Leaked Tampa Bay Rays Docs Make Case for Revenue-Sharing, New Ballpark(Will leaks impactrevsharing?)

[JonLP24]

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But, as the dust has settled, other topics have surface. Certainly, the issue of revenue-sharing is one (see Will Leaked MLB Financials Alter Revenue-Sharing?), and the issue of the Marlins profiting (extensively) in 2008, yet crying poor when asking for public subsidy from Miami-Dade Co. (look for a future column shortly on this). Both stories have reinforced the belief by many that “the system is broken. Clubs taking revenue-sharing are living on welfare.”

But, in looking at the financials of the Tampa Bay Rays show that while modest profits have taken place, without revenue-sharing (and the good fortune of making a run in the postseason in 2008), Tampa Bay would have shown a loss, not profit.

For 2008, the year the Rays made the World Series, the end of year player salary totaled $56,018,335, a striking increase from the $35,563,605 the year prior, or an increase of 53 percent.

At the same time, while going all the way to the World Series, the increase in ticket revenues did not mirror the increase in player payroll. For 2007, the year they went 66-96, the Rays had ticket revenues of $27,963,739. In 2008, winning the AL East and posting a 97-65 record, the club garnered $39,013,069 in ticket sales, or an increase of 40 percent. Suite revenues were almost static between the years ($2.94 for 2007, while $2.93 million for 2008), but at least the club saw a sizeable uptick of more than $6 million in concessions revenues ($9,551,348 up from $3,410,472, or an increase of 180 percent.

http://bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4665:leaked-tampa-bay-rays-docs-make-case-for-revenue-sharing-new-ballpark&catid=26:editorials&Itemid=39

This article is related

Will Leaked MLB Financials Alter Revenue Sharing?

There was something oddly fitting about both a statue of Bud Selig being unveiled and the final set of leaked MLB financial documents becoming public on Tuesday. Selig has said on more than one occasion that we’re witnessing the “Golden Era” of baseball, citing the economic windfall that has come to the league over the last decade. Revenue-sharing, a pride and joy of Selig’s, is at the center of the largest public release of club financial documents – leaked to Deadspin – that include the Pirates, Rays, Mariners, Marlins, Angels, and Rangers(http://deadspin.com/5620880/download-those-mlb-financial-statements-for-your-own-enjoyment)

In July of 2000, with the league claiming projected losses of $232 million for the 2001 season, Selig came before Congress with his Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics report, which at its heart states, “Proper competitive balance will not exist until every well-run club has a regularly recurring reasonable hope of reaching postseason play.” The report then went on to say that, “The limited revenue sharing and payroll tax that were approved as part of MLB’s 1996 Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Major League Baseball Players Association have produced neither the intended moderating of payroll disparities nor improved competitive balance. Some low-revenue clubs, believing the amount of their proceeds from revenue sharing insufficient to enable them to become competitive, used those proceeds to become modestly profitable.”

So, with each Collective Bargaining Agreement since, revenue-sharing has been increased, funneling money from the haves to the have-nots of the league in order to gain competitive balance. In 2009, $433 million in revenue-sharing moved from high-revenue clubs to those in need of assistance.

Along the way, sizable increases in the amount of “central revenue” has found its way into club coffers. The growth of national television money from ESPN, FOX Sports, and TBS which total approx. $660 million a year in rights fees funnel back to each of the 30 clubs. Add in annual dividend checks from MLB Advanced Media of $2 million, revenues from MLB Properties, international broadcast agreements, etc., and all clubs, large revenue-making, or not, have found extra money that can be used to help produce a winning product on the diamond.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/will-leaked-mlb-financials-kill-revenue-sharing/

[El Supremo]

1. Well, Tampa Bay didn't cost us the 2000 election...

like Dade County did.

[trumad]

2. LOL---you really do make this to easy.

Colorado-- 50.75% to Bush--- 42.39% to Gore

Florida---48.85% to Bush---48.84% to Gore

[RockaFowler]

3. And it wasn't Dade County

It was Tallahassee and Katherine Harris.

The real problems were in Palm Beach County (butterfly ballot)