Baseball is America's pastime and a game that most of us love. However, baseball has hit a crossroads and there are some serious issues that need to be tackled before the game can be fun again. It is time to wake up, realize the problems, and make the necessary changes. The problems that exist in baseball include revenue and profit sharing, re-alignment, expansion, and the playoff system. I feel that baseball should modify these current systems to maximize the potential competitiveness of the league.
Revenue sharing is the first issue I would like to cover. It also happens to be the most important problem at this time. Since the last labor stoppage in 1994, the only revenue being shared has been the national broadcast revenue. Every team receives fifteen million dollars a year from Major League Baseball's television revenue. (Costas 53) A new bargaining agreement was reached August 30, 2002 which called for the increased revenue sharing to small market teams, but it nowhere near fills the void that local broadcast revenue creates.
Babe Ruth, full-length portrait, standing, facing ...
English: Jarry Park Stadium during a Montreal Expo...
James Timothy "Mudcat" Grant, born Augus...(Bloom, sec. 1) For example in 1999 the New York Yankees had local television revenue of 58 million while the Montreal Expos had a measly 3 million, a difference of 55 million with the Yankees making almost twenty times what the Expos made. (Costas 65) No wonder the Yankees can afford to sign big name players such as Jason Giambi and Roger Clemens while the Expos are forced to let superstars such as Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson fall through the cracks. (Sherony, Haupert, Knowles, sec. 18) I feel that for all teams to stay competitive some sort of local revenue sharing should be implement, otherwise teams such as the Expos will continue to be bottom feeders.
Another source of revenue is box office revenue. Once again...