Chicago Cubs: Hey fans, steep prices are on MLB’s owners

The Chicago Cubs signed a big TV deal, and their financial fortunes look very rosy. But for whatever reason, fans see a big contract signing and place the blame for rising ticket and concession prices on the players.

So Chicago Cubs fans, we’ll take a little peek at where the money comes from and where it goes.  You might be surprised. If you want someone to blame, it’s not the players; it’s the owners.

Team values and profits

According to Forbes the Yankees, Red Sox, and Cubs top the list of most valuable teams at $4.0 billion, $3.0 billion, and $2.9 billion respectively.  The bottom of the list doesn’t exactly scream out poorhouse with the Reds, Marlins, and Rays coming in at $1.01 billion, $1.0 billion and $900 million.

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Every MLB team saw an increase in value from 2017 to 2018, ranging from one percent (Pirates) to 14 percent (Astros). The same goes for revenue; Every team saw an increase in revenue from 2017.  The top teams are the Yankees, Dodgers, and Cubs.

A look at our beloved Cubs reveals $457 million in revenue in 2018.  Note that player expenses in 2018 were $187 million.  And this is before the TV deal kicks in.  I would expect team revenue and value to skyrocket after 2020.

And if you are wondering where the bulk of that revenue comes from, it’s you oh bleeding Cubbie blue fans.  $214 million in gate receipts for 2018 and that doesn’t count the beers, hot dogs, peanuts and cracker jacks we all buy.

Nor does that include all the Cubs paraphernalia we adorn ourselves with at the game or in the bars.  We might bleed Cubbie blue in support of our team, but we’re hemorrhaging green for them.

And I’m not picking on the Cubs here either. Every team has this going on.  MLB raked in the most revenue ever in 2018, $10.3 billion.  This is the 16th season in a row gross revenues have increased.  Since 1992 gross revenues have risen 337 percent, adjusted for inflation.  Jeez, you’d think we could get a little relief at the concession stand, right?

Player salaries

But we won’t, and it’s the fault of those greedy players and their sharks for agents, right?.  Not quite. Again our good friends at Forbes reveal that while revenues reached new heights, players salaries fell in 2018 in the most substantial year-to-year change since 2012.  The article goes on to show that the bucks aren’t flowing to players.

And that’s true even with the big time signings for Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.  As headline-worthy as those signings are, the average ballplayer makes a little under five million dollars a year.  And the average player is in the Show for about six years.  Before that, they toil in college playing for free, then in the minors for years making less than the minimum wage.  If they make the Show they make league minimum until four years later when they hit their first arbitration year.

No fan would put up with this.  Seriously, your employer says we’ll pay you under the minimum wage until we decide you’re good enough, then pay you below market for four years, then, if you’re still around you might get paid what you’re worth?

It is fair to ask where are all those bucks going if not onto the field?  Into the pockets of the owners, that’s where. The players have a real gripe. And so do the fans.  Ticket, concession, and related prices are higher than ever, and going up.  In 2018 fans stayed away from the turnstiles in record low attendance rates.

Both fans and players are getting stiffed.  If there were an MLBFA, Major League Baseball Fan Association, we’d be on strike already.  Parks would be empty.  Players don’t set the prices for tickets or concessions; owners do.  Wake up baseball fans; we’re on the same side as the players.