Looks like that both sides (ahem *cough* the owners) are trying to make things work since they extended the deadline again, this time for a week. To me, it looks like the owners have been plotting against the PA for at least a year in order to force it into agreeing to their terms during these negotiations. I can't honestly say that that is a bad decision - employees, whether they be players or trainers or whatever - are "costs" and the point of any businessman is to limit the amount of costs in his company/corporation to increase profits.
From the owners' perspective, I believe that they expect league revenue will increase based on the quality of the marketing of the product. I tell people to look at hockey - the NHL still hasn't fully recovered from the lockout, and just this year got an all-access, R-rated show to cover its product, something for which Jeremy Roenick was pleading back in 1999. The NHL has changed dramatically - scoring is up since the rules changes during the lockout - and yet it's the 5th most watched pro sport in the US, behind the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, NBA (the Final Four gets better ratings than the Stanley Cup, so that's an extra issue). The NFL knows that it is watched so much that it can prime time its draft and still get solid ratings - while the MLB draft (the real one - the Rule IV draft - not the Rule V) isn't even televised. The American Idol final rated out higher this year than Game 5 of the World Series, whereas the Super Bowl was the highest rated program ever in US television history (for the 2nd year in a row)
Goodell has been quoted saying that the "statuts quo" is no longer acceptable - that the owners want to keep increasing their cut and believe that they can pigeon hole the players into relenting their positions, since the owners have more money than the players. The players keep sticking to their strong position, but they're obviously just publicly promoting their position, right?
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Roster Construction Conflicts
Baseball is doomed man. The college game is barely publicized and the draft is still done OVER THE PHONE. The NFL draft meanwhile has become so popular that it's now split into 3 days of televised drama in prime time.
You can't even trade MLB draft picks yet and the Commish bitches when teams spend over "a recommended slot." He's so passive aggressive and traditional it's fucking annoying. My good friend from back home was at the WS Game 5 in Arlington this year and he said it was the least passionate game he's ever been to in any sport on any level. Even when fans' teams are in the World Series they barely can muster any energy.
Bringing more access to the game is what's going to bring in more revenue. MLB may be at it's all-time highest in terms of gross revenue but any time your sport's championship receives less viewership than another's all-star game, you gotta know that you're falling behind. That's faLLing, as in, currently in the process of decline. Let's mic up more players during games, let's get on 24/7 on HBO, let's film several reality shows in-season and during the off-season that depicts the life of a ballplayer and its relationship with its agent, front office, media, etc.
In essence, MLB needs to bond with its viewership in progressive manners. The NFL is able to still celebrate its roots while incorporating its new generations of fans. I feel as though while there has been a movement in advanced analytical thought on the game by fans and in some front offices, the directional attitude in the Commissioner's Office is still one that spurns change in order to preserve the status quo of the status quo.
Next post: how the most progressive & successful league in North America aims to better the status quo, annually, for no other reason than because it is the status quo.
You can't even trade MLB draft picks yet and the Commish bitches when teams spend over "a recommended slot." He's so passive aggressive and traditional it's fucking annoying. My good friend from back home was at the WS Game 5 in Arlington this year and he said it was the least passionate game he's ever been to in any sport on any level. Even when fans' teams are in the World Series they barely can muster any energy.
Bringing more access to the game is what's going to bring in more revenue. MLB may be at it's all-time highest in terms of gross revenue but any time your sport's championship receives less viewership than another's all-star game, you gotta know that you're falling behind. That's faLLing, as in, currently in the process of decline. Let's mic up more players during games, let's get on 24/7 on HBO, let's film several reality shows in-season and during the off-season that depicts the life of a ballplayer and its relationship with its agent, front office, media, etc.
In essence, MLB needs to bond with its viewership in progressive manners. The NFL is able to still celebrate its roots while incorporating its new generations of fans. I feel as though while there has been a movement in advanced analytical thought on the game by fans and in some front offices, the directional attitude in the Commissioner's Office is still one that spurns change in order to preserve the status quo of the status quo.
Next post: how the most progressive & successful league in North America aims to better the status quo, annually, for no other reason than because it is the status quo.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
The Art of War
"All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Folly of Arbitration
One of the first things that we learned in my Intro to Negotiation course in grad school was to preserve the long-term relationship with whom you are negotiating. The professor identified this person one's negotiating partner. Not opponent, enemy or nemesis; your "partner." Solidifying a relationship with this person can open doors to avenues before which may have seemed unreachable. The importance of communication of respect can not be understated: people act in ways that violate logic because they are willing to absorb the loss at the negotiating table as long as their dignity remains intact. This is nothing new; the bottom line isn't always the bottom line. Nepotism still reigns free. Personal belief trumps science (people are still unwilling to believe that Obama was born in the U.S. See: Luke Scott).
The point is that the relationship between owner and player has grown to where each party can publicly express some of their interests without having to be concerned with damaging their position at the negotiating table. What MLB needs to do during the 2012 CBA negotiations is to make a concerted effort to enact policies that will progress MLB as a whole so that it can compete with the top North American sports leagues (i.e. the NFL, NBA). It is no accident that the 2011 NFL Pro Bowl received higher TV viewership ratings (8.6) than Game 3 of the World Series (7.6). Anytime a game that's as fake as a WWE match outperforms another league's championship series, it should be apparent that there is a clear discrepancy in popularity between the two.
The Folly Arbitration is designed to expose certain MLB rules for what they are: antiquated notions of negotiated treaty implemented for the sake of appeasement rather than for the greater good of the game. The rules governing arbitration are such a classic case of ineptitude that MLB clubs, both large- and small-market, have begun to exploit the obvious loopholes created by the rules. I'll be devoting a full post arbitration soon, but just to whet everyone's whistle: basically the rules state that teams must be compensated by other teams and/or the League if they offer a player with an expired contract (who has accumulated at least six years of service time) the possibility of extending the contract through arbitration. For those not in the know, MLB arbitration is when the player and his representatives negotiate with the club's reps for what each party believes is a fair shake in front of an independent third-party who must rule in favor of one party and for a certain dollar amount.
The problems arise when these players are graded out by an (antiquated) system that measures a combination of stats based on the position in which one plays. These grades - top 20% are Type A, next 20% are Type B and the rest are unclassified - dictate the compensation that Team X will receive if their player signs with Team Y after having been offered arbitration by Team X. Type A free agents provide their former clubs with the signing teams' 1st round draft choice plus a supplemental round (in b/w 1st & 2nd rounds) selection, awarded by MLB as to not have a team sacrifice two selections. Type Bs only provide that supplemental round pick and unclassifieds do not provide any compensation. It may seem fair until one examines the data. In 2009, the average annual salary awarded to Type B free agents were worth double those annual salaries of the 2009 unclassified free agents, despite the unclassified free agent being worth almost double the WAR.
These illogical conclusions will hopefully come to an end in the next CBA (the current one expires after the 2011 season). Given what we have seen from Major League Baseball over the last forty years, it is more plausible to expect no change than proper change, despite overwhelming evidence that some parties have been exploited in the past. Hopefuly we are successful in changing the overall feeling towards baseball in the coming months.
The point is that the relationship between owner and player has grown to where each party can publicly express some of their interests without having to be concerned with damaging their position at the negotiating table. What MLB needs to do during the 2012 CBA negotiations is to make a concerted effort to enact policies that will progress MLB as a whole so that it can compete with the top North American sports leagues (i.e. the NFL, NBA). It is no accident that the 2011 NFL Pro Bowl received higher TV viewership ratings (8.6) than Game 3 of the World Series (7.6). Anytime a game that's as fake as a WWE match outperforms another league's championship series, it should be apparent that there is a clear discrepancy in popularity between the two.
The Folly Arbitration is designed to expose certain MLB rules for what they are: antiquated notions of negotiated treaty implemented for the sake of appeasement rather than for the greater good of the game. The rules governing arbitration are such a classic case of ineptitude that MLB clubs, both large- and small-market, have begun to exploit the obvious loopholes created by the rules. I'll be devoting a full post arbitration soon, but just to whet everyone's whistle: basically the rules state that teams must be compensated by other teams and/or the League if they offer a player with an expired contract (who has accumulated at least six years of service time) the possibility of extending the contract through arbitration. For those not in the know, MLB arbitration is when the player and his representatives negotiate with the club's reps for what each party believes is a fair shake in front of an independent third-party who must rule in favor of one party and for a certain dollar amount.
The problems arise when these players are graded out by an (antiquated) system that measures a combination of stats based on the position in which one plays. These grades - top 20% are Type A, next 20% are Type B and the rest are unclassified - dictate the compensation that Team X will receive if their player signs with Team Y after having been offered arbitration by Team X. Type A free agents provide their former clubs with the signing teams' 1st round draft choice plus a supplemental round (in b/w 1st & 2nd rounds) selection, awarded by MLB as to not have a team sacrifice two selections. Type Bs only provide that supplemental round pick and unclassifieds do not provide any compensation. It may seem fair until one examines the data. In 2009, the average annual salary awarded to Type B free agents were worth double those annual salaries of the 2009 unclassified free agents, despite the unclassified free agent being worth almost double the WAR.
These illogical conclusions will hopefully come to an end in the next CBA (the current one expires after the 2011 season). Given what we have seen from Major League Baseball over the last forty years, it is more plausible to expect no change than proper change, despite overwhelming evidence that some parties have been exploited in the past. Hopefuly we are successful in changing the overall feeling towards baseball in the coming months.
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