Chicago Cubs: MLB owners’ myopia could destroy baseball

MLB owners’ decision to play 2020 season boils down to about $10 million each.

Everyone has lost something in 2020 they will never get back. Whether it’s education, time, work, money, respect – or even life itself, the first five months of this year have been about as crazy and disheartening as most of us can remember. ‘

While the loss of baseball seems to be a small blip on the radar of 2020, it’s a large blip for those of us who love and follow the game. We’ve already seen the lack of sports plunge sports media into a catastrophic free-fall financially and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

In fact, contrary to the thought that everything will bounce back once people are able to get back out into the world and social distancing rules subside, I don’t know if things will ever get any better for baseball.

MLB had a chance to lead the professional sports charge right back into the hearts and minds of the American public at large, but alas, they fumbled the opportunity as so many have been fumbled by Commissioner Rob Manfred. Rather than bite tongues and bullets, MLB owners have been myopic about their vested and long-term interest in their own property. Rather than get baseball players back onto the field, Manfred has been preoccupied with pitch clocks and LOOGY usage.

Chicago Cubs: Selfish interests are costing fans in a big way

Now, I don’t blame owners or anyone else for wanting to make money, but some of them care little for the game or furthering its appeal outside of how it can line their pockets better (although many of the ideas would actually coincide over time).

Ironically, that’s the point. The hardest decisions to make from a business standpoint are the ones you cannot see, feel, or touch in the present tense. Extrapolations and projections don’t pay the bills, as lofty and lucrative as they may be. However, planting seeds now-for success down the road-can reap unseen rewards that will eventually result in dollars with lots of commas.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the stalemate between the players and owners over the 2020 season boils down to about $10 million per team, although Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts has cautioned that teams aren’t flush with cash and don’t make as much money as everyone thinks (not that they’ll open their books to the fans or players to prove that point).

Regardless of who is right and where the middle ground is in this debate, it’s up to the owners and the head honchos at MLB itself to get together and make some concessions for the game going forward. What is going on is no longer about 2020 or 2021- it’s about 2030, and that impacts the owners a lot more than the current players (the vast majority of whom won’t even be in the game in a decade).

Chicago Cubs: Hard fought progress could be lost

If baseball stays out of the public eye for too long, it will never regain what it once had. In fact, after taking 14 years to bring the game back from the grave following the strike of 1994, MLB attendance figures have dropped consistently since 2008.

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With more options for fans to spend their money on and less interest in the game, MLB has become exceedingly myopic about its revenue because of its still-massive TV deals. However, if the younger generation is turned off to the game, those are fans baseball will never get back.

So, while the attendance trends may not affect the bottom line as much because of the enormity of the current media rights deals, make no mistake- baseball needs every fan and every goodwill story it can get. While the players are always part of the algebra and decision making process in regards to contractual issues, this one isn’t on them at this point.

If the owners allow the 2020 season to be scrapped over roughly $10 million, they’ll find their myopia irrevocably costing the game a lot more in 2030 or 2040.

Let’s hope the players and/or owners can figure this thing out before we have to wait another year or two for baseball to return- because I don’t think that’s what anybody wants, quite frankly.