Costas
By Gerry Everding
May 18, 2001
Leading baseball-industry experts, including journalists George Will and Bob Costas, will be at the University May 29 for a one-day conference on "The Economics of Major League Baseball."
Costas |
Sponsored by the University's Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, the conference will explore a range of serious economic problems clouding the financial outlook for Major League Baseball (MLB) and other professional sports.
The conference is open to the public, but space is limited and tickets are required for all events. There is no charge for programs running from 7:45 a.m.-5:30 p.m. in Anheuser-Busch Hall, except for lunch ($15), which will feature a talk by Will. Costas will speak at dinner ($100), 6-8:30 p.m. in Holmes Lounge in Ridgley Hall.
For more information, call the Weidenbaum Center at 935-5068.
"The Weidenbaum Center forum will bring together baseball insiders, leading scholars, analysts and journalists to evaluate recent proposals addressing the problems of free agency, stadium financing and revenue-sharing among clubs," said center Director Steven S. Smith, Ph.D., professor of political science and the Kate M. Gregg Professor of Social Sciences in Arts & Sciences. Smith is serving as conference host and organizer.
Costas and Will, who have written extensively on the future of baseball, will make presentations and participate in panel discussions on a cross-section of the game's most controversial economic issues.
The conference will study the July 2000 report of the Commissioner's Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics. The discussion has taken on a sense of urgency because many believe these issues must be addressed before owners and players can renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement governing player salaries, a pact now set to expire at the end of the 2001 season. The success of these negotiations may determine whether the 2002 season is delayed by another protracted and messy strike by members of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), the players' union.
 Will |
Panelists include spokespersons for key stakeholders in the baseball industry, including: Donald Fehr, MLBPA executive director; Richie Bry, players' agent; Clark Griffith, sports lawyer and former Minnesota Twins owner; Mark Lamping, St. Louis Cardinals president; and John Rawlings, editor of The Sporting News.
Several prominent academic experts on the business and culture of baseball will also be on hand to moderate and participate in panel discussions, including Rodney Fort of Washington State University and Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College.
Washington University Arts & Sciences faculty participating in the event include Gerald L. Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters, an award-winning essayist who served as a consultant on the Ken Burns documentary "Baseball" for the Public Broadcasting Service; Wayne Fields, Ph.D., professor of English, director of the American Culture Studies Program and the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Chair in English; and Paul Rothstein, Ph.D., associate professor of economics who has conducted research on publicly financed projects such as baseball stadiums. Also participating will be Murray Weidenbaum, Ph.D., the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor and former economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan.
The Commissioner's Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics, which included Will, has identified a number of serious problems MLB faces. The panel suggested:
¥ Large and growing revenue disparities exist and are causing problems of chronic competitive imbalance;
¥ These problems have become substantially worse during the five complete seasons since the strike-shortened season of 1994, and seem likely to remain severe;
¥ The limited revenue-sharing and payroll tax that are in place have produced neither the intended moderating of payroll disparities nor improved competitive balance;
¥ And in a majority of MLB markets, the cost to clubs of trying to be competitive is causing escalation of ticket and concession prices, jeopardizing MLB's traditional position as an affordable family spectator sport.
The panel also observed that MLB does not operate as a genuine free market. MLB enjoys protection from antitrust laws. The purpose of this protection, and the MLB rules that the protection enables, is to maintain leagues in which every well-run club has a reasonable chance to reach postseason play. The panel noted that MLB rules are intended to protect the public interest by enabling franchises in communities of varying sizes and with different market conditions to compete against each other with a reasonable opportunity to succeed.
The panel recommended expanded revenue-sharing of local revenues, a competitive balance tax on high-payroll teams, and a redistributive formula of new central fund revenues. The panel also recommended an annual competitive balance draft that would redistribute players from the strongest to the weakest teams. Other reform proposals also have received serious discussion since the panel's report was issued.
"Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is now attempting to gain adoption of the panel's proposals, and negotiations between the owners and players will be greatly influenced by the commissioner's success," Smith said. "We hope this conference will shed light on these issues and inform efforts now under way to ensure that professional baseball continues to be a mainstay of American popular culture."
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