The MLB labor dispute will spill into the regular season.
There will be no regular season Major League Baseball games for at least one week starting on March 31st because MLB owners and players could not come up with a deal to get the season started on time. The owners will lose some revenue at the ballparks, the players will lose a week’s worth of wages and the various people who work at the ballpark on a per diem basis will lose money as there is no work. There has never been an official evaluation of just what a Major League Baseball game really generates for a community in terms of economic impact and politicians have never really wanted to know. Most teams play in municipal park and recreation facilities which are not open to the general public but are supported by public funds. Some politicians will say oh we are sorry to see the labor dispute continue but don’t expect any criticism of the two sides despite innocent people losing some per diem money. Of course, MLB should be aware that perhaps with a war going on between Russia and Ukraine, with people dying and Russia being hit with major financial sanctions and becoming a sports pariah, maybe from a public relations perspective this spat of how to split up billions of dollars seems rather absurd.
But the Major League Baseball owners are steamrolling people in their industry. They have attempted to marginalize minor league baseball players calling them seasonal workers or interns and got Congress to get rid of minimum wage requirements for those players. They have eliminated more than 40 minor league teams and are forcing elected officials in minor league cities to build a new facility or upgrade an existing ballpark or risk losing that team. The owners locked out the players on December 1st, 2021. It is a bad look, but the owners don’t seem to care.
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
