Sell Or Move? Maybe. Contraction? Not So Much
Bud Selig, New Stadium July 14th. 2010, 9:00am
In a Q&A with Bud Selig, the commissioner was asked about the possibility of contracting the Rays should they fail to land a new stadium…
No, I wouldn’t. I think we have moved past that.
We’re going into 16 years of labor peace. I regard that as maybe the prime reason for the growth of the sport.
I love the new ballparks. I love revenue sharing. I love interleague play and the wild card. But I don’t think we understood how those labor confrontations were damaging us, whether it was 1972, 1973, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1990 or 1994.
There is no question that both of those teams need new ballparks. We’ll just have to work our way through it. Tampa has done a marvelous job running their team. [General Manager] Billy Beane has done a terrific job in Oakland. With the economics of baseball today, you’ve got to have a new stadium.
Contraction was always a silly idea and we have long been surprised it got so much play. Yes, baseball operates, in part, as 30 different businesses. But in reality it is one entity. And that entity makes a LOT of money. Sure the Rays have attendance issues. But if they were contracted, MLB would lose nearly 2 million ticket sales each year and X millions in merchandise sales. Why would they do that?
Florida is a huge market. And it is still a relatively untapped market for Major League Baseball. There is money to be made. Contraction not only misses out on that opportunity, it costs MLB money it is already making.
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Baseball as 30 different business? I know what you mean, however, the recent Supreme Court case of American Needle vs the NFL would like to differ.
You are right. Those fans and their dollars would not be transferable to the Braves, Yankees, Mets, or any other team if the FL teams were to close up shop. As a matter of fact, those dollars would probably go to the NHL, NFL, or maybe even the Arena League. Or in my case, instead of going to the Trop every Friday, I would be watching pro wrestling at a local bar. But that’s just me. The bottom line is MLB loses money.