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Jewish World Review June 5, 2006 / 9 Sivan, 5766 As Bonds Hogs the Spotlight, Selig Goes 3-for-3 at the Plate By Evan Weiner
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Barry Bonds's 715th career home run was not the most important baseball event over the holiday weekend. Last Friday,
Minnesota Governor Tim Palwenty put his autograph on a new spending bill for a Twins stadium that will raise the Hennepin
County sales tax by three cents for every $20 spent to help fund the new stadium.
This development will have a far more lasting impact on Major League Baseball than will Bonds's historic home run. The Twins
stadium bill has, according to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig removed contraction as an issue in the ongoing collective
bargaining talks between the players and owners.
The Twins might have been headed to baseball's scrap heap of failed franchises. Just 48 hours after the Arizona
Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, Selig announced that baseball was going to eliminate at
least two franchises. The Commish and his administrators went through a list of 15 franchises that could have been eliminated,
with the Twins and Montreal Expos at the top.
Though Selig never identified to the two leading candidates to be put out of business (his announcement back November 6,
2001 may have been a shot fired across the Major League Players Association's bow as the two sides attempted to negotiate
a new collective bargaining agreement), Minnesota officials decided to fight back. The Metropolitan Sports Facilities
Commission, which operates the Metrodome, sued to force the Twins to honor their lease, and a Hennepin County District
Judge issued the injunction on November 16. The Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld the order January 22 in a 3-0 vote. The
Twins survived, the owners and players settled their differences, and the owners took contraction off the table until 2007.
Selig and Major League Baseball are on a roll. In March, MLB signed a lease with Washington, D.C., that will deliver the
Nationals a new ballpark by 2009.On April 4, Jackson County, Mo., voters approved a local sales tax hike with some of the
funding earmarked to renovate the Kansas City Royals' Kauffman Stadium and the NFL Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium. Selig is
now three for three - three new ballparks in three months.
Now that the Twins ballpark situation is settled, MLB is down to just two problem franchises: Florida and Oakland. The
Marlins ownership, led by New York art dealer Jeffrey Loria, has eliminated San Antonio as a possible relocation target and
instead is concentrating on Hialeah, Fla. Loria doesn't have too many choices. South Florida is a much better market than any
of the other cities available, which include San Antonio, Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., or the Hampton Roads, Va., area. New
York is off limits to the native New Yorker because of MLB's anti-trust exemption. If Loria even looked at the New
York-New Jersey market, the Yankees or Mets could simply block him.
Oakland A's owner Lewis Wolff, who just purchased an option to bring back Major League Soccer to San Jose or the San
Francisco Bay Area, knows his way to San Jose, but because of the anti-trust exemption, the city is off limits to him. The area
is the Giants' territory.
Wolff is negotiating with Fremont, Ca., city officials to build a stadium with a surrounding "baseball village" in exchange for land
and tax breaks. He offered the same deal to Oakland officials, who basically ignored the proposal. Wolff also is seeking the
same deal from San Jose for his soccer holdings, but he seems to be concentrating on keeping the A's in the Bay Area.
With contraction out of the way, Selig's biggest problem may be devising a new revenue sharing plan among the owners that
will satisfy the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and other big-money teams along with small market franchises like the Pirates and
Royals. There may be a number of owners, led by Pittsburgh's Kevin McClatchy, Kansas City's David Glass, and San Diego's
John Moores, who could push for a salary cap.
Selig has one other major issue that might cause some problems at the bargaining table. MLB may not know just how much
national TV money will be coming in because FOX has yet to renew its national TV contract. MLB had hoped that FOX
would offer a slight increase over the six year, $2.5 billion deal that was signed in September 2000. Under terms of the deal,
FOX gave baseball about $411 million annually for the right to show Saturday baseball, the All-Star Game, selected Division
Series games, and exclusive coverage of the League Championship Series and World Series.
But FOX was really paying for the exclusive coverage of the League Championship Series and World Series, not the other
games. FOX owns October in terms of raw TV ratings and is able to showcase its network programming throughout the
games by parading stars of shows or interviewing them during games.
MLB is still talking to FOX; no other network has shown interest in the package. Last September, MLB signed an eight-year,
$2.4 billion non-exclusive deal cable TV deal with ESPN, which included an exclusive agreement for Internet and cellular
content. MLB also has the right to sell a small package to another network, such as the Comcast owned OLN.
Selig and his team have done a remarkable job of bringing money into an industry that was shut down in 1994 and is embroiled
in a steroid controversy. All of the Commissioner's moves, including approving the league's idea for expanding the playoffs and
expanding baseball's global marketing, have worked. It may be hard to believe, but Selig, not Bonds, will have a more lasting
affect on the future of baseball.
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JWR contributor Evan Weiner is a syndicated radio commentator. Comment by clicking here.
05/30/06: State of the NBA Nation Is Strong © 2006, Evan Weiner |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
