Featured Columnist IVJuly 24, 2024
Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Major League Baseball and the MLBPA agreed to amend the collective bargaining agreement to reallocate money toward teams that suffered revenue losses from their media rights deals, according to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich.
Drellich reported each qualifying team can earn up to $15 million, with the cash coming from the competitive-balance-tax pool.
Drellich shared a portion of a memo from the MLBPA, with the players’ union laying out the possible benefit of the agreement.
“We believe this agreement should positively affect the player market by softening the impact of revenue declines, by increasing the number of clubs who have monies to spend, and by undermining the ability of clubs to weaponize recent developments in RSN markets,” the union said.
For years, many have wondered when the sports television bubble might burst given how much the medium itself has evolved. That day is starting to arrive with the regional sports network (RSN) model collapsing.
No league has been affected more than MLB, with Drellich writing that perhaps a third of its teams “might be eligible for a media disruption distribution.” In multiple instances, MLB has been forced to step in and assume a franchise’s broadcasting rights because its television partner walked away.
If teams are making less money year to year, then it stands to reason they’re going to spend less.
“By 2025, about half of MLB’s teams could be without the television contracts that annually provided them with tens of millions of dollars, if not more,” ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez wrote in December. “This has triggered an uncertainty that some teams point to — with strong pushback from player agents and union officials — as a primary reason for their payroll constraints.”
Amending the CBA doesn’t resolve the overarching issue because at some point a viable alternative to the RSN model or more stable media partners will need to emerge.
Gonzalez also cited sources within the MLBPA and sports agent sphere who called the present situation “a convenient excuse for teams aiming to cut payroll as a way to maximize profits.” It’s not as though the teams that already earned revenue-sharing money plowed that back into the player payroll.
Joe Sheehan @joe_sheehan
Makes sense. If there is anything we’ve learned over the last 25 years it’s that the more free money you give teams, the harder they compete for talent. https://t.co/9A0ffCO1U2
This will undoubtedly be something MLB and players’ union address again at some point down the road.
