Internet Effects on Baseball: United or Divided?
Net Business and Economics
Baseball is being affected by a technology that has already affected the rest of the world: the Internet. In June 2000 there was a unanimous vote by the 30 Major League Baseball club owners to centralize all of Baseball’s Internet operations onto one web page: www.mlb.com. (1) Many resources have been pooled to create this site. By using all those resources available, it provides the most complete baseball information on the web, ranging from ticket sales to fantasy games. A decision has been made to share all the profits that come in from all Internet ventures for baseball. This will hopefully help to level the playing field between unequal clubs. Small market teams would no longer have such a small source of revenue. The idea of broadcasting over the Internet has been brought up, which could become a source of revenue. Some are hoping this Internet broadcasting will do for major league baseball what television did for the NFL. If it works as expected, the ratio of rich-to-poor teams’ broadcasting incomes could decrease from the current 4:1 to a more equitable 2:1. In these changes, some teams will also have better chances of getting to the World Series by getting better funding for equipment, other necessities and better players.
While this profit sharing sounds fair, some clubs are skeptical. The teams who are already bringing in sufficient revenue are not fully ready to share such large profits. The New York Mets senior vice president, David Howard, has been assured that the Mets’ local television rights will be preserved. (2) Other clubs with the most to lose have been told similar things. Broadcasting money of large-market teams could be threatened if enough people turn to the Internet, where all revenue becomes shared.
(1) (2001, July 12). “Major League Baseball Advanced Media Uses Web Trends Live for Real-Time Web Traffic Analysis.” Business Wire [Online], 10 paragraphs. Available: LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe [2001, July 12].
Description: This is a short web page that discusses the idea of charging for Internet broadcasting of games that are played via the radio.
Source: Associated Press
Title: Baseball makes a pitch for online profits
Web Address: http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/sports032901.htm
Description: This web site is about the Major Leagues attempting to make a profit on line in different venues.
Title: Only profit sharing can help hopeless Twins
Web Address: http://www.daily.umn.edu/daily/200/04/21/sports/spo2/
Description: This web site shows the pros of profit sharing since many clubs are not able to pull in their own large revenues. There are links in the side bar to other things of interest in the sports world.
Source: The Minnesota Daily