MLB needs a salary cap

[weams]

This thread feels naive and even a little bit insulting to my intelligence and I assume others. Do I really need someone to explain the disparity in payrolls and how it's not an even playing surface for all teams? No kidding. Now for the naive part. It's not changing anytime soon. The owners tried to break the union back in 1994 (without looking up) and it cost us half a season and a World Series. It didn't work then when the owners actually were unhappy enough about the economics of the game to try it. Now, everyone is making money so the system is working whether we like it or not. They system isn't designed to be fair to every team. It's designed to make money for all of the players and owners and you know what. I haven't heard a player or owner complain lately about the system. Fans can complain all they want but the players and owners wouldn't be making money if the fans weren't supporting the current system, which they obviously are.

Economically, this is the golden age of baseball.

This is a truly enlightened post.

[DrungoHazewood]

Or we could just remove that team. Probably smarter. Then close the border to the north completely. With like a trade embargo.

Or better yet. Just annex Toronto. We have the military strength to enforce that like the Russians did Crimea.

Why stop at Toronto. All of Ontario. And make Mike Holmes Territorial Governor.

If we don't act preemptively you know what's going to happen. Think of your children pledging allegiance to the maple leaf. Mayonnaise on everything. Winter 11 months of the year. Anne Murray - all day, every day. And you know... The Canadians. They walk among us. William Shatner. Michael J. Fox. Monty Hall. Mike Meyers. Alex Trebek. All of them Canadians. All of them here.

[weams]

If we don't act preemptively you know what's going to happen. Think of your children pledging allegiance to the maple leaf. Mayonnaise on everything. Winter 11 months of the year. Anne Murray - all day, every day. And you know... The Canadians. They walk among us. William Shatner. Michael J. Fox. Monty Hall. Mike Meyers. Alex Trebek. All of them Canadians. All of them here.

That's what I have been thinking. It's a domino effect. Better to snuff it out during my lifetime I say. At least we have beening singing the OOOOOoooo during their anthem lately.

[BarclaySouthway]

This thread feels naive and even a little bit insulting to my intelligence and I assume others. Do I really need someone to explain the disparity in payrolls and how it's not an even playing surface for all teams? No kidding. Now for the naive part. It's not changing anytime soon. The owners tried to break the union back in 1994 (without looking up) and it cost us half a season and a World Series. It didn't work then when the owners actually were unhappy enough about the economics of the game to try it. Now, everyone is making money so the system is working whether we like it or not. They system isn't designed to be fair to every team. It's designed to make money for all of the players and owners and you know what. I haven't heard a player or owner complain lately about the system. Fans can complain all they want but the players and owners wouldn't be making money if the fans weren't supporting the current system, which they obviously are.

Economically, this is the golden age of baseball.

Exactly. There is no reason to change as long as a strong majority of teams are making good coin. We can't see the books, but being an owner seems like a damn sweet gig these days. If 10-12 teams weren't making any money, then maybe the owners would be motivated to look at the salary structure.

Is rabid fandom becoming too expensive? Definitely yes. There is nothing to be done about it short of what would have to be the most far-reaching, unified boycott in history or some kind of unbelievable, cataclysmic drop in demand.

I actually wouldn't mind some regulation from Congress given the anti-trust exemption and all. Keep the national pastime accessible to Johnny Lunchpail type of thing. That would give other pro sports and other forms of entertainment an unfair advantage, though, and half the country would have their faces boiling off in rage at that Fidel Castro-esque notion.

TL;DR: It will never happen in our or our children's lifetime.

[AlbionHero]

It needs one, but it'll never get one since the Players Association wouldn't agree to their players getting paid less.

[Can_of_corn]

Exactly. There is no reason to change as long as a strong majority of teams are making good coin. We can't see the books, but being an owner seems like a damn sweet gig these days. If 10-12 teams weren't making any money, then maybe the owners would be motivated to look at the salary structure.

Is rabid fandom becoming too expensive? Definitely yes. There is nothing to be done about it short of what would have to be the most far-reaching, unified boycott in history or some kind of unbelievable, cataclysmic drop in demand.

I actually wouldn't mind some regulation from Congress given the anti-trust exemption and all. Keep the national pastime accessible to Johnny Lunchpail type of thing. That would give other pro sports and other forms of entertainment an unfair advantage, though, and half the country would have their faces boiling off in rage at that Fidel Castro-esque notion.

TL;DR: It will never happen in our or our children's lifetime.

Being an owner has always been a sweet gig.

You think any team has ever sold for less then it's purchase price?

[BarclaySouthway]

Being an owner has always been a sweet gig.

You think any team has ever sold for less then it's purchase price?

Right. Even if they don't blow the doors off with profit year-to-year, the capital gains are outrageous. Drug cartels are jealous.

Even George W. Bush made a killing as an owner. That ought to tell you all you need to know.

[Can_of_corn]

Right. Even if they don't blow the doors off with profit year-to-year, the capital gains are outrageous. Drug cartels are jealous.

Even George W. Bush made a killing as an owner. That ought to tell you all you need to know.

The guy that graduated from Yale and the Harvard business school?

[BarclaySouthway]

The guy that graduated from Yale and the Harvard business school?

Yes that guy. The Arbusto guy.

[Can_of_corn]

Yes that guy. The Arbusto guy.

The only President to have an MBA.

[BarclaySouthway]

Sorry to derail the thread with politics. I should have made a different comparison regarding how easy and lucrative it has been being an owner over the last 30 years.

[Can_of_corn]

Sorry to derail the thread with politics. I should have made a different comparison regarding how easy and lucrative it has been being an owner over the last 30 years.

Here I thought we deftly avoided discussing politics.

[BradyBunch]

Baseball is the only major sport without one. It also has a wide disparity of income. I'm fine with setting it above what most teams can afford. But, allowing the Dodgers to have a 240 million payroll is absolutely absurd. The Yanks and Redsox also have been advantaged throughout the last 20 years. So, let's be fair. Set the cap at 175 million and let the lower market teams come up to speed based on inflation and increased revenue. Maybe some of that increased revenue would be the fact that mid and small market fan bases would feel that eventually, they would have an even shot at this.

Before anyone points out that small market teams have been successful, let me preempt you with the fact that even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. You give a competent organization more money to spend, that organization will win more. Basic economics. It's time the playing field is leveled and if we have to put up with ten more years of unfairness, so be it.

I want my grandchildren going to games where one team has an even chance against another.

Actually, Baseball isn't the only major sport. Soccer does not have one and no I am not talking about that joke that is called the MLS. The leagues in the US which have a salary cap (outside of the NFL) are due to the fact of lack of revnue for that sport. NBA, NHL and MLS all have sub $5 billion in revenue for the whole league. NBA is $4.9b, NHL is $3.9b, and MLS is $500m. You can add the reveneue for all 3 and still not reach MLB and NFL reveneue.

Now the NFL's salary cap actually doubled from 1994 to 2004 ($34m to $80m) and today it sits at $143m for 2015. There is no reason to think it won't be $200m by 2020.

What is fair in sports? TV revenue and ticket revenue plays a huge part of this and MLB has been pretty fair in doling out money on TV money from National TV deals and after they take 31% of all teams local money. Starting 2016 only the bottom 15 will get any revenue sharing money from local money. That means Yankees, Dodgers, Angels, Rangers, Nationals and so on won't get a dime anymore. So what they get in National tv money and 66% of local revenue is it. Which is why MLB has been pushing higher and higher tv rights fees and approving the bad tv deals such as the Astros deal.

It's why MLB wants to blow up MASN and let the Nats have their own deal as Nats would be severally handicapped and it's why MASN and Orioles don't want to give Nats what they are asking for as it would push the orioles from the bottom 15 to top 15.

Salary caps also SOLVE nothing, its an easy excuse to use.. Whens the last time the Cleveland Browns went to the Super Bowl? How many times have the Cowboys, Packers, Ravens and Patriots won a Superbowl since 1994? Now how many times have the Jets, Redskins, Chiefs? Money is the same in the NFL, but ownership isn't. Since Salary cap, teams have been come cash cows for owners. How do you think the Cowboys could build a $1b stadium? Jerry Jones glady volunteered his money up for overrun costs because he's gonna get a fixed income from the cowboys until he dies. He's clearing roughly $200m a year in profit from the Cowboys because of the fix caused associated with salary of his team.

Salary cap is nothing more then owners collecting a fixed check and limiting their "losses". The fact you are suggesting the idea of fair into the salary cap idea makes this even a bigger joke. If you want fair then how about you suggest every 15 years your team gets into the World Series or Superbowl or whatever... but you'd get laughed at here for suggesting it. It's sports, nothing is fair in sports, you play to win, and if you don't you are gonna be left behind every year.

[notyourbuddy]

But the salary cap does solve things as it levels the playing field between the country's biggest and smallest media markets. The Patriots aren't winning because they are making use of a financial advantage -- they win because they are the better run organization.

Can't say the same for MLB where a so-so run organization (Yanks) can beat a well run organization (Rays) simply by outspending them. This same dynamic exists in International Soccer where a few rich Middle Eastern oil sheiks build super teams that sit at the top of the standings each year while the other teams serve simply as cannon fodder.

[JayThomas]

I thought it was the civic responsibility of owners to invest as much as they can in team payroll?

Wouldn't a cap just increase the profits of the owners?

Right. A salary cap isn't the answer. Better revenue sharing (redistribution) is.