I find myself in a rare disagreement with Rob Neyer. John Henry was fined $500,000 by the commissioner for complaining about revenue sharing:
The Commissioner’s Office is primarily concerned with two things: money and public relations (which of course are intertwined). And when it comes to public relations, the Commissioner’s Office is primarily concerned with the perception that some franchises simply can’t afford to compete. The reality is largely irrelevant; for most practical purposes, perception is reality. And however ineffectively, sending money from rich teams to poor teams is the Commissioner’s only real strategy for altering that perception.
On a personal level, while I think revenue-sharing is obviously imperfect it’s also necessary. And I think incredibly wealthy owners, however well-meaning, should be slapped around a little if they complain about it publicly.
One thing I really dislike about Bud Selig’s tenure is the stifling of dissent. I don’t know how much goes on behind closed doors, but we never hear about it. Once in a while an owner like Henry or Steinbrenner says something out of line, but we never get to hear alternate plans.
As a blogger, I love that when I write something outlandish people call me on it. Blogging is a discussion, and especially when people are doing sabermetric research, it’s great to have people all over the world criticize your work. It makes what you do better. Look what happened with Matt Cain and home runs.
I want to hear, and I want experts in the fields of economics and business to hear John Henry’s complaints about revenue sharing. I want to hear and see the plans the rich owners put forward for fixing the system. I want to see those plans debated, shooting down parts and approving others. MLB would be better if there was free and public dissent.
Bud Selig is essentially a dictator of MLB, and dictators do not like free and public dissent. MLB is a privately owned monopoly and the public exists only to provide them with revenue.
Also, unless MLB opened up the books of all MLB teams, any public opinion on MLB finances will continue to be based on ignorance.
Good PR mandates keeping the public in the dark about certain matters. It’s easier for the public to fork over 5 dollars for a hot dog if they think it helps supports the team and not just fattening the owners wallet. So public disclosure of MLB’s finances is not likely.
Bud Selig can be overruled, so he is not quite a dicatator, more like a CEO, but that requires Henry to get the other owners to share his opinion. Henry, as a fellow CEO, is probably a guy who does not like the democratic process much, and is used to issuing commands.
Trying to make an end run and sway public opinion to put pressure on the other owners and Bud Selig is akin to a corporate VP lobbying for his proposal, which has already been rejected by the CEO and the board, to the WSJ. Punishment is required.
Henry’s crying poor mouth is entirely self serving, and the fact he is risking another 500 K fine after buying Liverpool for 500 million and spending 300 million on FA, shows he is not that poor and can afford to share.
Afterall, he needs other teams to exist, otherwise, the Red Sox have nobody to play. Fans won’t pay for 162 Red Sox-Yankee games.
He should consider revenue sharing an investment.
Thats said, conditions on how the shared revenue is spent seems appropriate.
There should definitely be public discussion, especially when you consider that MLB has an anti-trust exemption and the owners and players are subsidized through the publicly gifted stadiums.
I don’t think Neyer would be against open discussion or thinks that the rules are necessarily good (though I could be wrong,) I think his point is that when you join the Owners’ Club, you KNOW the rules. Hence, if you break them, you deserve the punishment. On that accord, I agree.
It’s not just Selig. Look at Goddell with the NFL or Stern and the NBA (Mark Cuban.) I understand not trashing your boss publicly. Which is why I’m very circumspect with mine. But does that mean team owners are employees of the leagues? I get not trashing umpires/officials, it calls into question the legitimacy of the games. But if an economic model isn’t working, then owners, especially those paying into it, should complain. Especially if the teams are playing in taxpayer funded stadia.
Back when he was with ESPN, Neyer claimed that he’s a libertarian. So much for that.