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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Salary Cap?

In short, no.

A salary cap in baseball would not work for several reasons.

The first and foremost reason is that, despite the volume of "overpaid bums" in the league, players in the MLB are underpaid given the league's annual revenue. In 2007, the cumulative league revenue totaled somewhere around $6.075 billion. At the same time, cumulative payroll was just under $2.625 billion. 43.2% of team revenue, in other words, went towards MLB salaries. That pales in comparison to the salary cap of other sports. The NHL's salary cap is set at 54% of league revenue, while the NFL is set at 55%.

Clearly, given the revenue of the MLB, the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is not out of control.

Secondly, teams ownership already pockets as much change as it can. The Marlins, whose payroll was gutted to be under $25 M last year, are receiving federal funds to build their new stadium. Same goes for The Yankees, who are getting money from the NY taxpayer to build a new stadium that charge ticket prices that restrict 80% of the population from being able to afford the "luxury" of a live baseball game. If anything is out of control, it is ticket prices. I'm all about free market and understand that if people are willing to pay, they should be able to pay, BUT I'm not a fan of the fact that live Baseball, in recent years, has become oriented to the wealthier and business class. That's just a case of shutting out the grassroots fan base from being able to enjoy a day out and cold glass of overpriced beer. More power to league revenue, but if any cap is being placed in MLB, I say it be placed on ticket prices. Don't, however, keep teams from spending any more money then they currently are. At least the Yankees, who are charging $250 a seat at new Yankee Stadium, are trying to give the fans their money's worth.

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