Harold Capote Fernandez
A lot of frustration and uncertainty has generated the current lockout in the major leagues, to date there are 82 days of impasse between MLB and the Players Association (MLBPA for its acronym in English). But why did this situation happen?
According to the dodgerblue.com portal, revenues for the world’s best baseball have increased every season except in 2020 due to the pandemic, and set a record $10.7 billion in 2019, according to Forbes.
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So far, it is unknown how much revenue has been generated after the 2021 season, as the clubs keep this financial information secret as much as possible.
But, ignoring this last detail, it can be deduced why the current dispute between the two parties is critical, each wants a bigger part of the huge cake of revenue generated by the Major League industry.
This presumption is reinforced because despite rising team revenues, players have seen less of that money each season since the last collective bargaining agreement (CBA), concluded before the 2017 season, with payrolls down nearly 5% per year. compared to their previous one. high in 2017, according to Ronald Blum of The Associated Press.
Expanding on that, we see that Big Show’s payroll fell 4% in 2021 from the last full season (2019), and the $4.05 billion total was the lowest in a full year since 2015.
Additionally, payrolls are down 4.6% from their all-time high of just under $4.25 billion in 2017, the CBA’s recently expired first year, according to information sent to clubs. by the commissioner’s office and obtained by The Associated. .
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Spending on major league players hasn’t been this low since a total of $3.9 billion in 2015.
To level this situation, one of the key points, demanded by the MLBPA, is to guarantee better remuneration to the players, had then declared the executive director of the union, Tony Clark.
Likewise, the MLBPA hopes to fix the problem by helping players get paid properly earlier in their careers, unlike the current system that caps earnings until they have six years of experience and can become free agents.
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That said, the game is caught between the aspirations of one party versus the proposal made by the other.
As players negotiate a greater share of the revenue they earn, commissioner Rob Manfred called the MLBPA proposals “collectively the most extreme set of proposals in its history,” while chief negotiator for MLBPA’s Bruce Meyer argued that the unreasonable proposals came from the League side.
In other words, they cannot find common ground on how to share the profits.
Major League Baseball, what are your types of income?
Television is going to generate money for MLB.
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With the Turner Sports network alone, $3.2 billion is secured for the next seven years, this after signing a contract in June 2020. The agreement includes the broadcast of regular season games, playoffs and of the World Series.
Very similar treatment is given to ESPN and Fox. On the other hand, due to the licensing of television rights, the major leagues will average $1,840 million from 2022, profits obtained through contracts with national media.
On the other hand, there is sponsorship, where Nike is the biggest investor with the 10-year agreement, which took effect in 2020, in exchange for 1,000 million dollars.
This section also includes Amazon Web Services, MasterCard Inc, Bank of America Corp, Apple, among others. Let’s not forget that some stadiums bear his name as a sponsorship of certain brands, such as the Minute Maid Park of the Astros (170 million agreed for 27 years), the Citi Field of the Mets (400 million for 20 years) , or Target Field ($125 million over 25 years).
In 2017 alone, 900 million were signed up by sponsors.
Mention should be made of the income generated by the sale of tickets, as well as drinks and meals in the stadiums.
