Baseball Revenue Sharing (2008)

(From the Buster Gammons column of 12/22/08)

Baseball still has shitty revenue sharing, compared to other pro sports. MLB shares the national broadcast dollars (Fox, ESPN, etc.) equally among the 30 teams. However, each team still keeps all of its local TV & radio money, and there’s a hell of a discrepancy between New York and Kansas City, between Boston and Pittsburgh.
The same thing occurs with ticket sales/gate receipts. Each team keeps this gelt to itself, no sharesies, but there is again a wide gap between the top and the bottom. Yes, there’s still some lame-ass “luxury tax” on some high revenue clubs, but it’s similar to Bill Gates giving a shiny quarter to a homeless man – it’s nice, possibly it helps in the short-run, but it doesn’t change long-run circumstances.

The result is that a good many MLB clubs simply can’t compete when a high-priced free agent hits the market. Baseball is a team game and one big-name player doesn’t guarantee a winner. Neither are big-money teams guaranteed of success. (Tampa went to the Series while Yankees didn’t even make the playoffs – hah!) But in Buster’s opinion, a more equitable revenue sharing plan for baseball would make for a more level playing field and give more teams a financial shot at top free agents.

The NFL, on the other hand, equally divides damn near every dollar from every source, because they see it as good for competitive balance and hence good for the league as a whole. MLB could take a lesson.