~*Official #COVID-19 Thread of Doom*~ Revenge of Omicron Prime

[Firewithin]

the players already agreed to reduced salaries as it was but the owners want to play a bare minimum amount of games while also trying to cut even more off a prorated salary while now also wanting players to sign waivers if they get sick.  all this is on the owners plain and simple (and fucking manfred)

[mclumber1]

1 minute ago, Chris- said:

Only a third of MLB’s revenue is tied up in gate receipts, the vast majority of their money comes from media rights and merchandising (as is the case with most leagues). And even that is a mitigated issue because of profit sharing. Basically all of the pro-owner arguments are full of shit. 

 

I was trying to do some research on all of this, but since MLB and most of the teams are private companies, a lot of the financial information is not disclosed.  

 

That being said, I would argue that if MLB owners want to stop salaries for a certain period of time, they can, on the condition that they open up their books for the last ~10 years and keep them open in perpetuity so we can see when/if these owners are actually being financially strained. 

[Chris-]

I will say though, 90% of baseball’s appeal is drinking outside in warm weather, so fan-less baseball does seem kind of pointless!

[rc0101]

Marlins sold for 1.2 billion dollars with like 5 ownership groups pursuing a purchase and they haven’t had fans for over a decade. 100% on owners. 

[mclumber1]

2 minutes ago, Firewithin said:

the players already agreed to reduced salaries as it was but the owners want to play a bare minimum amount of games while also trying to cut even more off a prorated salary while now also wanting players to sign waivers if they get sick.  all this is on the owners plain and simple (and fucking manfred)

 

Ok, yeah.  That's shitty.  Either play the season and pay them appropriately, or don't play at all and don't pay them.  I agree that the players are put at increased risk and should be compensated and protected adequately. 

[rc0101]

1 minute ago, mclumber1 said:

 

I was trying to do some research on all of this, but since MLB and most of the teams are private companies, a lot of the financial information is not disclosed.  

 

That being said, I would argue that if MLB owners want to stop salaries for a certain period of time, they can, on the condition that they open up their books for the last ~10 years and keep them open in perpetuity so we can see when/if these owners are actually being financially strained. 

lol this will never happen since it would destroy their argument that they are all poor. 

[Joe]

Just now, rc0101 said:

lol this will never happen since it would destroy their argument that they are all poor. 

 

 

Little bitches.

[Chris-]

The Pirates turned a profit last year despite selling like a million less tickets YoY. 
 

Edit - Actually that’s been over a period of four or five years, but revenue has still gone up during that timespan. 

[rc0101]

MLB owners are the greediest humans alive I swear. Get basically slave labor in the minors and then team control of the players through their prime at insane value for the club. 

[Kal-El814]

I love watching sports but if it all goes away because multimillionaires and multibillionaires cannot comes to an equitable agreement I could not possibly give less of a shit. Yes I know not all ball players are multimillionaires, I do not care. Pro sports are a television show to drive ad sales, people will find other shit to watch.

[mclumber1]

Baseball would probably be a lot more enjoyable if there wasn't this viscous cycle of increasing ticket prices and increasing player salaries.  I think the other leagues are doing it correctly with salary caps.  I've always though revenue sharing was kinda dumb, and is ripe for cooked books.

[silentbob]

17 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

I shit on professional athletes AND the owners. Well, maybe not professional Canadian football players, since most make like $50k to $80k.

 

Yeah I had one or two members of the Hamilton Ti-Cats as a substitute teacher at my elementary school some 20-25 years ago (god typing that makes me feel old)

[Joe]

1 minute ago, Kal-El814 said:

I love watching sports but if it all goes away because multimillionaires and multibillionaires cannot comes to an equitable agreement I could not possibly give less of a shit. Yes I know not all ball players are multimillionaires, I do not care. Pro sports are a television show to drive ad sales, people will find other shit to watch.

 

Love ya bud, but this is a garbage take.

[mclumber1]

1 minute ago, Kal-El814 said:

I love watching sports but if it all goes away because multimillionaires and multibillionaires cannot comes to an equitable agreement I could not possibly give less of a shit. Yes I know not all ball players are multimillionaires, I do not care. Pro sports are a television show to drive ad sales, people will find other shit to watch.

 

Although I haven't been in a long time, I've always found minor league games fun to attend.  

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Imagine looking at a check and thinking the pay to and signature lines are the same thing, this is your brain on libertarianism

[silentbob]

13 minutes ago, rc0101 said:

Marlins sold for 1.2 billion dollars with like 5 ownership groups pursuing a purchase and they haven’t had fans for over a decade. 100% on owners. 

 

They are probably the only team that could of allowed their fans to still attend their games while still social distancing without anyone telling them to do so

 

[Joe]

4 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

 

Although I haven't been in a long time, I've always found minor league games fun to attend.  

 

Minor league baseball players are basically indentured servants.

[mclumber1]

3 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Imagine looking at a check and thinking the pay to and signature lines are the same thing, this is your brain on libertarianism

 

Need I remind you that you and 3 others liked this gem from the Mark Zuckerberg thread:

 

Quote

Anyone worth over $1 billion should be killed. Maybe even $50 million. Anyone worth over $10 or $20 million should have their wealth removed entirely and made impoverished.

 

The world would be a better place, or, at the least, the rich would be punished for the exploitation they have taken part in. Don't @ me. 

 

 

[Chris-]

7 minutes ago, Jose said:

 

Love ya bud, but this is a garbage take.

Your takes would be just as bad if you had to watch the Jets. 

[mclumber1]

6 minutes ago, silentbob said:

 

They are probably the only team that could of allowed their fans to still attend their games while still social distancing without anyone telling them to do so

 

 

If Montreal still had a team, they would be the social distancing champions.

[Kal-El814]

12 minutes ago, Jose said:

Love ya bud, but this is a garbage take.

 

That’s fine.  MLB should know better than any league that public interest shouldn’t be taken for granted, they’re the ones who have suffered from a lack of attendance and interest most recently. That aside it wasn’t THAT long ago that everyone gave a shit about boxing and horse racing, and nobody cares about them anymore.

 

That said if I was an owner of a team, I assume I would be an asshole like they all are and I’d let the players rot in hell. I’ve got billions of dollars from other shit, 99% of these players have no other marketable skills. Here’s the offer, take it or get fucked.

 

But I stand by the notion that pro sports are 100% a television show, the fact that we treat them as anything other than that is bananas.

 

12 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

Although I haven't been in a long time, I've always found minor league games fun to attend.  

 

Minor league baseball is almost always more fun to attend than MLB.

 

5 minutes ago, Chris- said:

Your takes would be just as bad if you had to watch the Jets. 

 

Hey. I don’t HAVE to watch them and I do ANYWAY. This is objectively worse.

 

Quote

Anyone worth over $1 billion should be killed. Maybe even $50 million. Anyone worth over $10 or $20 million should have their wealth removed entirely and made impoverished.

 

The world would be a better place, or, at the least, the rich would be punished for the exploitation they have taken part in. Don't @ me. 

All income and capital gains over $250K should be taxed at least 80%. We can kill those who refuse to pay.

[Joe]

2 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

That’s fine.  MLB should know better than any league that public interest shouldn’t be taken for granted, they’re the ones who have suffered from a lack of attendance and interest most recently. That aside it wasn’t THAT long ago that everyone gave a shit about boxing and horse racing, and nobody cares about them anymore.

 

That said if I was an owner of a team, I assume I would be an asshole like they all are and I’d let the players rot in hell. I’ve got billions of dollars from other shit, 99% of these players have no other marketable skills. Here’s the offer, take it or get fucked.

 

But I stand by the notion that pro sports are 100% a television show, the fact that we treat them as anything other than that is bananas.

 

 

Minor league baseball is almost always more fun to attend than MLB.

 

 

I don't get how that's relevant? How many billionaires became massively rich off one lucky idea that took off and they sold it for billions? Even if Mike Trout somehow only does have one marketable skill, he has to do it year after year to get paid the kind of money he's paid. Should the public no longer be interested in his performance, so be it, but why belittle it?

[Jason]

23 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

I love watching sports but if it all goes away because multimillionaires and multibillionaires cannot comes to an equitable agreement I could not possibly give less of a shit. Yes I know not all ball players are multimillionaires, I do not care. Pro sports are a television show to drive ad sales, people will find other shit to watch.

 

What could be more fun than five minutes of commercials, coming back to watch everyone dogpile the quarterback, and then promptly cutting back to another five minutes of commercials? 

[Joe]

Just now, Jason said:

 

What could be more fun than five minutes of commercials, coming back to watch everyone dogpile the quarterback, and then promptly cutting back to another five minutes of commercials? 

 

You know, it's actually way more fun than stalking Donald Trump's Twitter feed. 

[mclumber1]

3 minutes ago, Jose said:

 

I don't get how that's relevant? How many billionaires became massively rich off one lucky idea that took off and they sold it for billions? Even if Mike Trout somehow only does have one marketable skill, he has to do it year after year to get paid the kind of money he's paid. Should the public no longer be interested in his performance, so be it, but why belittle it?

 

His skill, when it comes down to it, is no more remarkable than an actor who wins Oscar awards.  Sports players are entertainers, just like actors.  The only thing they produce is entertainment.

 

As a libertarian I have no issue with this actually.  I just find it interesting how we can be "knives out" for moderately wealthy entrepreneurs, but entertainers are somehow off limits. 

[marioandsonic]

I love baseball (especially going to games in person, as it means enjoying delicious food and drinks in warm weather), but MLB is too fucking stupid to do anything right. They could've had a plan to have been the first sport back from COVID and give people at home something to watch and enjoy, but they fucked it up in nearly every possible way.  If MLB dies from this, the owners and league will have no one to blame but themselves.
 

 

[rc0101]

7 minutes ago, Jose said:

 

I don't get how that's relevant? How many billionaires became massively rich off one lucky idea that took off and they sold it for billions? Even if Mike Trout somehow only does have one marketable skill, he has to do it year after year to get paid the kind of money he's paid. Should the public no longer be interested in his performance, so be it, but why belittle it?

I would say most owners inherited their wealth but that’s just a guess. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

28 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

 

Need I remind you that you and 3 others liked this gem from the Mark Zuckerberg thread:

 

 

 

Oh boy you got me

 

Wealthy baseball players who would fall into the categories for wealth expropriation are yet a fraction of a fraction of all professional players, and they still only get a fraction of the value that they generate from playing as the owners extract and retain the remainder of the surplus. 

[Joe]

By the way, you guys are crazy if you think this fight is about Mike Trout getting $30 million. Dude's worth over half a billion. You think he gives a shit whether he loses a shitty pro-rated portion of his $30 million to risk his life? That money means nothing to him.

 

This is about the players that have careers spanning a mere few years making at or slightly above the league minimum. And yes, they probably do not have marketable skills beyond that, so they will probably have to live the rest of their lives off that money.

 

 

[mclumber1]

1 minute ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Oh boy you got me

 

Wealthy baseball players who would fall into the categories for wealth expropriation are yet a fraction of a fraction of all professional players, and they still only get a fraction of the value that they generate from playing as the owners extract and retain the remainder of the surplus. 

 

But Mike Trout still gets the blade right?

[Ghost_MH]

7 minutes ago, marioandsonic said:

I love baseball (especially going to games in person, as it means enjoying delicious food and drinks in warm weather), but MLB is too fucking stupid to do anything right. They could've had a plan to have been the first sport back from COVID and give people at home something to watch and enjoy, but they fucked it up in nearly every possible way.  If MLB dies from this, the owners and league will have no one to blame but themselves.
 

 

 

Sounds about right. It's just missing the part where a bunch of sports journalists carry water for ownership to try to pit the fans against the players. Baseball is such an easy sport to play in a COVID world. Get all the players and staff tested and the sport already has plenty of social distancing built into it. They'd be the, literally, the only sport in town.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

2 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

 

But Mike Trout still gets the blade right?

 

2 minutes ago, Jose said:

By the way, you guys are crazy if you think this fight is about Mike Trout getting $30 million. Dude's worth over half a billion. You think he gives a shit whether he loses a shitty pro-rated portion of his $30 million to risk his life? That money means nothing to him.

 

This is about the players that have careers spanning a mere few years making at or slightly above the league minimum. And yes, they probably do not have marketable skills beyond that, so they will probably have to live the rest of their lives off that money.

 

 

This, but since we're tracking what I post in other threads:

 

 

[mclumber1]

1 minute ago, Jose said:

By the way, you guys are crazy if you think this fight is about Mike Trout getting $30 million. Dude's worth over half a billion. You think he gives a shit whether he loses a shitty pro-rated portion of his $30 million to risk his life? That money means nothing to him.

 

This is about the players that have careers spanning a mere few years making at or slightly above the league minimum. And yes, they probably do not have marketable skills beyond that, so they will probably have to live the rest of their lives off that money.

 

 

 

I just learned that MLB players only need to serve 43 days to receive a pension.  $34,000 a year.  When they reach 62 years old, they receive $100,000 a year.  

 

That's not a lot of money for sure.  But between a pension and a low skill job, a retired baseball player who never made it big can live comfortably.  Plus they get free healthcare for life. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Playing baseball at the major league level is not low skill ffs

[mclumber1]

3 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Sounds about right. It's just missing the part where a bunch of sports journalists carry water for ownership to try to pit the fans against the players. Baseball is such an easy sport to play in a COVID world. Get all the players and staff tested and the sport already has plenty of social distancing built into it. They'd be the, literally, the only sport in town.

 

For sure baseball would be the easiest sport of the big 4 to social distance with.  You still couldn't haven any (or have very few) fans in the stands though.