not having a season hurts the players more than the owners, because owners are in it for the long-haul. Not playing this season could cost the owners money, but they have more than enough to withstand the losses, while many players may become desperate. And when they have a moron in charge of their union, the next CBA gets rammed down their throats it’ll be a huge win for the owners.
Tv deal and advertising they’d lose nothing. They wouldn’t gain anything profit but they wouldn’t lose any money on those deals.
Merchandise they’d eat some of it but most of it can be sold in 2021.
Overall, if no season was played the owners wouldn’t lose much money. They wouldn’t make a profit fromthings you mentioned, but the financial loss they’d incur wouldn’t be devastating in the least.
Players have more incentive to play. Owners most likely can pay their bills just fine during the hiatus. Players not so much.
Far as fans. Mlb needs to start thinking about how to recruit younger fans. They don’t have the luxury of kids being able to play with friends much like a pick up game of basketball or football with limited number of people…..they need enough players plus access to equipment. Instead of messing with rules and trying to speed up the game they should be focusing on getting younger generations involved in a more personal level with mlb teams.
You described Tony Clark perfectly.
They cant, owners have no mechanism in which they can just decide theres no season, those contracts are guaranteed.
Of course the owners can decide not to play. How? If enough players ( not just Ian Snell decide not to play, 2: If the various Governments say no or if players start to infected. 3: It does not make economic sense.
The players already agreed to pro-rated salaries based on the number of games played. No games, no salary.
Well that could really drag out, look how long it took to decide on Bryant and now want to decide on a 2020 season agreement?
yeah that doesn’t add up
wonder how much mlb.tv subscriptions revenue would go up (and the associated ad revenue) if the stadiums were empty.
only if they lift the blackout restrictions, which they won”t do.
Of course they would lift blackouts, don’t be silly. Why would they blackout… I CAN’T GO TO THE GAME LOL
there are tools like hola! unblock to by-pass the blackouts.
Exactly.
They won’t lift the blackouts because local cable and broadcast stations paid for exclusive broadcast rights. The blackouts are not about in-person attendance.
What channel do you think we’re watching when we tune in? It’s the feed from the local channel.
And now that local channel is broadcast Nationwide instead of just in that City. Benefit to all.
That just tells me they’re making way too much off the backs of fans, if they can afford to still operate with losses like that.
Keep rooting for the players with rising salaries and this will get worse.
Keep rooting for the owners with rising profits and this will get worse.
Uh, did you bother reading the article? Even just reading the headline shows the stupidity of your comment.
you ever go a day without trying to label someone’s stupidity or the stupidity of their comments…life would be a tad more relaxing, just sayin! ahahaha
if they lose so much, why would they care to start a season? reset to start in 2021!
So then they could lose $8 billion?
you must have inside info on mlb finances! not!
Having half a season means you make 50% of the money that you normally would. Playing no season means you make 0% of the money you normally would. The math really isn’t all that hard.
for simpletons, i guess!
you’re really not supporting your argument well here.
Why don’t you go ahead and explain how it works then Visinaire. Or is your intellect limited to merely insults? Try saying something yourself, maybe stating your own ideas instead of just mocking others. Or do you not have any ideas?
If the math was easy for simpletons then you would get it. Since you do not, I guess that means I have to dumb it down even more. Here, try this. No baseball, no money for people who own and run baseball. Unfortunately I cannot make it any more simple to understand. Maybe get your parents to help you.
i have never said i did. i went by the figure the owners have presented. it was you and you only who guessed how much they’d lose. so, tell me if you really know how much they’d lose if there were no season in ’20!
Javia –
Exactly…I don’t understand why some people are having such trouble comprehending that! They’d actually be losing MUCH more than 8 billion without TV revenue, advertising, concessions, and merchandising…
That’s really not how it works at all. There are fixed costs that have to be paid in full regardless of how many games are played, like cleaning and prepping stadiums for the start of the year, which is expensive.
i apologize to everyone that i had lowered myself to using such a derogative word.
I certainly would not play if I owned a team. By not playing I can write this off on my taxes.
You are clearly not an accountant either
These big businesses write everything off.
You don’t even know what a write off is.
Do you?
No I don’t.
But they do. And they’re the ones write it off.
LOL gotta love the SEIN!
Ummm…how does that work and how is that better than making money?
Exactly. It’s like the guy that buys the house and says it’s a wonderful purchase because of the tax write-off LOL.
Here’s a financial freebie for you all. Make no purchase based on tax benefit or savings. Any tax benefit or savings should be considered a bonus, not a reason to buy.
The farmer who says I need to buy 8 new tractors because I need some tax write-offs is not making any sense at all. And he’s receiving bad advice.
And your franchise value would have hundreds of millions lopped off it as baseball was (possibly irrevocably) damaged and fans left in droves. So you’d save some money and lose much, much more. Shortsighted and dumb. Real owners will never make that choice.
Off topic: I find it interesting that a ton of random articles use Great American Ballpark for their generic stadium pictures. Especially here on MLBTR
If the Yankees will lose anything close to $312m, you can say bye bye to James Paxton ( especially when Boras will demand $25m ( or more) per season for 6 or 7 years).
Good. The remaining Steinbrenners suck. They should sell & stay in Tampa. George must be rolling in his grave.
Sports teams get sold and bought all the time. There’s just certain ones that you, under no circumstances ever should sell: Yankees, Cowboys, Lakers, etc.
You could run your organization into the ground and still make hundreds of millions by just paying the bills. And if they do sell, they’re once-in-a-lifetime, landmark events because they just don’t happen.
He can demand all he wants, he won’t get it in this environment
Regardless of what happens with the season this year- play, don’t play, fans, no fans- the next couple years are going to terrible for free agent contracts. Your not going to see these huge contracts continue. Boras and his fellow agents can and will be pissed off and screaming, but if teams don’t want to write those checks…. I don’t think they’ll have a leg to stand on. The players union may want to keep this in mind right now.
Paxton wont get anything near that.
I don’t think Paxton is that big of a loss. I didn’t think they should have traded for him to begin with but I understand that they were rolling the dice on his potential upside.
Oh I feel so sorry for the poor owners. Families can barely afford to attend games anymore. Maybe now they’ll see that fans are the most important part of the operation. This whole COVID thing has actually been a huge wake up call in many aspects of life. Or it should be, at least.
You think that’s all on the owners?
Yes it should def be a wake up call-
Look at how the NBA is going about this, complete unity between the players, unions, owners and commish-
All working to get the job done as one- Its embarrassing as a baseball fan and I couldnt blame any new fan for bailing, even the old ones at this point
nba’s current success comes from openness and fairness. whether it’s true or not silver is presenting what seems to be true for players. mlb players have never trusted the league because of lack of openness. one of the reasons why mlb is not gaining on younger fans is the perception the league lacks fairness. when one team runs with $250 million player salaries and others are running mlb teams with less than 1/3 of that figure.
i don’t think children consider salary equity when they choose which sport to watch.
your local team has a chance to proceed deep into playoffs in a few years in nba. not much so in mlb. besides why would you have to only consider children.? young adults are not interested in mlb as much as we were.
Children? He said younger fans…. …Dont be so transparent in your BS
Kids these days are much more about everything being equal and thats a great thing. Far less racist , less homophobic better gender equality etc etc than all the generations before them (inc mine)
So of course when they see a New game tilted and unfair they might go chose another sport…. Hmm Pirates or Steelers ….
Kids today are more aware of inequality than any other generation and guess what…they dont Like it ! Once again Darkside you Fail miserably
Nice post Viz
the 18-35 crowd is watching teams fhat can go to the playoffs, this is why baseball is lagging behind the other sports.
again, i dont see this “unity” you are talking about bringing the games back quicker in the NBA, so that point doesnt hold water here.
Unity- See 12 All Stars including the Players Union Rep Chris Paul and Commish Adam Silver all on a conference call working together-
Unity- See players owners commish all working together to try and establish a safe way to play in the media Tv Twiiter you name it-
Unity- See the players and owners talking about saftey NOT the Money
Unity- See players applauding their OWN commish ! Can you even imagine that in MLB ???
You would literally have to have blinders on not to see how well the NBA is doing on this compared to MLB…… Your better than that……….I think
Unity-the state of being united or joined as a whole.
“European unity” per Webster if this helps
to what end though? i dont see a clear link between this perceived unity and actual positive movement for the sport in either the short or long term. you dont need unity to do well, and unity isnt always beneficial – see your EU example.
yeah, as things proceed thete will be a strike/lockout in a couple years. good. unity isn’t good!
First off there is NO movement Anywhere in Anything right Now
Everything is projection
You want to go into the War Room with this litter box the Mlb is crapping out every day or a Unified front such as the NBA? – Real Q feel free to answer…..
This goes far beyond the C-19 crisis as well, if your a fan of MLB right now you should seriously be worried about the whole sport and the hands its in.
“Slow” is right in the name, so at least he warns you when commenting.
Owners are still business men. No business wants to lose money.
Call him slow if you like, but he did say something that I wish we all would be more concerned about and that’s the fans.
To many of us either take the side of the players or owners but forget about the fans. The money that the owners and players are fighting over is the money that WE the FANS put into the sport. There is three sides in this.
Future free agency will take a hit if the owners let the season happen.
I’ll bite. How?
Simple. If the MLB doesnt hit projections and the owners dont get the money they expect and/or start digging into their own pockets and operate at a loss they will not be willing to spend until they recoup what they lost.
If they wipe the season, there will be a loss but without games played their biggest expense (salary) will be very minimum. No play no pay. Why do you think most of these retail businesses laid off pretty much their entire workforce except systems and maybe web support.
So you’re saying we would stop seeing $30million/year contracts? Oh, that would be terrible…
If they wipe out the season, they will also be losing ALL of their income. This would make the savings from player salaries seem rather insignificant by comparison
If the owners just decide to have no season, players will sue.
Can employees of the companies that closed down for this sue for their lost wages? It’s the same thing, they aren’t working like the players aren’t working, so they don’t get paid. And I am legitimately asking, I’m not familiar with labor laws, etc, but even though I have a contract, if the company shuts down for a while and I’m not working, I don’t get a paycheck. I don’t believe I have the right to sue in that case, therefore the players wouldn’t be able to either, would they?
mlb players are more of contractors than employers.
It’s going to take a big hit regardless
Many of these owners have taken a huge financial hit outside of baseball on their main financial ventures
OK, on average, that’s $133M per team. A lot, but many teams are going up by a healthy portion of that in value every year, not including profits. Plus, with a CBA negotiation looming and the risk of losing much more if there’s not a season, this may not be a good time to pretend to be poor.
Passan mentioned that the numbers are not as far apart as it might seem, and that with a 50/50 revenue share, it is actually possible (but not certain) that the players would get more money than their prorated salaries. Even if that’s unlikely, it sounds like the numbers are not astronomically different, and that an easy compromise would be to pay the players 1/4 of their salary, plus a 50/50 split on half the revenue. Certainly there is room to compromise under these unusual circumstances, without either side needing to turn it into a pissing contest and get everything the way they think is fair. Both sides stand to lose too much for there not to be a lot of incentive to try very hard to work out a deal.
At the end of the day this may end up looking like such a bastardized form of the game we’re all used to that it might not even be that fun to watch. I’m all for it if enough people would enjoy it, but as big a baseball fan as I usually am, I’m not that excited about the prospects of no fans and all these weird protocols that will change the whole vibe of the game. What if someone throws a no-hitter during the season… can the catcher hug the pitcher, or will any kind of celebration with contact be allowed? Think about if your team won the World Series, with no fans in the stands, and you can’t watch with a group of people. How creepy would that be, the final out of the World Series and then instead of a crowd of 50,000 you hear nothing but the sound of 30 guys cheering? It won’t be the same, and won’t mean the same… it would just be weird beyond weird. Which is certainly how 2020 will be remembered.
Will certainly be different, but you won’t notice the “silent stadiums” on TV as much as you think. They will be pumping crowd noise in through the PA and things like that
Normal? No
Drastically different watching on TV? Not so much
Also in the KBO they still elbow bump and hit each other on the helmet after HRs
I just hope they don’t let finances keep them from playing
At least the “experts” are consistent, vastly exaggerating and/or framing things in a deceptive fashion.
Fun Fact: The owners will STILL pull in a profit, more than many of our respective lineages will in generations.
But POOR MLB! Just stop whining and PLAY BALL! Money hungry turds.
First it’s 2.2M will die, screamed the “experts”, when the real number will be less than a bad flu season, actual cases not what your media deities will be feeding you.
This whole thing is insane and inane, we need to get back to normal. These non-medical face masks are joke, they do nothing but boost sales for binaca.
As of today there have been 89420 deaths in the United States from COVID-19. In March, president Trump said the flu typically kills 40-70k people per year. In three months this virus has killed more than a bad flu year.
Wow, you really are a special kind of stupid, aren’t you?
Ya, he kind of is. Not a special kind though; there are a lot like him these days.
Best, most intelligent comment on this whole thread.
were at twice as many deaths as the flu season. Get outta here trumper.
Hmm the season starts no fans, fans really want to watch baseball, UP goes the cost in viewing….
I’d go to a sold out stadium right now. I’d have gone to one a month ago. This pandemic is a joke. Thank you everyone who is fearing for their life. Go live in a bubble. Don’t forget your masks and gloves. Hahaha
I would also, the stats say that it is not deadly to most people if you are reasonably healthy. I’m sure would not be fun to get but that isn’t enough reason to stay inside and stop living your life. If I could live for 50 more years like this and never get sick, I would be bored and depressed out of my freaking mind, and there would be no value at all to longevity. Suicides would outnumber COVID deaths eventually if everything stayed like it is now. Hopefully this effort works because it can’t last much longer without creating worse problems than what they are trying to prevent.
Yup I imagine in another 6 months if this is the same suicides would outrank Covid 19 deaths in 2021 as a whole-
Not to mention the rise of serious crime is the next stage when some will have no means left to live on
I thought about that too. What happens when ordinary Joes who like to get paid every Friday haven’t received a check in 3 months? A lot of these guys don’t have money saved up for a rainy day so then what? I can just imagine loading up my car after grocery shopping and facing a hungry man looking for food with a gun at my head.
Atm robberies are up 800% already relative to a year ago –
By 2021 id imagine that would double to triple if we stayed locked down-
You will definitly be looking over your shoulder next year at the teller
Suicide rate is already up over 30%, not to mention crime through the roof…at least that’s what’s happening down here
How can atm robberies be up that much when most of the country is in a lock down? People are supposed to be at home… not at the atm machine. Lmao
There are lines around the corner at Bank of America with people pulling out their unemployment money-
Since its Bi-weekly and 600 min per week they pull out the max B of A will let you at once 1000$-
Usa today reported ATm robberies up 800%….its not hard to see why
And thank morons like you for the the numbers already going back up. I just hope that you don’t have to go through losing someone to this disease to prove yourself wrong.
^this. It really annoys me to hear people saying “well it’s not deadly to most people who are reasonably healthy” or “I’m in my 20’s so I have nothing to worry about”. Don’t these people have families? I have a 94 year old grandmother who probably wouldn’t fare so well. Also have very young children and a brother with a compromised immune system. These precautions are not just about you…it’s also about all the people who could end up dying as a result of getting this virus from the idiots who can’t see past themselves. Think of others for once, for god’s sake
@astros2017- You are human trash. Stop lying to support your preferred agenda. Suicide rates are at 30%? You really expect us to believe almost a third of the population in your..city, county, state.. is offing themselves in that number? Prove me wrong and post a reference to support your statement. Otherwise, people like you really could get someone killed.
@KJC. You are practically my brother then. I’m taking care of my father-in-law who is 68, on dialysis with a compromised immune system. Also, my parents are are in their 70’s with compromised health and live in Georgia. I hope you and your family comes out the other side of this doing well.
Are you intentionally stupid? Off you go on your little rant, when you lack even the most basic reading comprehension skills. He said suicide are UP over 30% (as in they are at a 30% higher rate than usual) not that they are AT 30%. Moron.
For all the polarized views on owners versus players, I think true statements are: if you were an owner, you would want what the owners want… not what you think an owner should want based on your own perspective and life experience as a fan. And: if you were a player, you would want what the players want, not what you think a player should want based on your own perspective and life experience as a fan.
I see all these one-sided arguments as pretty useless… each side has their own point of view which is valid from where they sit. And if an agreement is reached, it will probably be with each side making a slight concession. I doubt money will be the thing that stops the season, much more likely that the practical aspects are too difficult to work out. I hope this is all more likely to happen than I think it is, and that it is actually still enjoyable to watch.
You hear this? Wait for it… It’s the world’s smallest violin!
This is getting put out to make the players look bad, but the court of public opinion isn’t making the decision to start baseball again so why do it. If you look up any of the owner’s net worths, you consistently get over 500 mil easy. Heck, Ray Davis and Bob Simpson (co-owners of the Rangers) have a combined net worth of almost 5 bil! I don’t care about the debt they may be in, or even if that approximate number of net worth isn’t even close. Divide 4 billion over 30 teams and you get about 133,333,333. Cry me a river, the owner took a risk buying the team, A RISK, and now the risk is paying consequences. At least if you start play again you will be making some money! Work it through your heads, this isn’t an ideal situation, and it can never be. Make the best of what you get.
Agreed 110%.
It’s a risk like any other investment… and one that’s paid off very nicely for decades as franchise values have grown substantially.
This year the risk isn’t paying off. Oh well.
If you can’t handle the risk of potentially losing money for a year on your investment/hobby… maybe you shouldn’t own a team.
I agree with what you are saying, but specifically the owners you mention are oil and gas people and they are taking a beating over there as well
I’m no financial expert, but I know if baseball can’t figure it out and the NBA and NFL do, it’s really bad for MLB franchise values long term. Baseball is losing younger fans as it is
Leaves out national TV revenue? Does it leave out local TV revenue, too, including revenue related to team owner-owned sports networks for which baseball is the crown jewel (i.e. YES, SNY, MASN, etc.)? Without including this information (and doubtless other info as well), the argument that players should give back more than what the parties specifically agreed to in March is specious.
i think the owners are being so clearly sneaky with they way they are going about this. they are “assuming” the doomsday scenario when it comes to revenue when in reality it probably woulnt be that way. if they assume their revenues are 50% gate driven then lacking alternatives might only cause a 40% loss in profits, yet, they wolnt give any of that 10% to the players after they realize they have gotten that money. Players need to damand the owners pay that % that comes from TV of what they would already make and the same from any excess profits that are accrued.
I’d be a lot that the owners are leaving out all TV revenue from this, and even if they do factor it in that will be via what teams report to get vs what they actually are worth (the Jays for example are owned by the same corporation that owns the cable sports channel that shows their games and the cable company that shows that channel so lots of places to hide revenue). That is (between local and national) about half of the revenue or more right there. Mix in however much they make via MLB.tv and I’m sure you are at crazy figures. To exclude those is to be giving nearly useless data. The loss is more profits than actual losses. This is purely a PR move.
Wow I guess it is ok for taxpayers to lose $$$ on these ballparks to build for the wealthy. Now they want more from the players who are spoiled babies.
Okay, I give… Who’s side are you on??
i am on safety side. hope everyone stays safe staying at home!
Never thought I’d say this, but I’m with Vizionaire on this one.
Safety of course, but also true that you can’t live your life staying at home. The world has never been a safe place where you can leave your house without some risk of sickness or something else, ever. There has to be a better balance concerning reasonable measures for people’s safety than what is being practiced now…. without freedom and quality of life, longevity is meaningless and more of a curse than a blessing.
But people aren’t taking reasonable measure. Was it Michigan I think where a security guard was shot and killed for not letting a customer in without a mask. People are gathering in groups of hundreds to protest the stay home rules. I agree that sitting home 24/7 sucks, but not everyone is willing to take the proper precautions to make things safe. Wearing a mask doesn’t fix everything, but it makes it much safer, and some people would rather put everyone at risk instead of just taking that single precaution. I still have to go to work and deal with hundreds of people every day, and Bc of that, I have to have limited contact with my parents Bc they are elderly. That is the problem. If I get this, I’ll probably survive without much complication. But they wouldn’t. So Bc people don’t want to take precaution, those of us that do have to miss time with our families for fear of getting them sick. As much as I disagree with comments from Snell and others, that’s what they are now faced with.
I feel for your situation, truly. I know there are no easy answers, an immensely complicated topic. Keeping things shutdown like this will eventually result in poverty and famine, the UN World Food Group warns that over 100 million people pushed into brink of starvation category since pandemic began, due to food availability issues, and that this summer there could be a “hunger pandemic of biblical proportions”. These restrictions are putting lives at risk and resulting in deaths as well, eventually very likely in greater numbers than the virus could achieve. Much as it would be nice to keep everybody safe, you can’t keep 50 people under lockdown to protect one person at high risk.
Nobody escapes this world alive. My parents or at least my mom would almost certainly die if she got this… and I would rather accept that than live in a world like this, losing months or more of my life along with many people to extend hers. That makes no sense when you look at the ratio of people who would recover versus those that would die. Elderly people matter, but their longevity cannot be elevated to a level of importance higher than the health and well being of everyone else. The world just isn’t designed like that. Anyway I mean no disrespect if that is not obvious, but the hard fact is that accepting some level of spread of this and dealing with it is probably preferable than ruining everybody’s life trying to prevent that, especially since many people will die from famine or eventually suicides under current conditions.
I genuinely appreciate someone actually willing to rationally talk about a subject on here. Very rare. We do have a fundamental disagreement in that I would prefer to stay locked down for the next 6 months and risk poverty if it meant I could have more years with my parents. But I do see your point and each person will look at it differently. Perhaps I’m selfish in being ok closing everything up and not wanting to put them at more risk, or perhaps you’re selfish for being willing to risk it. It’s all in each person’s point of view. There will be no winners in this situation, it’s going to end up being who loses the most. Hopefully they can find a way to keep both sides from losing too much. Thank you again for actually having a rational response to a very controversial subject.
Likewise thanks for your comments, very much appreciated. I don’t think good to judge anyone as being selfish. We all do whatever we think is best, with what we think we know, whether anybody else understands it or not. Often we don’t perceive what our best interests or those of others are because we don’t know enough, in the grand scheme of things. Ignorance is the plight of a human. I know I often have very strong opinions, and when new information is presented, I sometimes have to adjust what I believe to be true. I think it is important to have the willingness to do that, otherwise your understanding of anything can never expand, nor can compassion.
I will say this because it is a valid consideration. I have had many experiences in the spiritual realm, such that for me it is a fact that there is more to the journey of a soul than ends at death. I don’t pretend to know what it entails, only that clearly we are more than our bodies… out of body experiences would not be possible otherwise among other things. Nobody lives forever and I think very true that in many instances people are probably better off leaving behind their bodies for whatever is beyond that. Whether or not death is seen as tragic is based on a perspective that may be very incomplete, and our attitude would probably change if we had a greater understanding. But my main point and what I’ve experienced with members of my family is that longevity means very little without health, freedom, and quality of life, all of which are being compromised right now for just about everybody. I think there is a limit as to how long this effort to contain the virus can last before it becomes more destructive to life and what makes life valuable than the virus itself, if it has not reached that point already.
Best to you and your family.
Idiot! And selfish, the economy needs to be opened up. Billions that’s right Billions of people’s lives depend on being able to work. Locking down saves lives but will take more. You still have a job good for you, your parents are elderly and lived most of there lives good for them. Look at unemployment, how many people will take their lives how many people will be forced into poverty. You narrow minded selfish human.
Wow, almost as if on cue after me pointing out that intelligence and reason are rare on here, there you go.
Billions? So the entire world? Sorry for your luck, but morons like you are the reason I care more about my own family than the rest of the world. You’ll figure it out one day when you move out of your mom’s basement and get a job.
Please MLB, just flush this year and invest all your time into 2021 and beyond. Half-measures are stupid.
Go watch soccer then. The rest of us want baseball this year if they can work it.
Well, don’t worry. The owners won’t have to shoulder much of the loss They’ll subsidize it by cutting the salaries for low level employees, screwing the players to the wall, and not bothering to compete over the next few seasons.
I’m betting on the Yankees or Dodgers to win the next 3 or 4 World Series. Nobody else is going to be trying, as the draft painfully proves.
So to be clear, is this for projected advertising revenues? Or using last year’s numbers? Seems like they could recoup some that way given how captive the audience would be
Say what now?
Are stadium seats soon to be converted into a plastic bubble?
You mean round things with empty space that let nothing in? Yes, similar to your head.
thanks for the enlightening comment, just here to troll
The stupid comments, yes. I’ll happily have a reasonable conversation with anyone who appears to have half a brain cell. The rest, yup.
There testing it on airlines professor, I am suggesting a way forward. Btw 1/2 of my brain gets higher results than you using everything you have.
If that last “burn” were even remotely true, you would have used the correct “They’re” at the beginning of your comment. Thank you for proving my point. No brain.
Look, stop arguing. We can all agree you both have fully functioning brains.
Shame about your small penises though…
The scientific term is micropenis.
The New York Yankees were purchased by the Steinbrenners in 1973 for $8.8 million.
Now the estimated value is $5 Billion.
That’s an average annual growth in value of $210 million. $400 million in growth last year alone as the growth compounds.
This is just the franchise value growth. They also have gate revenues, tv revenues and merchandise sales most years that generate additional profit.
A $312 million loss for the Yankees is easily less than one years worth of profit and franchise value growth.
No one is forced to own a baseball team and hand out large guaranteed contracts. It’s a hobby for billionaires. A hobby that usually pays them quite handsomely. I don’t feel even a little bit bad for them if they “lose” money this year.
Suck it up. Pay the players a prorated amount of what you’ve legally agreed to. Get the game back for the fans.
In addition to the big markets, we have teams like the Pirates, who have been simply pocketing their revenue sharing payments for years and should have plenty in the bank to withstand a decent percentage of the potential losses as a result
First they get the public to put up money to finance the ballpark, and then they get the public to believe that only the players are greedy.
I’ll never understand why taxpayers are so eager to just hand over money to the already rich.
And this argument that owners create jobs…no they don’t. This is only a business because people are willing to pay good money to watch the game.
The more people we put into power with that letter in-between C and E next to their name, the more unaccounted tax dollars we have on our hands.
Want to pay a 75% tax rate? Sure, let’s keep the country shutdown, because that’s what many of the twits on here, twits whom probably already receive some semblance of our tax dollars, want wholeheartedly.
It’s been over three weeks since the peak, we were initially told we were only staying home as not to overwhelm the hospitals, especially when it looked like this was a real killer, with the early death rates looking like up to 7% in Italy, before they realized the asymptotic cases were 10 fold the confirmed, symptomatic ones, making the death rate 0.1% overall and 0.01% for folks under 60.
Wanna stay home? FINE. Stop projecting, not everyone is afraid of something less deadly than the chance you’ll perish in a car accident, by a margin of over 10x.
The shutdown made sure we didn’t overwhelm our health industry. Now they’re saying STAY HOME until there’s a cure or vaccine?
How many “cures” and/or vaccines do we have for Coronaviruses? None that work.
This has gotten political with the left wanting to stay home (cancel baseball) and the right wanting to work (start Spring Training immediately), so par for the course.
PLAY BALL!
The level of stupidity in your comment literally hurts.
And that’s putting it politely.
Turn off FOXNews.
Boo hoo. Billionaires lose money. I feel so bad.
“What’s that, Boss? You need me to take a 50% pay cut to work just as hard and with more risk than ever? Sure thing, Boss. Anything you need. Do you want me to rub your feet again?”
I assume the people bashing the players are more than happy to do the same, right?
If I only had to work 20 hours a week instead of 40, I guess I’d be able to see their point. Not really a pay cut if your responsibilities are cut by the same %
Stop it! You’re using facts to coherently articulate a point!
That’s blasphemous round these here parts!
The masses on here exclaim truth over facts!
C’mon man! I GOT HAIRY LEGS!
The players are already forgoing pay for games missed. The owners want to pay them less for the games they do play on top of that.
I suspect you would see it as a pay cut if your boss asked you to do the same job for half as much as you used to get paid.
Many people took pay cuts so their organization could bounce back, now that’s clearly not the case here with the MLB, but these guys are paid to play a game and they’re not playing, so no, they don’t deserve something for nothing.
If they don’t agree, fine, they can sit out for nothing. They take no more risk that Jimmy over at your local grocery store.
Why conveniently ignore the revenue sharing aspect? That’s a big factor in this years plan to PLAY BALL and helps make up the difference.
Which should happen immediately.
You say MLB will lose $4B but then say the rankings (team losses) don’t factor in the national TV revenue. Does that mean teams will then lose less with the national TV revenue and does that $4B loss include the national TV revenue or not?
And the bigger question is, how much will MLB lose if they don’t play at all.?
ESPN reported the national TV revenue as about $1.3B. That’s about $45M per team not include in this “$4B loss.”
This is the owners negotiating in public, and the majority of the public is going to blame the “greedy players” who make millions playing a kids’ game.
The owners are better at this than the MLBPA, which is why they’ve been killing the players in negotiations for decades.
I will be stunned if the players don’t accept a further salary reduction, which they would not have to if they had better leadership and self-control (looking at you, Blake Snell).
Time for the most important meal of the day. Metamucil.
I’m bored. Good thing I’M GOING TO WORK TODAY.
Unlike the terrified Blake Snell.
Are you going to work for less than you used to make in order to help your boss make more money?
Or are you greedy?
I’ve taken a $1000 a month (20%) pay-cut, it’s temporary and yet I still work a 40 hour workweek.
I’m grateful to have a fantastic job at a fantastic company.
That sounds like your problem then. some people in this world have a spine, and clearly Blake is one of them while you are not.
Sure, the guy who had one otherworldly year and has otherwise been a mid-rotation guy has a spine for…being afraid to play baseball? Wow, he’s so courageous!
We’ve truly entered the end times. I’m convinced most of the people on here don’t even like baseball, they’re here to complain and whine about everything,
It’s a game. They can play it without fans and with protocols in place to mitigate infection. They’re just as likely to get it at the gym or at the grocery store than in a stadium with testing galore and eyes everywhere.
But you’re not dealing in facts or truth or even common sense, it’s all about collapsing the economy permanently now for you and your ilk. It’s safe to leave your house if you’re under 60, stay home if you’re afraid but don’t expect a lifetime of handouts.
You accuse him of not using common sense while simultaneously stating that it’s safe to leave you’re house if you’re under 60…
Brilliant.
It is common sense it’s safe to leave the house, if you’re afraid, stay home.
Most of you dims don’t work as it is, so it’s moot.
Something with a death rate of 0.01% for non-seniors, that’s right you’re more likely to die in a car accident than via the Chinese coronavirus.
Why do facts trigger you?
It was a brilliant post, indeed.
How did I miss this!?
Go make sure everyone under 60 gets the memo that they aren’t at risk, nor will they compromise other people’s safety by moving about freely.
Thanks for adding more brilliance. Might want to do a little research on car accidents while you’re cooking up your next brilliant response.
I say furlough the players and worry about the rest later. Seems to be working for so many other businesses out there. Lol
If they don’t wanna play, absolutely
My final pre-BM assertion, you’re almost 10x more likely to perish in a car accident than from COVID-19, aka the Chinese Coronavirus, not to be confused with Cornpop or hairy legs.
80,000 (over two months) x 10 = 800,000
800,000 x 6 (12 months in a year/2 months = 6) = 4.8 million Americans die in car accidents a year.
Govt. statistics show around 40,000 car accident deaths a year.
So, the REAL question is…who is hiding those extra 4.76 million bodies a year and where and for what agenda? The media doesn’t want you to know.
What is the average age of the 80,000 and are they of driving age or are they no longer driving due to age?
And there have actually been over 90,000 deaths in the US over the last 2 months.
They’re “ground beef” for your chipotle. Shhh! Don’t tell, just keep eating.
If the owners lose so much money then they can easily give the players 50% ownership in all MLB teams.
Giving away 50% of an unprofitable business would certainly ease the owners burdens. /s
.
So you actually believe the headline of the story? That’s the first part of the problem, as it doesn’t tell the whole story.
This deceitful headline is ignoring all the revenue accrued from broadcasting the games, among many many other revenue streams the MLB teams are privy to. Such avenues they failed to include in this total.
Stop believing headlines and delve into the stories and do a modicum of research prior to taking a sentence as the be-all end-all.
The FACT is even in a stadium with no fans, playing 50% of the games, on 50% salary, based on the TV revenue alone, these organizations are not losing money. Unless you’re a poorly run team like the Mets.
“/s”
Don’t believe the headlines? Then how on earth can the Dems lie?
that wasn’t a smart post.
the owners knew of the possibility of having to play without fans, so why did they make an agreement with MLBPA that didnt take this into account?
Considering millions of Americans don’t have a job anymore, this really doesn’t matter does it?
There are plenty of sites where you can gab about political views. This is a baseball site, so you should anticipate baseball talk if you’re going to hang out here.
yes, yes it does
Here is reality. NASCAR is coming back today, and according to Chris Paul ( head of the NBA Players Association) the players want to play ( unlike Snell, Harper and Doolittle), and even in New York, horse racing tracks are opening up on June 1st ( and NY is Ground Zero for Coronavirus). If everything opens up and baseball does not return ( either because the owners demand the players sacrifice or the players refuse to play unless the owners give every penny that was agreed to), you can count on the death of the sport ( particularly with millions out of work and the CBA ending after next year)).
I recently spoke with a father of an NBA player I had as a student in middle school who had Covid 19. Dr’s warned the player of potential long term lung & muscle issues and advised a carefully monitored multi-stage return to peak playing condition. Snell sees the dangers and chooses to stay safe. His call. He’s not asking to be paid if he doesn’t play.
Hmm Snell must have seen the dangers since Mar 11
Snell Mar 11 on Twitter “If it gets me it gets me”
You keep saying that, but there is no record of that on his Twitter.
If he did say that, he deleted it, and if he deleted it, so what? Many, if not most, people viewed everything differently two months ago.
But keep trying to make this about Snell. The deal MLB owners signed off on was at the end of March, well after a number of reports were posted outlining the possibility of playing in empty stadiums.
Where did any player suggest they flat out didn’t want to play? It wasn’t just those three, either. Trout expressed similar concerns in April, as did several other players.
The players want to see the risks minimized and the deal–which already limits their earnings–honored. If a season doesn’t happen, it will likely be due to a lack of possible safety measures, and if that’s the case, nobody would be to blame.
It certainly wouldn’t mean the death of the sport, though. Baseball has endured world wars and strikes and still survived.
22 MLB parks are currently owned by the public (in part or in full). Taxpayers have the right to see where their tax dollars are spent. Open up the MLB books for any club that gets subsidized by taxpayer dollars. Owners look to privatize profits and socialize losses, all while in control of a government sanctioned legalized monopoly (since 1922).
How do those numbers add up? Even a franchise drawing 3 million fans in a full season would need them to spend an average of $1,333 each to make 4 billion dollars.
Even divided by 30 teams, that’s a lot of hot dogs and beer.
Because your math is off?
Let’s call it 2 million fans instead (attendance was 68.5 million last season). Multiply that times 30 and divide 4 billion by that number.
It’s around $67 each. Then consider that concessions, merchandise and even parking revenues are shared.
I should add to this….
Even those numbers are skewered, because attendance wasn’t going to be anywhere near previous levels even if the public gathering bans were lifted. Many fans wouldn’t take the risk.
Point is, MLB is misleading people. They were never going to make 4 billion from attendance related revenues because of the virus.
But their bread & butter still holds strong with media rights.
To be clear. Baseball is going to make 4 billion less dollars; they will not be operating the year at a 4 billion dollar loss. So they will make 96 billion instead of 100 billion. Let’s get the season rolling.
Whatever happens this year, there is a fairly good chance that ticket prices, etc will go up next year to help offset the losses incurred by teams in 2020.
For me it is particularly interesting that the owners themselves are responsible for the high inflation in player salary’s. Grown men that behave like spoiled Bratz. They want the best toy and this toy is a pretty penny. They buy it anyways because it’s their nature to have what they want. When the toy is no longer needed because it’s old or obsolete, they target the toymaker for such a ridiculous price tag for the new best toy….. Little do these fools know the toymaker prices accordingly to supply and demand.
Two questions:
1.. Is the total valuation of MLB still close to $10 billion US dollars? Or is it much higher?
2. What is the predicted EBITDA of cancelling the 2020 season altogether? Is this an option? It seems like cancelling the season overall would save a lot of risk, but I don’t know what kind of financial hit this would be.
That’s management for you. Privatize the gains, socialize the losses. Give more back to management and they’ll still screw over the free agents next year anyway. The pro-rated salaries were already agreed to, don’t give back anymore.
Clever wordplay here by the owners, which also makes it a lie. They’re not going to take a 4 billion dollar loss. If they were, there’d be no discussions on holding an abbreviated season. They’re going to lose 4 billion in profit. Profit and loss are two very different things.
Leave it to the liberal MLBTR writers to frame it in a deceptive fashion, they’ve all seemingly bought into the thought that they don’t want baseball this year.
Why? Something with a mortality rate less than the average flu, 0.001% for folks the average age of MLB age players.
Guys like Snell would rather play on his PS4 all summer than actually work. He got paid, now he’s mailing it in.
I think guys like snell would like for owners to honor their contractual obligations…
People continuously scream that the owners are taking losses… welcome to owning a business…
Are the owners going to share the wealth if teams start to over prosper ? The owners are already deflating the market by colluding to undercut contract offers… Why would guys go out their and risk their health, their families health and their livelihood for pennies on the dollar ? Everyone deserves to make that choice… players are not an exception to that
Technically, Snell hasn’t gotten paid. This is the first year of a 5 year 50 million dollar contract he signed last year. He is just starting to get the big money.
Wow… just wow!
They’ll make it back in advertising commercial time. No Bars to watch in groups. Millions more eyes with a short season
4 billion dollars less than the 10 billion dollar profit they made last year makes sense…
No logical person honestly believes billion dollar owners who are arguing over their contractual obligations would voluntarily lose 4 billion dollars…
The owners need to wise up and stop attempting to manipulate the public… Is 6 billion in profits not enough ?
Reads like a bunch of accounting tricks and gimmicks by MLB and teams.
Granted, profits will be down if MLB plays a shortened season or no season…salaries will be down also…..However, in light of the pandemic crisis, if MLB can “break even” or show reasonable losses that can be writeoffs and/or carryover write offs to present and future years, then it should not be a major problem for most teams that have billionaire, well funded ownership groups. and deep pockets corporate ownership groups. Teams like the Mets that rely on team profits to subsidize their other businesses and bad investment decisions(Bernie Madoff) may have to sell since they are in “over their heads” financially and have been for some time…no great loss for MLB…
Open up your Team books to the Players Union to Prove claimed “Financial Hardship before asking the Players to sacrifice More,Proportionally. than Ownership Groups..
Sounds like “revenue sharing” should be flowing the other way this year, with cheapskate owners sending some money over to the big spenders.
As for the players, they’re not getting paid 50% of revenue when times are good…why would they accept that deal when times are bad? They should take on some of the losses, but a small portion of them…or, you know, if the owners are crying “hardship”, the players don’t have to be paid in cash, I’m sure they’d be happy to agree to be paid in shares in instead.
Seems like the possible setting the state for Manfred to call the season off. Owners are not going to hemorrhage money and players don’t want to concede pay so it will cost the owners significantly less not to play and will cost those same players who don’t want to play for half salary their entire salary for 2020.
I’m at the point where I will be surprised if we get Baseball at all this season.
I think owners should bite the bullet. These franchises are worth $1B+ each, it’s the closest thing there is to being knighted in this country, and now they need to suck it up, take the bad with the good. They win long-term by having a season, particularly since it will get spectacular coverage being such unique circumstances. They could even attract a generation of new fans, as many kids are going to be indoors and in front of the TV for much of the summer and potentially fall depending on how this pans out. Pay the players a prorated portion of their contracted salaries and quit the squabble.
Problem is is that the players don’t want prorated salaries and want hazard pay on top of their salaries.
Agreed national spotlight back on baseball with kids and families spending more time at home watching TV but its not solely on the owners
Baseball has been ruined by big money! Greed all around, owners and players and yes the greediest of all mega millionaire agents. I’m sick of them all. I quit going to games 5 years ago. Watch my team on tv only, but have lost that fan forever BS. Now to see them in a struggle over profits, losses, and paychecks is kind of “GOOD”.
You are still interested enough to check out a site about trade rumors and comment about what’s going on with the sport. That doesn’t sound to me like someone who has genuinely lost interest in the game. Don’t try to make yourself a aggrieved party, offended by the effect of money in the game.
Huh ?