We are still weeks away from baseball’s originally scheduled Opening Day, but the impact of the ongoing lockout is already being felt.

Communities in Florida and Arizona are missing out on combined economic activity worth around $1.3 billion due to the delay of spring training.

The annual exhibition, which was set to begin on Feb. 26, sees half the league’s 30 teams play in Southern and Central Florida’s Grapefruit League, with the other half playing in the Phoenix area’s Cactus League.

• A study from 2018 found that spring training brought a $687 million impact to Florida, with 1.5 million fans in attendance, 52% from out of state.
• A separate study found that the Cactus League brought $644 million to the area in 2018. The league said that 1.8 million people attend each year, 60% from out of state.

While MLB and the MLBPA have resumed talks, the two sides remain far apart on core economic issues and are still debating rule changes to the sport.

Three-Year Impact

The lockout is just the latest hit to spring training communities, which saw the previous two seasons impacted by the pandemic. 

Spring training was cut short in March 2020 and was played with around 25% fan attendance in 2021.

The MLBPA established a $1 million fund to support stadium workers and others impacted by the delay in the season. MLB said it will create a similar program.

Details are falling into place for the Buffalo Bills’ new stadium.

New York State is expected to lead the funding for a $1.4 billion venue in Orchard Park, with contributions from the NFL and team owners Kim and Terry Pegula.

• New York is expected to chip in around $850 million in its state budget, which will be finalized on April 1. NFL owners could potentially vote on a proposal at the league meetings from March 27-30.
• The team can take out a $150 million loan from the league, repaid to the other 31 teams through visiting teams’ shares of Bills ticket revenue.
• To access that loan program, the Pegulas must commit at least $200 million, which can partly come from selling personal seat licenses to season-ticket holders.

The stadium was initially left out of the state’s $216.3 billion budget during negotiations. The current lease expires in 2023.

Shopping Around

The Pegulas have threatened to move the team to another city if they don’t get a deal they like, with Austin, Texas, named as a possible destination.

“Teams have other options,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said. 

The new open-air stadium, planned for the area right next to Highmark Stadium, could open by 2026 and seat 60,000-62,000 — plus another 5,000 standing-room spots.

A survey found that 70% of Bills fans are happy with the stadium plans, though only 33% approved of the decision to have an overhang instead of a roof.

Griffin Gaming Partners has closed a $750 million venture fund to invest in the gaming space, adding LionTree as a strategic partner to the fund.

The company, which launched its first fund in 2020 with $235 million, now has more than $1 billion in assets under management. 

Amid investments in social platforms, Web3, and content, founder Peter Levin told The Hollywood Reporter that the additional fund will allow for “more investing and investing with larger check sizes and a variety of different stages.”

The list of Griffin-backed companies continues to grow, with founder Phil Sanderson claiming the company sees “more than 1,300 qualified investment opportunities a year.”

• Digital distribution platform Discord
• Mobile technology company AppLovin Corp.
• NFT platform Forte
• Software platform Overwolf, which helps developers create extensions for games

“There’s an opportunity for more gaming-focused venture capitalists,” said Sanderson, also an investment banker at LionTree. 

Gaming’s Growth

Griffin says the gaming market is now “larger than movies, music, and books combined,” with data from Newzoo expecting the market to grow 248% in the next 10 years. Newzoo found that nearly one-third of the world’s population play games for almost an hour each day.

The global gaming market’s annual consumer spending is estimated to reach $256 billion in 2025.