The Economics of Baseball Essay

Boom or bust, pro-athlete salaries have soared over the past decades. In the 1920’s, professional athletes were paid a few hundred dollars per game and held off season jobs. In the 1950’s, this changed as television was introduced and broadcasting rights increased player salaries. Now even with salary caps being put into place for some sports, salaries have far outpaced inflation. For instance, the MLB average salary has increased from about $300,000 to 3.2 million since 1985.

Many fans want to go to baseball games; however, the prices of tickets have dramatically gone up over the past years.

Baseball remains today one of America’s most popular sports, and furthermore, baseball is one of America’s most successful forms of entertainment. As a result, Baseball is an economic being of its own. However, the sustainability of any professional sport organization depends directly on its economic capabilities. For example, in Baseball, all revenue is a product of the fans reaction to ticket prices, advertisements, television contracts, etc. During the devastating Great Depression in 1929, the fans of baseball experienced fiscal suffering. The appeal of baseball declined as more and more people were trying to make enough money to live. There was a significant drop in attention, attendance, and enjoyment. Although baseball’s vitality

Yankee Stadium was said to have profited hundreds of thousands of dollars a year just by renting out the stadium to the Negro Leagues. Shadow-Ball further illustrates the substantial differences in funding between the MLB, and the Negro Leagues. Because they Negro Leagues didn't have the money to buy supplies such as baseballs in some instances, they created Shadow-Ball. In this process, the "players would actually practice hitting the ball and catching a ball that wasn't actually there. In fact, they would go full practices without even having a ball, which further enhanced their discipline and focus." (Conrads, pg. 6) but in some instances, when they couldn't play in Major League ballparks, they were simply left to play on the dilapidated fields various areas - wherever they could find a field. Other than this, the players in the Negro Leagues did not make as much money as their counterparts who played in the MLB. For example, in Jackie Robinson's case, he "signed his contract with the Dodgers…for the Major League minimum salary: $5,000…for the year." (Rampersad, pg. 167) Furthermore, in general, "Negro leaguers made about a quarter of what their counterparts in the major leagues were making," but they kept their spirits alive, obliterated the negative energy, and kept playing the sport they loved…baseball. (Conrads, pg. 2)

There’s always some people hating on the fact that MLB players are paid millions of dollars, but never have anything to back up how they are overpaid besides saying that it is ridiculous how much their paycheck is. Little do they know, that some of the money comes from fans, ticket sales, endorsements, and how well they perform. There is a lot more that goes into how they EARN that money.

The fans that come to watch the athletes and who pay nearly $20 to get in the ballpark are padding the pockets of these owners. Statistics taken from online site http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001 /03/30/news/baseball/ show that baseball ticket prices have gone up from $16.67 to $18.99 in just one year. A quote from the same online site http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/03/30/news /baseball/ wrote by Chris Isidore says, "Baseball fans going through the turnstiles on opening day across the nation Monday will be paying about 13 percent more than they did last year, according to a survey of prices…The increase makes baseball the sport with the fastest growing prices." Baseball in the United States is no longer America's Pastime. Baseball has changed to a high priced business, where average players make millions and above average players make tens of millions. To make the situation even worse, the dumbfounded owners and greedy sports agents who contaminate the game and the talented young athletes playing in it, control this business.

From the sandlot to stadiums seating over fifty thousand people, the game of baseball has provided people of all ages with a

Every sports team/organization operates the same when it comes to salaries some players get paid more than others and salaries fluctuate based on the economy. In the 1920s the average monthly salary for a Negro baseball player was about $230 which is about $2,760 annually. Whereas in the 1920s the average annual salary for a major league player was about $5,000 to $6,000. Then the dreaded 1930s hit the decade of depression. Despite the failing economy baseball was and is America's pastime and is always popular among the people. People would always manage to go see a baseball game every now and then. This would allow for an average annual salary increase of about $1000 from about $5000-$6000 to $7000. It obviously made sense that as the economy is failing salaries would start to decrease. Of course they did Negro baseball players monthly salary went down from $230 to $170. Which would be $2,040 annually about $720 less than the previous

Any sports one looks at can be classified as a money-making pit. Scouts looking at young talent ready to sign them for a quick buck and then once they stop producing, move on to the next potential talent. Baseball is the sport that is an industry dominated by trying to gain a profit from a region’s juvenile talent (Ruck). Since 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, there has been an increase in Latin American countries represented in MLB. More than a quarter of major league players are from Latin American, with about half of the minor league players being Latino (Ruck). On the opening day of the 2011 season, eighty-six players represented the Dominican Republic alone. That is more than a tenth of major leaguers (Ruck). One would

Imagine a darkened evening in the spring the lights are slowly warming up to illuminate the field in which the cleats of the great will graze the grass and scuff up the freshly dragged dirt. The crowd is feeling anxiety to know if the umpire is going to call the pitch a ball or a strike. This is in the mind of every person that comes out to support their local major league baseball team. In recent decades the sport of baseball has become criticized for the amount of money that the owners pay their players for their services. The question On the minds of not only the general public, but to the owners and the fans is the salary paid to the players. Major League baseball players are paid too much.

This week questions on MLB has really caught my attention I had know idea that MLB was so profitable. MLB network back in the 1900’s wasn't televised according to research, the first televised Major League baseball game was broadcast in 1939 on station W2XBS (History.com). During that time many American families didn’t own a television set. In addition it wasn’t until 1946 did regular network broadcasting catch on in the United States, and only in the mid-1950s did television sets become more common in the American household (History.com). As we fast forward to modern day MLB is a lucrative business that generates revenue from broadcasting, concessions stands, licensing revenue, and revenue sharing. MLB revenue sharing accounts for a large

The 2001 offseason was a critical time for the A's front office. Center fielder Johnny Damon, first baseman Jason Giambi, and closer Jason Isringhausen were all free agents and the A's knew there was no way that they could afford to keep them. Beane believes that effective closers were overpriced in the free agent market because he thinks that saves are an overrated statistic. (Lewis pgs.125-126) So when replacing the hole left by Jason Isringhausen's departure Beane traded away a solid prospect in Eric Hinske to pick up an effective but less expensive reliever in Billy Koch from Toronto. This is an example of a tactic used by

Major League Baseball players average just over four million a year making it the second highest paying sport. Players determine win-loss records which drives ticket sales which creates revenue and so on. This is why player salaries is one of the most critical aspects of running a MLB team. These salaries are negotiated using statistics such as batting average, on base percentage, hits and more. When negotiations are not working, an arbitration process is used which is unique to the MLB.

Joe Batz, a baseball player, makes $20 million dollars over the course of three years. Yikes! That sounds like a lot of money. It may seem that the team he plays on may not be able to keep up with the expenses of hiring such an expensive celebrity athlete. However, it may be that the team is actually earning profit and can afford to pay Joe Batz a high salary.

Our top competitor in the subscription-based Cable Networks Industry is Major League Baseball TV Subscriptions. Ticket prices for professional baseball games have become relatively expensive and lower-income sports fans simply cannot afford the luxury of attending games. MLB has created the opportunity for sport fans to watch regular season games live, as well as over 200 Spring Training Games. Their basic subscription costs $109.99 and their premium subscription costs $129.99. The Boston Red Sox fan base is extensive, thus making MLB TV subscription a serious