When they're rebuilding, sure. But when they're attempting to maintain a roster for the purposes of extending a competitive window, the TV contract won't even cover half the roster costs. I'm curious...in the best of attendance years, what is the approximate income from ticket sales, stadium advertising, parking, concessions, merch sales plus whatever cut they get from competitive balance funds, MLB-wide (shared) TV deal income, etc. minus the total organization's operational costs ? I don't actually know the answer, but if that number is less than 50+ million, there's no way they're in the black during a competitive window.

Believe it or not, revenues go up when a team is actually successful and there's something for fans to root for, beyond the extra money teams get for making the playoffs.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...s-city-royals/

If that site is to be believed then just from 2013 to 2015 revenue went up $100M and hasn't really come back down.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If we really go short-season/regular/short/regular, it might actually hasten the end of traditional starting pitching. It would screw with the game’s stats for years.</p>&mdash; Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) <a href="https://twitter.com/joe_sheehan/status/1496993234177957891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Of course. I'm not sure I was disputing that. It's only logical. My question was more along the lines of how much they actually take in that does not go straight back out into operations, salaries, etc. It would be interesting to know where that site gets its figures, because both the union and the owners don't seem to have figures they're willing to present. Owners cry that they bleed red for years in a row...players say owners are raking it in. ZERO facts from anyone, including the cited web site. This is simple math.

Big picture - nothing will change substantively until/unless MLB becomes the brand in the same manner as the NFL. As is, MLB is a confederation of local brands...the local brands being primary. While the Chiefs are their own brand, there's no question Clark and the other owners are NFL-first...because as the NFL rises, each franchise rises. Unless MLB changes their business model, little will change. The large-city owners don't want that...they want their city/brand dollars for themselves. And since the largest amount of wealthy and guaranteed contracts belong to the mega-stars from MLB, I doubt they want to see a system where everyone else's contracts go up, but their mega-deals become less common, since there is no equivalent to a QB-type difference maker on a baseball field. So...we are left with a system where the MLB owners fight for terms that benefit the bottom line of their lowest revenue franchises, which will obviously make the highest revenue teams flush with ungodly amounts of profit.

You were making it sound like if their profits are so low now then if they spent just a little more money to be competitive they would be taking a loss. That's true for every team if they are stupid with money, but there's no reason the Royals or any franchise in baseball can't swing probably $120M minimum on payroll.

And this isn't directed at you, but the whole thing with Patrick Mahomes staying in KC because of a salary cap is the dumbest ****ing argument to make. The Chiefs made Mahomes the first ever $500M athlete, in any sport. He's not staying in KC because the Jets can't offer more. He's staying in KC because no one has ever offered more. The Chiefs ponied the **** up.

So give them a salary floor. That's the only solution I can see to make them spend more. Shaming them doesn't seem to be working.

If that's true, then yeah...they should be able to push that payroll up when they are needing to lock up some of their guys. The issue for me is this - I have no clue how anyone is certain of what any of these franchises pocket. Apparently the Braves opened their books to some extent? And they supposedly made 100 Million on the year. If this is true (and I don't know for certain whether this is a good faith, legit opening of their books), you can likely extrapolate an approximation of what others are making based on where they fall on the TV contract and payroll spectrum in contrast with Atlanta.

I wonder if they would go for a soft floor kind of like the soft ceiling. So for the smaller markets who receive benefits like picks and profit shares, if they dont meet the minimum then they start losing freebies.

Today's supposedly the deadline to start cancelling actual games. Looks like the owners are going to play hardball and try to put the squeeze on.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MLB today indicated a willingness to miss a month of games and took a more threatening tone than yesterday, sources briefed on the day’s first meeting between MLB and the Players Association tell me, <a href="https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Ken_Rosenthal</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/FabianArdaya?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FabianArdaya</a>. Full context of conversation not yet known.</p>&mdash; Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDrellich/status/1498363900810743810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Whatever.

Both sides don't care about the average fan. So why should I care if players who if they weren't blessed by elite skills would be making 50,000 at a regular job and billionaire owners who only have the teams as play toys miss out?

Players nor Owners give a shit about the fans or they would have gotten things done and not miss a game.


I think it be funny once they resume playing in a month or two or three that they go back to empty ball parks and fans just don't show up because it's their hard earned money paying for tickets.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In talking to someone in management recently, I floated my theory that I didn&#39;t think owners wanted baseball in April, MLB&#39;s worst month That&#39;s why there&#39;s been no rush. And I was told that&#39;d be news to him. That he believed both sides wanted to start season on time. Now this: <a href="https://t.co/kkWxjChh0s">https://t.co/kkWxjChh0s</a></p>&mdash; Dan Connolly (@danconnolly2016) <a href="https://twitter.com/danconnolly2016/status/1498374096404504578?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Day 8. Jupiter Summit. Owners’ deadline day. Brought a sketchbook to the ballpark. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MLB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MLB</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MLBPA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MLBPA</a> <a href="https://t.co/QvwljhQeBT">pic.twitter.com/QvwljhQeBT</a></p>&mdash; Derrick S. Goold (@dgoold) <a href="https://twitter.com/dgoold/status/1498330173384675332?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Really tired of this. Since MLB locked out the players, I think it's time for the fans to give MLB a taste of their own medicine.

It looks like 7.5 million people have liked MLB on Facebook and 8.5 million are following them. It would be great to see fans unfollow/unlike MLB on social media to make that number fall. Anyone willing to start this movement?

Will it have a great impact? Probably not, but neither does anything MLB is doing (like removing players images/stats from their team websites).

Cancel the season