It’s tough to write about sports when there are no sports being played, and adding to the general chatter surrounding when and how sports will return seems ineffective. A bitter argument between millionaires and billionaires over amounts of money unfathomable to the average person is never a good look, and the one happening between MLB’s owners and players is especially distasteful. There are cases being made on both sides of the issue, but I’m just so frustrated that this is even a discussion in the first place. Businesses all over the world have been drastically affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Some massive businesses like Amazon are thriving as the average consumer begins to place a significantly increased value on their services. Additionally, some other smaller businesses are in position to take advantage as well – I’d like to cite the one I own as an example. Lord Knows Marketing provides digital marketing and web development services to small businesses, and demand for my work has been through the roof. Other businesses large and small are not so lucky.
My favorite restaurant anywhere near my home decided in early April to close their doors for good. Many other companies have suffered economically from closings, restrictions on their service, or reduced demand. The specifics behind the losses vary widely from company to company, but one constant remains universal – the owner(s) of each company are responsible for those losses. The business owner alone shoulders the burden of the financial hardships associated with diminished sales, just as they alone reap the rewards during the times where revenues outpace expectations – typically as a result of an exceptional performance by one or more of their employees.
Baseball teams are just like any other business. Their businesses have been negatively affected by the pandemic in a drastic fashion. Fortunately for them, their businesses are in remarkably good shape to withstand a severe loss. In the past they have reaped rewards that place them in the elite of the elite. In the not terribly distant future, they will again reap the massive rewards that come along with owning an MLB franchise – provided they can manage to remain even close to as popular as they have been for the last 120 years or so. While the pure volume numbers like a loss of $640,000 per individual game sound astronomical to the average person, in the face of the revenues MLB teams generate over time it is no different from my business losing a client or two for a period of time or a restaurant only being able to operate with take out and delivery service.
The players being willing to play for a prorated salary based on the number of games was a reasonable concession for them to make, but it should not go unnoticed that it is a concession. Every current player has already agreed to give up millions of dollars that the likes of Bobby Bonilla, Prince Fielder, and Jacoby Ellsbury don’t have to sacrifice. I’m not trying to say that a further reduction in salary is exactly the same thing as a grocery store owner trying to get a cashier to work for less than minimum wage because sales are slow, but it’s in the same ballpark. Everything I’ve read seems to indicate that the owners think it is impossible to re-negotiate for additional fees from their local networking broadcaster based on what I perceive to be significantly increased demand. I don’t understand why it is unrealistic to consider re-negotiating a TV contract but they just assume that they can drastically reduce the already drastically reduced guaranteed contracts of the players. I wonder if the unwillingness to negotiate on the TV side has anything to do with the fact that most baseball team owners also have an ownership stake in the networks that broadcast their games?
The owners have an immense vested interest in the game of baseball remaining profitable long into the future. Their businesses may be hurting now, but these losses can be washed away easily in a few short seasons. They need to be looking at the losses in the 2020 season as an investment into the future, the same way they might look at their spending on an advertising campaign to get voters to approve a publicly funded stadium where they can continue to sell their product for decades to come as an investment. The amount of money they stand to lose by playing as many games as possible in 2020 is drops in the bucket compared to what they stand to gain if they could manage to provide the comfort of a baseball game to millions of socially distanced sports fans, as well as paling in comparison to what they could lose if the popularity of baseball takes a significant hit over their lack of play and poor public relations.
This brings me to my final point – we really shouldn’t be arguing about the number of games as a financial issue. The number of games played is a health and safety issue for the players, pure and simple. They must take into account the injury risks associated with double headers and fewer off days as well as the additional risks caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Those factors should be the only ones taken into consideration when deciding how many games are played. We all should fundamentally agree on all sides that we want as much baseball as possible. Far more important than any amount of money on either side are the fans who love baseball and are going to make sure that baseball continues to be a billion dollar industry for centuries to come. We all want as many games as we can get, and any agreement that sacrifices possible games in the interest of saving either side money is a slap in the face to all of us. They need to figure out the maximum number of games that can feasibly be played, and play that many.
Baseball has already let an opportunity to own the American sports landscape during this unprecedented time slip away. Now the best case scenario is to get in a little less than half a season, resulting in regular season games in a watered-down campaign competing with playoff action in the NBA and NHL. If they fail at getting that together, the negotiations for the next CBA are going to be even more contentious. I’m not as pessimistic as some when it comes to the popularity of baseball, but a lost 2020 season combined with more bad press about rich people arguing about money coming right up could be a hefty blow to the sport. People shouldn’t stand for it, and for all the posturing of the owners of their financial hardships getting some fans “on their side” against the players, ultimately it doesn’t matter who’s side they’re on – pissed off fans are not good for the sport. Any type of labor stoppage is bad, but not playing at the time when the fans need it the most is something that has the potential to be far more damaging than anything we have seen before.
