Hey NBA, Take a Look at Major League Baseball

By Megan Brown
Updated: December 1, 2011

Bud Selig photo taken from Google Images

Major League Baseball is showing up the NBA and NFL in terms of negotiating new deals peacefully and out of the public eye. The MLB took its lumps in negotiating back in ‘94 but they obviously learned their lesson from it. The NFL off-season and pre-season was altered due to failed negotiations. The NBA owners and players are so far apart on an agreement that many players have called their agents and a moving company. They are taking their belongings and talents overseas to play in various leagues as more regular season games have gotten cancelled.

The current collective bargaining agreement in MLB doesn’t end until December but a new agreement is already in place and is set to be signed this week at the time of this writing. There haven’t been any comments from athletes talking about owners or owners talking to the media about athletes. There were no instances of players lashing out at the league through Twitter only to have a league made account strike back, take notes NBA.

After missing the World Series in the 94-95 season, commissioner Bud Selig and everyone else involved in the MLB labor negotiations was determined never to let that happen again. And can you blame them? MLB has revenue of about $7.5 billion, would you do anything to mess that up? The lines of communication have been open between the owners and the players and the owners have been on the same page with each other as well. In the NBA there are some owners who have disagreements with other owners in addition to the disagreements with the players. The constant bickering puts the negotiations on hold and delays any progress from taking place.

Baseball’s advanced communications between the owners and players is best displayed in their ability to agree on different concessions and implementing new rules for the game and contracts. Both sides agreed to compromise and give in some to the demands of the other side to reach an agreement.

The owners are getting blood testing for HGH (human growth hormone) implemented, as reported by the New York Times.
The wild card playoffs are being expanded which will bring in millions of dollars.
The players are getting a change in the free agent compensation rules that will allow for more bidding on players and increasing their chance to get that big contract.

One major factor in the NFL’s lockout of 2011 was revenue sharing. The small market owners were unhappy with the gap between them and the big market owners and the money that the players were making. Coming to an agreement to keep each party satisfied was a difficult and time consuming task. MLB was able to avoid that issue because the sides agreed not to look into a revenue-sharing system like the one the NFL has. MLB pays players the smallest percentage of revenue of all the major sports. Teams with lower pay rolls can still earn huge profits because they get checks from bigger market teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

I don’t necessarily agree with MLB’s revenue sharing plan because certain teams have no incentive to put together a winning team because they will continue to get paid. The best teams with the most money will continue to throw bigger amounts of money at the best players from these smaller market teams and take them away. The fans miss out on a winning team and are in fear of their best players leaving for greener pastures (more like more green in their wallets and bank accounts). The Milwaukee Brewers may lose their best player this off-season even though they don’t fit the example I just described because they are a small market team that does win.

Regardless of that minor beef I have with the revenue sharing, there is no denying MLB has set the standard terms of successful negotiations.