MLB union proposes 70-game season
Two days after major league owners thought they had a deal for a 60-game season, the players’ union on Thursday proposed a 70-game season.
That could set the stage for a settlement of 65 or so games, depending on how willing owners might be to incur more expenses to what commissioner Rob Manfred called “a jointly developed framework” he and union chief Tony Clark developed in a meeting Tuesday.
Under that framework, considered by the league as the precursor to a deal and by the union as a proposal, the players would get around $1.51 billion in salary this season. A 65-game season would cost about $1.63 billion, and a 70-game season around $1.76 billion.
For the owners that thought the matter was resolved, they must consider whether to add salary in order to add games, or to move dollars from other economic areas of the framework Manfred and Clark discussed Tuesday, including revenue players would have received from expanded playoffs in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
The owners also could decline the offer and exercise their authority to implement a 48-game season, at about $1.21 billion, as agreed with the union on March 26.
That could prompt the union to file a grievance over the salary lost over what players would have earned over a bargained season, a threat that Manfred has said the union has put at about $1 billion.
The players previously proposed seasons of 114 and 89 games, respectively, at $2.9 billion and $2.2 billion.
Ad patches on MLB uniforms could be reality as soon as next month
Remember when baseball fans were moderately outraged at the Nike swoosh symbol set to appear on MLB uniforms in 2020? Well, those uniform designs are about to get a whole lot uglier.
As part of the proposal to begin the season, Major League Baseball and the Players Association are expected to agree to place corporate advertising on uniforms in 2020 and 2021.
With no fans in the stands to gawk at dozens of tacky advertisements plastered around ballparks, MLB will instead plug those endorsements onto baseball uniforms. It’s a surefire way to create a source of revenue for clubs to bridge the financial gap the coronavirus pandemic has produced. Clubs shouldn’t have a hard time finding partners to sign on to this deal.
This concept has already been adopted by the NBA — which boasts brands like StubHub, Goodyear and several others. It can be done tastefully, with a color-theme that matches team uniforms. It can be placed in an unobtrusive space, similar to where the Nike swoosh was introduced near the chest area on MLB jerseys.
The new addition of advertisements may irk traditional baseball fans when the jarring sight of pitchers like Max Scherzer or Jacob deGrom, players who drip with cutthroat competitiveness on the mound, suddenly have a Budweiser or W.B. Mason patch on their sleeves or necklines. But as revered as baseball uniforms are, the sport was never about making a fashion statement. Players, to this day, receive fines for bringing custom colorful gloves, cleats or bats to the field, unless it’s an MLB-approved holiday like Mother’s Day or the Fourth of July. MLB rules prohibit “alterations, writing or illustrations other than as authorized” to any part of a player’s uniform.
The advertising proposal, if passed, would run through the 2021 season, and then the CBA expires. Ad patches on jerseys may only be guaranteed for the next two years, but if it proves successful for clubs, they’ll likely become a permanent fixture in baseball.