Shaikin: Live from Atlanta: The next front in the war
In 2021, Times columnist Expense Plaschke sustained the rage of Atlanta by blaspheming the home entertainment district surrounding the Braves’ ballpark as a “sterile shopping mall.” The district, called The Battery, prefers the grand descriptor of “the South’s preeminent lifestyle location.”
Let’s walk around The Battery, so you can understand why it could become one of the flash points in the coming holy war in between owners and players.Advertisement If you leave the ballpark through
the right-field gates, you are in The Battery. You’ll see a plaza in front of you, and around you positions to ride a mechanical bull, go bowling, browse an escape space or take in a concert.You can eat, drink
, store, dance, stay in a hotel. You can live here, in houses above the stores. You can work here, in workplace towers housing business giants.
“To create an environment where you can invest 8, 9 hours at The Battery and the field, and still feel like you have all the time in the world, I believe they’ve done a terrific job building this place,” Dodgers and former Braves All-Star initially baseman Freddie Freeman said.The Braves constructed all this, not just to draw fans to come early and remain late on game days however to generate income from the property 365 days a year instead of 81. On that front, it is a magnificent success: Nine million individuals come here each year, and the Braves generated $67 million in profits from The Battery last year.Advertisement This,
according to major league authorities, is the template for the contemporary team. The Angels had prepared a ballpark town twice as big as The Battery. Imagine what the Dodgers could construct, and just how much earnings they could generate, on home twice as large as the Angel Arena site.And, speaking of revenue, Rob Manfred has something he likes to
say to players about it. The MLB commissioner spoke at the Braves ‘Investor Day last month and said he tells players that their share of the sport’s profits has actually dropped from 63% in 2002 to 47%today.Baseball is the only major sport in America without a salary cap system, in which owners accept invest a designated portion of income on player incomes.”If we had negotiated 10 years ago to share 50-50, you would’ve made $2.5 billion more than you made,”Manfred stated he has told players, in remarks first reported by Sports Organization Journal.Advertisement Find out more: Jacob Misiorowski is the talk of the All-Star Game. Why Dodgers are partially to thank The players and their union rolled their cumulative eyes at those comments. It is clear thatmany owners desire a wage cap, and the cost certainty that comes with it. “It’s all methods,”Dodgers All-Star catcher Will Smith stated.”It’s all early negotiating stuff. “Said Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll:” Owners do not want to put money in our pockets
. For them to emphasize how we need this a lot, there’s a factor for that.”Tony Clark, the union’s executive director, stated the earnings numbers the league show the union are not constant with Manfred’s statements. And, when you think about a percentage of income, you need to define what counts
as income: What goes into the swimming pool to be shared with players? Tony Clark, executive director of the MLB players’union.(Brynn Anderson/ Associated Press)So let’s return to The Battery, and to the revenue opportunities that such ballpark villages develop for teams.Advertisement A report released in April by Klutch Sports, the Los Angeles-based firm, called such towns
“the sports industry’s $100+billion growth engine,”particularly as media revenue subsides. Within the pitch to
group owners: Those villages”generate appealing financial returns that stand outside of league profits sharing requirements.”Translation:
You can make all these millions without sharing any of it with the players.The Braves are constructing here due to the fact that the team plays here. That is the brand-new concern towering above the next round of cumulative bargaining: If a team constructs around its ballpark, should that income be shown players?”Oh yeah,”Athletics All-Star designated hitter Brent Rooker said.” Income is just any dollar that teams bring in that eventually might be turned around and utilized to put a much better item on the field.
It’s got to include tickets, TV, concessions, all the important things around the arena. It’s got to include all of it.”Advertisement Read more: Representative: Julio Urías has ‘every intention to continue his profession’Is the money a team makes
from renting workplace outside the ballpark actually appropriate to the team?Here’s what Braves president and president Derek Schiller told ESPN about The Battery:”You have actually got an entire other set of earnings from the property advancement that can then be deployed for the baseball group. “I asked Clark whether, if negotiations turn to the possibility ofrevenue sharing along the lines Manfred talked about, the cash from ballpark towns needs to
be part of the conversation.”Yes,”Clark said.Advertisement He decreased to elaborate. Understand this about Clark: He can filibuster a yes or no concern into a 45-second monologue without actually responding to yes or no. That he would say a clear “yes” and absolutely nothing else leaves no doubt about his position.Read more: Hernández: MLB can’t manage to lose out on Shohei Ohtani vs. Aaron Judge in Crowning Achievement Derby If the players do ask that owners share profits from such ballpark towns, the reaction would be predictable: First, we share baseball income from baseball operations, and property
advancements are not baseball operations.
Second, if you want to share in the revenue, you can share in the danger too, by assisting to money building and construction of the ballpark town, state, or by presuming some of the losses when a tenant drops its lease and leaves stores or office buildings
unoccupied.Said Carroll: “I believe that’s a conversation that will not need to occur, because it won’t get to that point. An income cap
is a nonstarter from the union’s viewpoint.” Advertisement Enjoy the All-Star Game Tuesday, because this summer season is among relative peace. The cumulative bargaining agreement ends after next season, which implies the rhetoric in between players and owners should be flying this time next year. If the owners insist on pressing a salary cap, a lockout likely would follow.And, if the owners press income sharing, The Battery might offer the push for the players ‘pushback.Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout.
Delivered at the start of each series.This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Times.