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www.wsj.com
Jethreaux Summary: similar to other WSJ baseball articles I’ve linked, but this one hints at a strike/lockout when the current union/owners agreement expires after the 2026 season. MLB teams have the lowest valuations, on average, of any of the professional teams in the US (NBA, NFL, NHL), but they are the only league with no salary cap. The top 3 teams spent more on free agents in the last two years than the bottom 21 teams. Most surprising part of the article:
“About one third of teams reported earnings of around $20 to $55 million before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, around half of which were small-market teams benefiting from revenue sharing checks.
Around another third took losses of $20 million or more. The remainder roughly broke even. Those figures don’t include teams’ capital expenditures, such as stadium improvements, or debt service.”
That surprised me. I don’t understand everything that goes into those numbers, but that’s lower than I expected, but also explains why their valuations are lower. The poorer teams are pointing at other professional leagues that try to ensure teams are more evenly matched to show the long term financial benefits of that system.
