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Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Will MLBPA be begging for revenue sharing?
Hello? Why is no one talking about this:
Total end-of-year salaries totaled $2,911575,488 – nearly $3 billion dollars. MLB has said that gross revenues totaled $7 billion in 2010, meaning player salaries accounted for 43 percent of the total.
NHL I think is at 57% (fixed as per CBA), and I think NBA is around 55% (also fixed as per CBA). I don’t know what the NFL is.
So, now, we are supposed to believe that a “free” market (not that it’s actually free) for a small percentage of its union members somehow benefits the MLBPA as a whole? Even though they only get 43% of the revenues?
I seem to remember that back in the collusion days, the players would get close to 40% of the revenue.
The difference between then and now? GMs got smart. And young players lock themselves in to huge discounts.
Compare for example to Ovechkin, who signed a 12yr 124MM$ deal with the NHL Capitals. Note that in the NHL, revenues are less than half that of MLB. So, a 124MM$ deal would be akin to a 248MM$ deal in MLB. And Ovechkin signed that with less than 3 years of service. Do you think Longoria or Tulo or Verlander or any of the other young players would be able to sign such a deal? No, of course not. Even in free agency that might not even be able to do so.
And let’s not forget that the minimum salary in MLB is LESS than the NHL, even though they have over twice the revenue! The minimum salary should be at least a million, if not 1.5MM$. Does the MLBPA not care for its young players?
The MLBPA has operated under the belief that owners pay out contracts like they have a gun to their head. What they didn’t count on is that GMs would become smart, educated, and would learn.
Well, here we are. They’ve learned that the slave-players and the arb-players offer an enormous discount a huge discount. And they’ve learned that while free agents are overpaid, they can pay them normal prices if they sign them to just one year, maybe two year deals. And all that learning means that only 43% of revenues goes to payroll.
And what do the agents say? Collusion? That’s laughable. How about they scream “smarty pants”? That’s far more plausible.
The MLBPA should be begging for revenue sharing, and payroll limits. And if they are lucky, they’ll get free agency for all players by the time they hit 28 years old. Don’t get me started on Carlos Ruiz.
***
Maury: can you give us a year-by-year percentage of revenue that’s gone to payrolls?
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