Major League Baseball: Industry Overview, Key Issues and Forecast
The MLB:
Major League Baseball is the highest level of baseball play in the United States. It is comprised of two leagues, the National League and the American League, and 30 separate teams who each play a 162 game season. The commissioner of the league is Bud Selig, as commissioner he oversees the logistics of organizing the umpiring employees, and all contracts dealing with labor, marketing and TV broadcasting. Mostly funded by private enterprises, with partial funding from public taxes; the MLB as a whole brought in $132 million in 2005 of operating income, which jumped to $360 million of in 2006 (Orzanian). The overlapping schedules make the National Football League the most competition the MLB has for viewers.
Key Issues:
In 1994, the league tried to impose a salary cap on the professional players, this action resulted in a player strike. This strike lasted into the 1995 season, before the teams decided to impose a “luxury tax”, which taxes the teams who have an aggregate payroll in excess to an annually revised figure. The lack of salary cap has affected the level of competition within the MLB, and has resulted in overspending by the wealthy teams. The implementation of a salary cap has only been proposed by a small number who work for the league and by fans, neither have done much in breaking ground toward a positive decision on the matter.
There has been recent debate on whether the MLB should use instant replay cameras to alter or challenge decisions during games. As it stands, the MLB has considered the shift to use of the cameras as decid ing factors, but it becomes tricky as to where to draw the limitations of using it for decisions in a game that has been historically governed by the unbiased and educated decisions of the umps. The debate has been going on all during the 2007 season, and a vote is scheduled to take place sometime before next season to decide officially on whether or not the use is permitted, and the stipulations surrounding the use.
Major League Baseball is the highest level of baseball play in the United States. It is comprised of two leagues, the National League and the American League, and 30 separate teams who each play a 162 game season. The commissioner of the league is Bud Selig, as commissioner he oversees the logistics of organizing the umpiring employees, and all contracts dealing with labor, marketing and TV broadcasting. Mostly funded by private enterprises, with partial funding from public taxes; the MLB as a whole brought in $132 million in 2005 of operating income, which jumped to $360 million of in 2006 (Orzanian). The overlapping schedules make the National Football League the most competition the MLB has for viewers.
Key Issues:
In 1994, the league tried to impose a salary cap on the professional players, this action resulted in a player strike. This strike lasted into the 1995 season, before the teams decided to impose a “luxury tax”, which taxes the teams who have an aggregate payroll in excess to an annually revised figure. The lack of salary cap has affected the level of competition within the MLB, and has resulted in overspending by the wealthy teams. The implementation of a salary cap has only been proposed by a small number who work for the league and by fans, neither have done much in breaking ground toward a positive decision on the matter.
There has been recent debate on whether the MLB should use instant replay cameras to alter or challenge decisions during games. As it stands, the MLB has considered the shift to use of the cameras as decid ing factors, but it becomes tricky as to where to draw the limitations of using it for decisions in a game that has been historically governed by the unbiased and educated decisions of the umps. The debate has been going on all during the 2007 season, and a vote is scheduled to take place sometime before next season to decide officially on whether or not the use is permitted, and the stipulations surrounding the use.
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