One of Major League Baseball's owners just destroyed the league's entire argument for a lockout
WILL MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STILL LOCK PLAYERS OUT AFTER 2026 POSTSEASON PROVES OWNERS WRONG?
They might be able to (inaccurately) dismiss the results. But they can't dismiss a small industry owner proudly bragging about how much money he and his team are making.
That's exactly what Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein last week. Local outlet Baltimore Baseball reported that Rubenstein, speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., told a group of other sports team owners that he bought the organization in part as of how much money they were making.
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"A lot of my friends were buying teams, and I realized they're making money. They're making more money than I'm making in private equity," Rubenstein explained, perxa0Baltimore Baseball. "I thought I should look at it as a financial thing, but ultimately I bought the Orioles for a philanthropic purpose. I grew up in Baltimore, as people know. I didn't think I'd done enough for Baltimore, so I bought the team to help revive the team a bit and ultimately revive Baltimore since Baltimore had some challenges."
He did claim that "owners care more about winning than making money (but they're) not against making money." Hilarious.
Rubenstein's laudable "charity" aside, the admission that baseball teams are making more money than private equity is about as damning as it gets for the league's salary cap arguments. Baseball is a highly profitable industry, small industry teams are bringing in enormous sums of money, and many owners are choosing to pocket it instead of reinvesting in their rosters. Because they're not "against making money."
One X user showed how prolific small industry owners are at pocketing money. While the highest payrolls have increased substantially over the last decade, the lowest payrolls have remained nearly flat. Yet the league is making substantially more money than it was in the 2010s, and cumulative inflation since 2015 has been over 42%.
Not to mention that MLB's form of socialism, revenue sharing, means the Dodgers' success benefits teams like the Pirates, Orioles, and Marlins, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars per year...each. Some estimates put the Pirates' revenue sharing payout at anywhere from $60-100 million. Just for existing. Before any income they get from tickets, television, advertising, parking, concessions, merchandise, or non-baseball events.
It's ironic though, that the season in which the league angrily posted that too many fans have no hope of their team winning a World Series has been a complete dismantling of that argument. In every conceivable way.
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本文由News整理发布，仅供参考。
