The lockout has more of an impact on those not involved in the baseball industry.
Major League Baseball pre-season games are on hold through at least March 5th which impacts numerous communities in Florida and in the metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona area. It means some people, ushers, vendors, parking lot attendants could be losing some money which would help pay off bills but that is of no concern to the owners or players. The owners and players are trying to split up billions upon billions of dollars and the thought of a senior living on a fixed income or a college kid losing a days’ worth of tips is not given a thought as the two sides try to hammer out an agreement. And those who have cable or satellite TV, don’t count on your local provider to refund money from games not shown due to the lockout. That money is lost as it has been in every other major sports labor dispute when games are not available for ESPN or FOX Sports or regional sports networks.
Spring training does make some money for the owners. Major League Baseball owners demand state-of-the-art spring training facilities and those owners do get what they want. A spring training facility that is capable of producing some revenue. Without games, local communities lose some money that would go to paying down the debt on the local baseball complex. These are the same owners who don’t want to pay minor league players for showing up and playing in an effort to make the big leagues. In fact, if MLB owners could get the minor league players to pay for their stay during spring training, they would do so in a nanosecond. Major League Baseball’s core fans probably are upset with no games but MLB doesn’t depend on fans anymore. TV, marketing and corporate dollars, not fans’ money supports the business. Owners would have customers willing to spend money, not fans who want bargain tickets.
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
