For some reason that rings a bell, and if it did happen, that should have been the point the MLBPA should have pushed for slotting draft picks… If that did happen, the current big league players just saw their average pay decline (assuming the A’s brought up a minimum-salaried player) in order for the A’s to pay for several unproven players…

I’m sure no one else will see this as I just got back from vacation and am reading all the Joe Pos blogs that I missed from the last week, but what the heck, eh?

Recently a court ruled that the NCAA couldn’t take away a players’ eligibility for using an agent in negotiations. I think I read somewhere that the NCAA is ignoring the court’s ruling.

Brian Bullington is currently pitching in Las Vegas, Toronto’s AAA affiliate.

As for the prices of baseball, here’s a link to seating and pricing at Dodger Stadium: http://mlb.mlb.com/la/ballpark/la_seating_pricing.jsp . I’ve looked at this link for a long time, and I’m extremely familiar with the ballpark, having sat in every level from dugout to the nosebleeds. As you can tell, prices run from $9 for the worst seats on the top level to $500 in the dugout. My rough estimate is that there is an average ticket price of $40. Yes, there are a lot more $9 seats than $500 seats, but each $500 seat brings the average to $40 for a smidge over 16 $9 seats. The $285 seats are more plentiful, and each balances out 8 of the cheap seats to an average ticket price of $40. The $225 seats are still more plentiful.

The Dodgers sell 3,000,000 tickets every year. They have expanded seating to make it easier. If my $40 average is correct, that’s $120,000,000. And that’s $15,000,000 more than the major league payroll. I’ll assume that the excess goes to pay all the organization’s employees who don’t work at other ballparks: the scouts, the coaches, the GM, the Assistant GM, the Director of Marketing. If there are 200 such employees, that’s an average salary of around $75,000/year, and I’m sure there are a lot of secretaries and phone sales folks making way less than that in there.

I could not easily determine the price of parking. For our admittedly preferred lot, we pay $10/game. I guestimate that the Dodgers sell about 20,000 parking tickets per game. If all are $10, that’s $200,000/game times 81 games (not counting the Freeway series games which usually do well and are not discounted even though they are exhibitions) for another $16,000,000. For purposes of this brief evaluation, lets call parking a wash. I’m sure they make money on parking, but they hire a bunch of folks. Same with concessions. Yes, lots of Dodger Dogs and beers get sold, but there are also lots of employees. I’m being unreasonable kind to the Dodgers now, but maybe I was harsh in my average ticket price estimate.

Then we have to look at media rights. The Dodgers supposedly were stuck with a lousy long term television contract on FoxSports when Fox sold the Dodgers. Okay, I’ll concede it. But it is still the second largest television audience in baseball, behind only the Yankees. And the huge radio audience was not stuck with Fox Sports TV. Okay, they have to pay Vin Scully, Charlie Steiner, and Rick Monday. But what’s left over has to be huge, and I’m out of places for it to be spent. Based on what I’ve gleaned from some internet searching, the Dodgers undervalued television rights amount to $32M/year for the cable package, $8M/year for the local television package, and surely they get something from the national packages on Fox Saturday and ESPN. From what I’ve seen on the internet, the radio rights probably pay for the announcers on radio and television ($5M+ per year).

Okay, these numbers are not wholly fair because ticket receipts are split. But the Dodgers are a big road draw. Chances are that these numbers aren’t too far off. And what they say is that except for the debt the McCourts went into to buy the team and Dodger Stadium (one of the biggest assets of the Dodgers), the Dodgers are a huge cash cow. By the way, the stadium is used for lots of other events every year. I’m sure the Dodgers get paid rent for them.

Net result is, the owners get really really rich. Arte Moreno owns the Angels, the team that is probably most like the Dodgers demographically (size of crown, ticket prices, and so forth). They have a higher payroll. They have a smaller audience for television (not every Angel game in on TV), for radio, for ticket sales. I don’t believe they own Angels Stadium. And Moreno seems to break even or better.

All of which leads me to say that the owners have no legitimate beef with Scott Boras. A few rich teams, including the one I root for, seem to be blocking any progress on a revenue sharing deal such as exists in the other team sports. It is *not* in the best interests of the Yankees to share revenues, and given their enormous television contracts, it is in their best interest to overpay for players in order to drive television ratings that justify that contract. So barring a strong and effective commissioner mandating some form of revenue sharing, the few super “haves” will block any aid to the have nots.

Greed has ruled baseball since its inception. Times are no different today. By my estimates above the Dodgers are returning some 25% profit. That’s awfully good in a recession. Dodger Stadium has been rebuilt to expand the seats, changing the very nature of baseball there: no more big foul areas, no more distant outfield fences, no more pitcher’s park. Loyal fans have been displaced from their field adjacent seats after years or decades of support because those tickets can be sold for more than most normal folks can afford. There’s a level or profit I’ll tolerate, but I think that level has been exceeded. Maybe it will take a few more $50M rookies who wash out to finally persuade baseball to change the way it does business. So I say, go Boras.