The spring training period is evaporating.
Major League Baseball owners and players continue their kabuki dance at the bargaining table as the Major League Baseball owners lockout of the players continues. Both sides are putting money aside to help day workers who earn pocket change at spring training games in Arizona and Florida to show they are good fellows and caring people. Neither side cares much about those per diem workers and in reality, the only people that concern them are fellow owners or fellow players and how to divide billions of dollars. More regular season games scheduled for April will be coming off the board soon and that means more money losses for the players. Many players will not make back the money, the owners have the wherewithal to outlast the players because for the owners, baseball is just part of a business portfolio.
Meanwhile in Florida and Arizona, places that have spent more than a billion dollars building spring training complexes for baseball owners, municipalities are losing revenue at the ballpark. Some of that revenue goes to pay down the debt at the complexes. It is prestigious although not money making to host spring training. Soon, twenty-eight cities that host the 30 major league teams will be losing baseball related revenue. There are those in the sports media who want the lockout to end because baseball is taking a massive public relations hit at a time when there is a perceived dwindling interest in the game. The baseball industry depends on customers, corporate money not fans and the corporate world is not complaining about missed games nor is the video world whether it is cable TV or streaming services. Nor are marketing partners. March and April features a crowded sports calendar with baseball taking up a small part of the action. When the money people complain, then MLB has a problem.
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
