USA Today ran a story today showing the total salary obligations that each team has from 2005 - 2010. Once you get past all of the sensationalistic Seligian headlines (Baseball has $2.8 BILLION in debt!!) it's really interesting to look at.
USA Today did this same study in 2001. At that time there were $3.7 billion in future salary commitments. Today the total commitments are 24% lower.
"Many people, including the commissioner, are very concerned about the level of debt," Selig said Monday. "We now have rules in our labor agreement that deal with that."
It's nice to see that Selig refers to himself in the third person.
Reading the headline and article makes me think that Hal Bodley gets a portion of MLB's slush fund that Selig distributes. He does a nice job of pushing Selig's agenda.
Anyway, I was surprised to see some of the findings given all the dire talk you hear about baseball.
Obviously, the Yankees leading the way is no surprise with obligations of over $587 million from 2005-2010, including today's signing of Mariano Rivera.
But if you take the Yankees out of the equation, who account for 20% of those obligations, no one team is really in that bad of shape going forward. After taking out the Yankees, who Gammons spectulated will have $300 million in revenues this year, there's approximately $76 million in obligations per team. But that's over a 6 year period, so it's about $13 million/year per team, hardly an extraordinary sum.
Those obligations aren't evenly distributed however - about 70% of the obligations are in the next 2 seasons. However, looking at each team individuallly there's room for each team to add payroll over their commitments in 2005 - only the Yankees and Red Sox exceed $60 million in obligations in 2005.
In 2006 the picture clears up even more. Only 5 teams have obligations in excess of just $40 million.
Given that baseball's revenues are rising, new revenue sources are being tapped into all the time, and the current free agent climate, baseball's financial condition is in fine shape and possibly as good as ever.
But I suppose it's more fun to cry poverty and try to extract taxpayer dollars for personal benefit.
Some other tidbits:
* YOUR Toronto Blue Jays average $25 million in commitments over the next 3 years, and nothing beyond 2007.
* The Expos only have $307,500 committed beyond this season. Bonus points if you figure out who it is.
* The Dodgers have no obligations beyond 2005. It'll be interesting to see how DePo uses it.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20040323074808999