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Bill Madden: Baseball's only coronavirus certainty is the destruction of the minor leagues
2020/5/10 05:36 (EDT)
©New York Daily News
NEW YORK — As baseball sits idle, we still don’t know if there will be any MLB season at all, or what it will look like if there is one. The most prevalent scenario is an 82-game schedule with a July 4-5-6 start-up and teams playing in their own ballparks, at first with no fans. But any projected restart is subject to change, just like the coronavirus models. With so many uncertainties, nobody — not the scientists, the politicians or the MLB poohbahs — can predict what the pandemic landscape will be two months from now.
About all we do know is that there is almost certainly going to be no minor league baseball at all this year. That’s an even bigger tragedy than the cancellation of the major league season would be. At least the major league owners will have the benefit of TV money to help recoup some of their losses whenever play resumes. Many minor league owners are not independently wealthy and rely on their teams for their livelihood; they’re totally screwed.
That’s why the minor leagues finally capitulated to MLB’s contraction plan to cut the number of their teams from 160 to 120: The number of minor league teams going out of business may well be far greater than the designated 40 on MLB’s hit list. Even before a single game is played, minor league owners are responsible for the rent payments and maintenance on their ballparks. Those costs are considerable and they are not refundable if there is no baseball all summer in those stadiums. In addition, the minor league operators spend their entire offseasons lining up sponsorships, ballpark signage and promotional events. All of that money they will now have to refund unless they can work out deals to transfer it to the 2021 season. Regardless, it’s lost revenue. And when it comes to the teams being contracted, or simply going out of business, there are no deals to be made.
Early on, there had been talk about the minor leagues following the major leagues’ lead of having abbreviated seasons without fans in the ballpark. But as one minor league owner told me recently: “As bad as it will be to have no season this year, an even worse case scenario for us would be to have a season with no fans. What would be the point? There would still be no revenue and we would still have to pay all our employees.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/05/baseballs-only-coronavirus-certainty-is-the-destruction-of-the-minor-leagues/
What is truly remarkable is that the contracts with the media and the billion's of broadcast rights wasn't even thought of.............for the minor leagues..............or it was they just didn't care...............
6 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
The greatest hardship trickles down to those that can handle it least.
Brilliant theory! 
