Baseball owners should keep taxpayer investment in mind

Re: “Kiszla vs. Saunders: Can greedy MLB find compromise to play ball in 2020?” June 9 commentary

Major League Baseball, team owners, and the players are having trouble coming together for the 2020 season. The debate about whether we will have baseball this summer is based on a financial argument.

Baseball has benefited greatly in the United States from the taxpayers footing the bill for teams’ ballparks through public funding. When Coors Field was originally built, tax payers funded the stadium with a 0.1 percent sales tax that paid $162 million. In 2017, The Rockies negotiated a 99-year lease on a piece of land next to Rockies Stadium.

Other cities have received similar public funding or favorable incentives from their host cities.

The MLB, team owners and players should take the public funding of their stadiums into consideration when discussing their next steps for the 2020 baseball season.

Team owners may be skilled at telling people that they are continuously losing money, but I don’t see any evidence of that as players are paid higher and higher salaries.

MLB runs a high risk of depriving America of a summer of baseball when America needs baseball the most.

With baseball fans being a captive audience for the foreseeable future, it makes little sense for Majur League Baseball to skip the opportunity to play games and reach potential new fans.

Instead, the MLB risks alienating fans, which will result in fewer fans when baseball does come back. Play ball.

John Riley Campbell, Denver