“MLB Negotiations and a Half-Assed Effort”
Unfortunately, the MLB season will not start as scheduled. The lockout continued, with at least the first week of the season cancelled as owners and players failed to finalize a new collective bargaining agreement.
As many on the sidelines accurately point out, this is millionaires (some, but not all players) battling billionaires (owners) over money. This narration does disregard the important issue of low pay for minor league players. There are a lot of pieces on the table to address (and too much to go into detail here), but too little progress has been mad due to too little effort made in good faith, particularly on the ownership side.
Plenty of blame probably is deserved by all parties, but the league waited three months to respond to the player’s initial demands, then another six weeks of delay after declaring the lockout. Traditionally poor television numbers in April means the owners don’t mind losing games on the schedule – especially when they aren’t obligated to pay players for those missed games.
League revenue has grown over the past 4 years (including the pandemic shortened year), while the players’ share has decreased during that same time. So perhaps league representation could find a way to “put a little more arm” into a counter-offer that the players would find more palatable.
These kinds of negotiations are never pretty, but those with the most to lose long term need to be careful. A league that’s facing dwindling interest can ill afford turning off an aging and fickle fan base with lots of other options for their attention.
