According to a report from the Associated Press, major league teams spent approximately $4.05 billion on player payrolls in 2021. The AP indicates that’s a 4% drop relative to 2019 — the most recent 162-game season — and the lowest full-season tally since 2015’s $3.9 billion. In raw dollars, there was a $167.69MM drop in spending on players between 2019 and 2021, writes Maury Brown of Forbes.
It’s not surprising to see team spending dip. The 2020 season was played with essentially no fan attendance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few ownership groups publicly lamented the loss of gate revenues last year, and free agent spending was chilled a bit last offseason. The value of the qualifying offer — calculated as the average of the 125 highest salaries around the league — also dipped from $18.9MM to $18.4MM between 2020 and 2021, suggesting that spending at the top of the market took a slight step back.
That said, attributing the spending downturn entirely to the pandemic feels a bit simplistic. According to the AP, the league record for player payrolls (a bit less than $4.25 billion) was set in 2017. The league saw slight reductions in spending on players in each of 2018 and 2019, although it had been slated for a new all-time high in 2020 before the season was shortened and player pay was prorated.
However much one wants to attribute the 2020-21 decrease in spending to the pandemic, those figures will no doubt be of interest to the player’s union. While spending at the top of the market took a small step back last year, there’s been a more dramatic decrease for the average player (from a salary perspective) over the past few seasons. In April, the Associated Press found that the median salary of Major League players has fallen 18% since 2019 and 30% since 2015.
That’s largely a reflection of how many teams have approached roster construction over the past few years. By and large, clubs have continued to pay big money for elite talent, but they’ve become more reluctant to invest in players with closer to average production. Star players have continued to set richer precedents and free agency was quite strong in the weeks leading up to the lockout, but the gap has widened between top-of-the-market stars and mid-tier veterans and young players. Recognizing that a roster can be built most cost-effectively by leaning on young talent, front offices in recent years have spent more heavily on premier players, knowing that they can rely on pre-arb players and non-star veterans making lower salaries to provide adequate value on the rest of the roster.
As Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post writes in a piece that’s worth checking out in full, the disconnect between stars, mid-tier veterans and young players presents a challenge in collective bargaining. The league has pointed to the top-end salaries as evidence of a robust economic system. In the letter he penned to fans following the lockout announcement, Commissioner Rob Manfred wrote “Baseball’s players have no salary cap and are not subjected to a maximum length or dollar amount on contracts. In fact, only MLB has guaranteed contracts that run 10 or more years, and in excess of $300MM.”
MLB’s proposal of a salary floor in collective bargaining discussions suggests some willingness on the league’s part to incentivize spending on mid-tier players. That was contingent on drastically reduced luxury tax thresholds that’d limit spending on top-end players, though. Rather than merely redistributing salaries, the MLBPA has focused on raising the players’ overall share of revenues. “MLB’s negotiators are open to changing the way younger players are compensated but do not necessarily believe players need to receive a broader share of the revenue pie to rectify those disparities,” Janes writes. “The union, meanwhile, wants to change the way players are compensated in large part by injecting a greater percentage of revenue back into player compensation — helping those at the bottom without costing those at the top.”
Union members could have differing interests based on their financial status. Yet as Janes notes, a number of key player representatives within the MLBPA reside squarely on the top end. Gerrit Cole, Marcus Semien, and Max Scherzer are among the sport’s premier athletes advocating for a market that is kinder to their youngest and oldest peers. This advocacy isn’t lost on others on the union side, including retired reliever and self-proclaimed “middle-of-the-pack guy,” Jerry Blevins. The former big league southpaw tells Janes having players with nine-figure salaries trying to push forward salaries for lower-tier vets “makes a big difference because they represent us, the normal guy, even though at the same time they’re benefiting from the system as it’s set up.”
The AP and Forbes each provide additional data on team spending habits. According to the AP, ten teams ended the season with a payroll under $100MM, a figure not seen since 13 teams ducked under that mark in 2014. The Pirates checked in with the lowest end-of-year payroll at $50MM, the lowest figure for any team since 2013. The Dodgers and Yankees were the only teams to exceed $200MM in actual payroll; the Dodgers and Padres, meanwhile, were the two clubs whose commitments exceeded the luxury tax threshold. (CBT calculations are based on deals’ average annual values as opposed to year-by-year payouts, explaining why the Padres paid the tax while the Yankees didn’t in spite of New York having the higher actual payroll).
Eleven teams raised their payrolls between 2019 and 2021, according to Forbes. The Padres’ 77% jump from around $104MM to approximately $184MM was easily the biggest. The Guardians had the biggest decline over that stretch, dipping from $123MM in 2019 to $53MM this past season. Forbes provides the exact payrolls of all thirty teams in 2019 and 2021 for those interested.
So?
La?
Si?
Ti?
Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do?
SCANDAL!
It is kind of a ridiculous article. I liked the first 2 paragraphs. Every paragraph after that seemed to pander to the union. He’s basically saying MLB lost money so the players lost money but he thinks the players lost too much money. Considering he’s a writer I don’t think he has that much inside info. Unfortunately the “always back the players and always go against the owners” mantra has been going on with the site for awhile now. Most of them even support the juiced players. They are still good people though and you can’t beat their breakneck speed on releasing news. I would love it if they had just one guy who isn’t always against the owners though.
@ Please, Hammer. Don’t hurt ’em.;
You’re new here. I’ve been around on and off for maybe 5 years.
This site basically panders to the union and agents.
This one-sided article in par for the course. Expect more. It’s funny.
A few years ago in a chat one of the writers stated that he didn’t understand why players weren’t paid according to their stats, and that all players should just hit and pitch as hard as they can ignoring the game situation. As for salaries – players should be paid the same whether they play in a large market where the average fans salary is far higher than in a small market where the average fans salary is far lower.
This is never-ending. It’s what I dreaded about the CBA coming up this off-season. Nonsensical political posturing.
Samuel12 hours ago
You’re new here. I’ve been around on and off for maybe 5 years.
==================================
It’s not just here; it’s all journalists. Journalism has always been leftwing profession, just as much as accounting is a rightwing profession. Even journalists that aren’t LW probably feel the pressure to be pro-union.
Two co-authors, so it is “they” not “he”.
And I certainly have not picked up a MLBTR bias toward juiced players.
The owners are irrelevant to the game ! Every single one of them is replaceable locally by another rich guy who’ could do just as good if not better then said current owner ! I for one know who’s more valuable to the game between arte Moreno an Shohei Ohtani ! Mlb wouldn’t miss the former if he was out of baseball and would deeply miss the latter! Again they tried replacement players that would play for what owners and you tools think they should be happy making nobody watched IT, if they tried replacement players again nobody would watch
@Please, Hammer, the writer is simply painting a picture of the situation to provide context on why the MLBPA is playing harder ball this year. If Anthony Franco and other writers left that information out, then you’d have no idea why the negotiations around the CBA has changed this year from prior years. Nothing really to be upset about on your side. In the end, the MLBPA allowed this current structure to take place over the last couple of CBA’s, and they’re now going to slowly try and turn the ship back toward having a revenue split closer to what it was a few CBA’s back, as well as ensuring the dollars are spread more evenly among its base. That’s very important to union members. Won’t happen in one CBA.
The league is learning to promote prospects rather than resign aging veterans.
That was my first thought too. Lots of top talent already contributing on rookie deals.
I’d like to see that addressed in the new CBA ( getting players up earlier and not punishing teams for doing so) but would also like to see the min salary come way up.
“ It’s not surprising to see team spending dip.”
Then why write a huge article?
I guess they should have written an article about all the free agent signings instead.
Today I learned that ten paragraphs is a “huge article.”
Huge means different things to different girls.
The meaning of DOUBLE ENTENDRE is a word or expression capable of two interpretations with one usually risqué.
Yep. What they see when you ain’t there.
compared to yours!
CoLlUsIoN !
LOL
Burn down your local teams headquarters!
You know, where posters here write that signing a guy for $2m to play a year is nothing.
The league is getting younger. Or at least players with less service time. Teams would much rather spend less money on talent that is still developing, then pay for an aging veteran. Whether that’s right or wrong, that’s the way things are trending, and will continue to trend.
Good. 99% of the players aren’t worth more than league minimum. Constantly injured by running to first or sliding into a base.
ceos of largest corporations aren’t worth what they are getting paid but they are payed very well since losing them to other companies are conceived as bigger losses. the players are getting paid more than you are because they have unique skills most us lack. and any team signing big money f/a make whole lot more in return in increased attendance and jersey sales.
Is that you Bernie?
True. I wonder if team executive pay decreased that much .
Matt:
That would be interested to see if pay for team executives went up or down, some might have bonuses tied to attendance or tv revenue.
Vizionaire13 hours ago
any team signing big money f/a make whole lot more in return in increased attendance and jersey sales.
====================================
I seriously doubt that. Teams get increased attendance when they win, not when they spend. I picked the Tigers at semi-random. When they were winning, they drew 3M. In 2019, they drew half of that.
There will be some congruence between success and high payroll, over time, but just signing 1-2 big FAs won’t do much for attendance, unless you win.
Are the owners “worth” about 10x what the best paid players are making?
@ seamaholic 2;
Do the players work year-round and invest their money in MLB?
The owners front up a billion or so to be involved and manage everything that is necessary to keep the lights on at an MLB club. Worth plenty. Deserve some love for just taking it on if you ask me.
Sports are a unique business because one side needs people with a specialized skill set. The other side with the unique skill set need a forum to utilize that specialized skill set. If one doesn’t have the other, nothing works.
Thank you. It’s kind of like saying that the person welding cars together is the person doing all the work. And ignoring the person that saved the money, got investors, built the factory and ran the business, is just a bystander.
You need both sides.
front offices are smarter and not throwing money at guys who are not worth it.
so, the article proves lowering player salaries won’t lower ticket prices.
It’s almost like the market value of tickets is based on the demand and not the cost of the product itself. Hmmmmm, theres a word for that, right? catipolism? cipatolism? It escapes me.
Don’t be a smart alek
tstats, you ever banter with your buds?
Capitalism’ is cool for everyone but professional athletes it seems ! They should just be happy to take what the useless to the game owners say they should be happy with ! Not all fans are like that but way to many.
@ Noel1982;
LOL
A minimum salary player makes more in salary and benefits in a year than you will in 10.
Gads.
Good for them ! I’m all for more of the money going to the players and less to the owners who I don’t find relevant to the game at all ! I don’t care about their risk or whatever! Every owner is replaceable by his local peer ! The players on the other hand aren’t replaceable they have tried that a few times it didn’t take ! Nobody cares about the Yankees if you and I are the battery for the Yankees lol !
More money to the players less to the owners
Chipper only ever banters with the 5 alternate accounts he uses. If only he was funny, tolerable, and knowledgeable about baseball, then he’d be an ok commenter
You’re just jealous I charged you $10
Damn bro you got the whole squad laughing -_-
True. Nobody pays ticket prices or rights’ fees to watch me do my job.
at you, 69!
Haters will say “yeah I let strangers have their way with my unconscious body, but you’re just mad about it!” and act like it’s some kind of sick comeback.
Yall could see someone spontaneously teleport and be like “it’s cuz he can’t afford a car.” You live in a sad clownworld where the population is just Chipper and his alt accounts
What you are experiencing is psychosis
As long as chipper THINKS people like him, his ego will continue to fuel his commentary. Shame.
It isn’t banter when you speak in catchphrases and trendy cliches. You only sound like a jackass.
Noel: if there are no owners, there are no teams. I’d say that’s about as relevant as it gets.
Every single owner in mlb right now could sale their team to the next rich local owner in their market and they would all get a lot more then what they paid originally for their teams ! And mlb wouldn’t suffer one iota for that !
Another reason why it just sounds dumb when owners and fans are saying player salaries are ruining baseball ! It’s not close to a accurate statement
Your beer money isn’t helping pay player salaries either that all goes to the owners ! The tv deals pay almost all player salaries and that’s not counting the local tv deals that all go to the owners ! Again don’t feel bad for owners , owners for teams in nba nfl and mlb all have a great! Owning a team is a cash cow even for pirates and rays player salaries are no problem
It’s not a “free market” when the league has an anti-trust exemption.
@ antone;
RIGTHT ON! POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!
The players should start their own league.
Did you know that in the 1930’s ML players would “barnstorm” around America to make extra money. It was a giant headache for guys like Bob Feller (one of the organizers) and it petered out.
How did it go when mlb tried replacement players ? People with your thinking where like hell yeah it’s still mlb baseball and I’m gonna watch ! That didn’t last more then a game ! The owners are irrelevant to the game
@ antone;
RIGHT ON!
Burn it down.
The fans can’t wait to spend big money on players that were good 2 years ago.
Antone Williamson:
Agree!
My preference is not more for owners or more for players, but rather more for fans.
As a condition of antitrust exemption, there should be at least 100 free baseball games on internet per year. And right now, MLB does often offer one free game on most days.
@ MannyBeingMVP;
B I N G O
You’ll note that in all the articles regarding discussions between owners and players, there is no discussion about the fans…..i.e. the buyers of the product.
When I see posters here claiming that the owners are making the players take what they give them, in reality it’s the FANS that are asked to take what the players and owners give them….and we’re the ones paying the freight.
Every once in a while I bring up the fans and it’s ignored here.
I’d like to see the anti-trust protection repealed and let leagues start up that are concerned about providing a quality product for the fans. The current Commissioner is a joke with his titillating gimmickry. Fans understand baseball. That’s what most want. We don’t need marshmallows in our bourbon.
there’s a free game every day. that would far exceed the 100.
Vizionaire.. how does it “prove” this? Player salaries are one of many expenses that a club has to cover with their revenue. So the fact that total player salaries went down does not mean that total expenses went down. While player salaries are down about 4% between 2021 and 2019.. MLB attendance was down more than 40%. No doubt there is still a major hit to leaguewide revenue.
This is art imitating life. Just like society, the rich are getting richer while the middle class is feeling the squeeze; getting let go for cheaper, younger employees at a lower cost. I certainly don’t feel bad for the MLB middle class, having to ‘settle’ for $3M per year instead of the $5M or $6M they feel they deserve, but so long as the Union keeps electing the richest players to represent them, nothing is going to change. The Union should have 8-10 veterans who make $2M-$8M per year representing them. At the end of the day, the owners only have so much to spend. If a team is paying 3 players, $30M+ each for multiple years, the only way to offset that is to have at least 20 players on the 40 man roster making the league minimum or close to that. And then the second tier of players (3-4 guys) can only be paid $8M-$12M apiece to offset those massive contracts at the top of the roster. So the more the Union pushes for these massive 10+ year, $300M+ contracts, then more the ‘upper middle class’ and ‘middle class’ will have to sacrifice in order to accommodate the stars. It’s simple economics. Baseball is not as profitable as everyone thinks it is. For most franchises, there’s a fine line between a profitable season and a financial loss season. In my opinion, the owners should open up their books to the Union. The players would be very surprised to see just how tight the budget is for the majority of teams. If you look at the Braves financials, player salaries are well below 50% of total team expenses, so there’s a lot more expenses in baseball than what the owners pay the players.
If the owners were not making as much money as we all think, they would have already opened their books to the players, and to the public. They have not, which suggests they are making as much as we think, and maybe a lot more.
Just take a look at the Braves financials (which are public). By all accounts the Braves are a Top 10-12 franchise from a revenue perspective and they really don’t make much money per year. They do okay at the EBITDA level ($50M-$70M annually) but they actually lose money from a GAAP accounting perspective, after factoring in amortization, depreciation and taxes. Now there are a few teams that print money like the Yankees because they have a huge market with high-paying regional television deals but most importantly, they have no sizable debt since George bought the team in the 1970’s for $10 million dollars!
For newer owners (the last 10+ years), they really don’t make much money at all. Since there are only 30 franchises, team valuations continue to increase at a record rate, but new owners do not buy these teams for the annual income; they buy them as a status symbol amongst other billionaires. They also don’t use their personal cash to buy these teams outright. They finance a large portion of the purchase price so their teams have significant debt. But that’s okay for them as it lowers or eliminates the team’s tax burden (billionaires hate paying taxes), they haven’t spent their personal fortune to buy the team outright, they use OPP (Other People’s Pennies) and they know once they are done with their ‘hobby’, they can find another billionaire to take the team off their hands and finally get a sizable return on investment.
Once upon a time, MLB owners actually made decent money. Today, the inflated purchase prices of these franchises lead to massive debt service to go along with record real estate and construction costs and exorbitant player salaries. It doesn’t take a CPA to figure out being a new MLB owner isn’t nearly as profitable on an annual basis as one may think.
Dry, understated comment of the day: ““MLB’s negotiators are open to changing the way younger players are compensated but do not necessarily believe players need to receive a broader share of the revenue pie to rectify those disparities,” Translation—hey, as long as the wealthier players take less to pay for it, we are good with lower-salaried players getting more…no skin off our backs.”
No reason for it to go down. The middle class is getting cut in MLB just like in America. Owners point to no fans but they also didn’t have all the workers they normally do. and most of their revenue comes from TV deals anyway. But people won’t care because they say players get paid too much. But don’t ever complain about the owners making hand over fist. Look at Albert Pujols, he was viewed as a bust and a wast of money. But he made the Angels more money then they paid him
The real story is how these franchises underpay the least of their employees. The minor league players. It’s go to see they will be paying for housing in the future but still the salaries need to be increased.
Hey, fast food workers get $15+ an hour. How many hours a week do minor league baseball players ‘work’? Pay then accordingly. Let’s see, 6 hours a day spent at the ballpark, that’s $90 a day times 6 days a week. $350/wk before taxes. Seems about right. If that’s not enough, go old school, get a part time job, pick a new profession, go to school, work harder, get better, make a major league roster, get paid accordingly.
Minor leagues show up at 2 and leave at 11 (or once the game ends). It’s a 9 hour day. That’s $810 a day using your belief it is a $15 hour job.
9*15=135, not $810.
for a 6 day week.
Yea, meant a week.
Yea, meant a week.
==============================
That being the case, if they made $810/week, then that’s $42,120/year. That’s not the end of the world for someone trying to become one of the 1%ers..
This is probably par for the course for anyone that got a college degree in acting, singing, music, writing, etc. Most of them probably earn nothing doing what they major in and a few percent go on to make gazillions.
I think the league is starting to learn and spend money more wisely. Sure you will get the signing where you are obligated to pay a ridiculous amount, but staffs are starting to learn that you can find a lot of talent in the minor leagues and in players that fit your wants and needs at a much lower cost.
“Biblical losses”
What kind of article is this?
So players salaries dropped over the past few years. and….
–
“That said, attributing the spending downturn entirely to the pandemic feels a bit simplistic.”
–
Golly – uh, what were revenues and expenses the years the salaries dropped?
Working “Journalists” today could not have passed the first semester of my 7th grade Journalism class.
This site is better than most! In the old days, journalists could spend days editing their prose. Now the goal is to report news in minutes rather than hours or days. I greatly admire the old print journalists, but the world has changed.
Doing it fast is not an excuse for doing it wrong.
if you were really a teacher haven’t you greatly benefited since you are a member of a union?
LOL
If you really had graduated a school you’d have some basic reading comprehension…then again…..
What union? Where did I write I was a teacher?
P.S. Unions have done for American Public Education what they did for American Car manufacturers….which is whey most American cars are manufactured in other countries…
american car manufacturing was ruined by execs trying to save money on designing, engineering and manufacturing process. some of the old van nuys gm plant workers did and dealt drugs. where were the management? doing drugs in their office suites.
by the way. both my kids have gone to public schools. my daughter is a teacher receiving awards. my son is an engineer upward moving and getting paid well. both are in unions as i had during my career as an engineer till i became a manager.
Now do it w adjusted inflation. Let’s go Brandim!
rich get richer poor gets poorer!
Getting a little strange in this set of comments. Personally, I don’t care how much owners make, as long as they aren’t reaching into my taxpayer pocket to subsidize it. And I don’t care how much players make, because they have hard-to-replicate skills that I couldn’t even dream of having, I have no right to cheap seats and beers when these guys, owners and players, won’t sell cheap. If I’m really angry with them, I don’t have to go….but who am I really depriving, anyway? When we say the sport doesn’t exist without the fan, well, that’s partially true, but the level of competition creates interest in the sport at a premium price. Players owe us nothing except a legitimate effort when they take the field. Owners the same beyond not exploiting us for government freebies. I’d like the two sides to come to an agreement. I’d like younger players (and especially the minors) get a fairer shake. But the biggest problem for baseball right now, from a fan experience, is teams deliberately tanking. It not only puts an inferior product on the field, it also influences playoff races,
I’d like to go to a game and not have to pay $10 for a beer or $20 to park a mile from the entrance. Tell me again how fans aren’t being exploited?
If you voluntarily do all that, then you aren’t being exploited.
And the idiots get dumber
Players have seen their median salary decline and their overall compensation go down. Don’t for a minute think they will accept a CBA that does not increase player pay overall. The owners proposal to lower the CBT in exchange for a salary floor will likely lower overall player compensation.
The classic tug of war between labor and management: Labor wants more money and management wants to pay them less and keep more for themselves. So I don’t expect the CBA to be settled anytime soon. One of the most logical ways to solve this would be to raise the league minimum and allocate some money to compensate players on the basis of service time. That would allow mid and lower tier veterans to accept lower salaries because they know that they will get some money coming their way through the service time allocation. Nothing stops such veterans from signing low dollar contracts currently, except their own pride. But it has gotten to the point they are not even asked if they will accept a low dollar contract, the teams are just turning to their younger controllable talent. That leaves them either unemployed or fighting for table scraps that is a MiLB deal.
After the spending we just saw at the beginning of this offseason, I’m not quite concerned with spending being down the first full season after a pandemic.
read!
@vonpurplehayes
2/3rds of that $1.5bn spending was committed to just 7 players.
And Bellinger gets $17M for hitting like a pitcher
The baseball industry is a rich one that most people will never see. TV drives most of the sports revenue today. Players salaries have nothing to do with ticket prices. Teams charge what people will pay, just like TV cable companies, or going to a concert.. Most fans just don’t care. All we want is the games to be played on time.!
Wait! Player spending during a pandemic went down??? I’m shocked! Shocked and appalled! Next you’ll tell me there is gambling in this establishment.
It’s simple. Better to promote a guy in AAA for the minimum than give an aging veteran another shot with a higher salary.
yeah, corporations have been doing that for a long time and they are finding it hard to sell their products to the masses who’re living on minimum wages.
Vizionaire, maybe people shouldn’t settle for minimum wage and strive for more? You want it, go get it.
@theodore
But surely just coincidence that the most veteran laden team won more regular season games than anyone else in 2021…..
The only true injustice in baseball in my opinion is the paltry amount minor league players make. Way less than minimum wage for most. Fix that and I won’t complain about Francisco Lindor making 341 million dollars despite basically sucking for the last 2 years.
60 game season and no fans. Surprisingly, it’s not down more.
There were more young plater the Sept call up da only allowed 2 extra players… Add these issues up and payroll will be down.
Shocker after all the losses from COVID in 2020.
Aww boo hoo. God forbid they can’t get a couple million more on their contract. Why the hell does one person think they need that much money? Some of these players are just ridiculous with how much they want
“The union, meanwhile, wants to change the way players are compensated in large part by injecting a greater percentage of revenue back into player compensation — helping those at the bottom without costing those at the top.”
===========================================
That’s not going to happen. It’s a bit like me asking for a lot more fringe benefits, but refusing to budge on salary. I’ll simply be told that I can have a car allowance, but not a raise.
This is typical politics. If the union and players ‘claim’ to want to help the lower earners, why not have a fund that all players making say 20 million per, pay into? It’s just like the rich liberals being ok with a tax increase. They don’t pay it either way just the middle class takes the hit. Same story.
It’s like that with a lot of unions. The older folks seldom give up anything, and let the newer members take the blow.
How about comparing relative team payrolls from the top half of the league to the bottom half of the league?
I’m sure there are specific teams that drag this overall number way down. Maybe a simpler way would be to toss out the top and bottom three, how would it then compare?
Also, do these numbers include performance related contract numbers?
Does no one think that having to utilize a 60 man player pool at league minimum would lower average player salary numbers?
By the way, how many of those 60 player pool minor leaguers ended up receiving RAISES due to active time spent on a major league roster versus spending two seasons strictly in the minors?
I hate when data is strictly manipulated and presented in way to ‘prove’ a one sided argument.
Eleven teams raised their payrolls between 2019 and 2021, according to Forbes.
======================================
I’m surprised it was that high.
All in all, not a lot to this article. No attendance in 2020, and attendance in 2021 of 45M, compared to 2019 attendance of 68M. 23M less tickets sold at ~ $50 in revenue is a reduction of $1.15B.
So why is anyone surprised salaries dropped as well? A drop of $167M is actually pretty low, relative to the drop in ticket revenue.
Between 2007 and 2019 MLB attendance is down just below 14%. 2021 attendance is down over 30% compared to 2019. I think the players should be thankful their average pay is not down more than 4%.
well said.
So, the only league WITHOUT a salary cap is the only league where salaries are going down.
It’s almost like getting a guaranteed % of the sport’s ever growing revenue in exchange for a competitive balance increasing salary cap is a good move after all.
It has been for a long time. The unions chiefs never anticipated the growth of on-line streaming, and increased RSNs. Now they are under-estimating the growth in gambling revenue, imho.
The union seems to be stuck with the idea that they can raise salaries faster than owners can raise revenues.
by injecting a larger percentage of revenue will not help the young players. Only a fool would believe that garbage. Same as raising taxes, affecting the rich…..