With springtime almost here, many of us look forward to the normal rhythms of life that baseball helps provide. But trust Major League Baseball owners to louse that up with their lockout of players. Spring training should be happening right now. But players are still locked out. And we are not even sure why.
Opening Day at major league parks across the country has been canceled as a result of owners’ unwillingness to share some of their billion-dollar pie. Other games have been called off, too. Baseball may not be able to recover from a prolonged impasse. After the last big labor stoppage in 1994, baseball gained back fans thanks to the tainted steroid era. This time, the worry is that fans will stay away.
Lots of folks will say both sides are at fault — players and owners alike. But such oversimplifications ignore very real issues.
Owners have manipulated service time of younger players for years. Players with three years or less in the big leagues deserve better compensation than they’re getting, and most minor league players are paid poverty-level wages. The player’s union wants to fix the competitive balance of the league. Nothing wrong with all that.
To hear these billion-dollar owners tell it, times are hard. The last five years have been difficult from a revenue standpoint, they claim. But in 2019, the season before a global health emergency caused economic distress everywhere, league revenue increased for a 17th straight year, including a record $10.7 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
You could argue Major League Baseball players are well compensated. But in reality, most pro baseball players are underpaid. Aside from the few eye-popping contracts given to stars, average salaries for players have been flat compared to their peers in the NBA and NFL.
The big losers? Fans. Already, the price of tickets, parking and concessions is out of reach for families. It costs an average of $253 for a group of four to attend a game. Even with Friday “Buck Nights” and other promotions at Kauffman Stadium, working-class people will be hard pressed to attend many games. How do you grow new fans if they can’t attend games?
Fans come to the ballpark to watch world-class athletes swing a bat, throw a ball and run the bases. Players are the primary product and deserve a fair share of the money generated by their talent — something these power-hungry billionaire owners in Major League Baseball shouldn’t easily forget.
Let’s settle this lockout, so we can hear once again those thrilling magic words: Play ball!
