Mike's Mets - MLB Is Staying Away From Those Sweet Expansion $$$ (For Now)

 

By Mike Steffanos January 17, 2021 

We've been hearing a lot about the possibility of expansion in Major League Baseball for several years. There haven't been any new teams brought into the fold since the Diamondbacks and  Rays came aboard at the end of the last century. Ron Manfred, the empty suit who currently holds down the job of MLB commissioner, has been on the record for years that he wants add a couple of teams. Among other reasons, going to 32 teams would allow each league to divide into four divisions of 4 teams, which would cut down some on travel and also add another couple of division races. There is also the thought that the hefty franchise fees, expected to be around $1 billion per team, could offset some of the losses the clubs are claiming from the covid pandemic.

I'm somewhat surprised there hasn't been more of a push for expansion, given some of the incredibly short-sighted ways teams are cutting expenditures that add up to way less than a 1/30 share of a couple of billion bucks. Ken Rosenthal had a piece in The Athletic explaining why MLB is resisting the lure of an expansion windfall right now. Rosenthal quotes Manfred from an interview the commissioner gave back last September on his expectations for expansion:

"My sense is that the COVID experience has probably slowed the expansion process down," Manfred said in a virtual event conducted by Hofstra's Frank G. Zarb School of Business in September. "We haven’t even formally begun a process. I think it's probably a little further away now as a result of the events of 2020."

Rosenthal cites a number of reasons for the reluctance of the current owners to get on board with expansion, all of which are interesting, but the key reason would be reluctance on the part of current owners to divide the national television money pie into an extra two slices. Basically, the one-time windfall from the franchise fees would be eaten away over time by sharing central revenues with the new teams. There was resistance from some of the owners before the pandemic started, and the financial pressures of the past year has only stiffened that. To be clear, there was never anything like the amount of central revenue available when MLB expanded previously as there is today, thanks to national tv money and streaming revenues.

Of course there are other reasons for a reluctance to expand. There is uncertainty in both Tampa Bay and Oakland about getting new stadiums built which might alleviate those teams' chronic attendance problems. The places that get talked about the most are Nashville, Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Montreal. Mexico City is another location often mentioned, but that's probably further down the road. All of these other cities are seen as options for the A's and Rays if they don't get new parks in their current locations, with Montreal often citied as a possibility for Tampa Bay to either move to outright or split their home games with.

There is also the likelihood of another, even more damaging standoff between MLB and the Players Association than we saw this past spring when the two sides attempt to negotiate a new agreement after this season. That's probably not the ideal time to add a couple of new teams and new owners to the mix. I get a pit in my stomach every time I try to imagine the two sides coming to an agreement without a hugely damaging work stoppage. Given the wounds that MLB clubs are claiming were inflicted by the pandemic, it would be nice to think that both sides would realize that it's in their own best interest not to have another, even bigger public fight. Given what we saw this year, however, I'm betting on more ugliness.

Continue reading by clicking here.