You're Probably Getting Screwed By Major League Baseball Blackouts

I love baseball. I was blessed to play professionally, and as I get older I am becoming more and more of a fan. 

I live in Iowa and in order to watch games, I purchased MLB.tv for several years. Here’s the problem: in Iowa, we don’t have an MLB team. However, we’re blacked out of 6 different markets! So if the Twins, Brewers, Cubs, White Sox, Cardinals and Royals are all playing other teams, that's 40% of games I don’t have access to. 

COURIER @CourierNewsroom

You’re probably getting screwed by… Major League Baseball owners? Iowa native and former professional baseball player @JDScholten breaks it down 👇

August 17th 2022

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Blackouts were originally created to make sure fans would attend the games rather than just watching at home or at the local bar. But it’s an 8 hour drive from me to Milwaukee or St. Louis…

Currently, each MLB team has a lucrative deal with regional sports networks.

24 of the 30 team owners are billionaires. Baseball is set up so that the owners pick the commissioner and the commissioner's job is to make sure the people who picked him or her are happy. So the commissioner’s focus isn't on the players or the fans or to grow the game… it’s to make sure revenue is flowing to the owners.

Growing up, I was able to watch Shawn Dunston, Mark Grace and The Hawk, Ander Dawson for the Cubs on WGN. The current generation of Little Leaguers don’t have that ability and I worry about the future.

Here in Iowa, MLB cut two minor league teams so we’re down to just 3 teams. All three (Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Iowa Cubs and the Quad Cities River Bandits) are great baseball atmospheres. Unfortunately, if these players make the Bigs we most likely won’t be able to watch…

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YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:

MLB OWNERS

Have you heard this one before, billionaires aren’t paying workers a fair price… In baseball, Minor Leaguers make an annual salary of between $4,800 and $15,400. In fact, the average Minor Leaguer makes below the poverty line.

RICKETTS

Cubs fans, I feel for you… No fanbase is upset with their owners like the Cubs. The Cubs owner is Tom Ricketts (brother of Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts who has had his own issues and son of controversial billionaire Joe Ricketts). 

Currently, going to Wrigley Field is the most expensive experience in MLB but their payroll is 14th best in the league. In contrast, the Seattle Mariners made a decision this year to have a “fan-friendly” menu.

“Wrigleyville has become a way for the Ricketts’ to use the Cubs to print money. That is exactly what they have done by renovating the area, forcing out most of the other business interests, and monopolizing every cent of profit that can be made from the neighborhood directly surrounding Wrigley Field.”

Meanwhile, on the field the Cubs had a firesale last year of their best players…

MONOPOLY

MLB’s antitrust exemption resulted from a 1922 Supreme Court ruling. When there isn’t an antitrust threat, we know it’s not good for workers and consumers. In baseball, that means fans pay for it (both at games and with MLB blackouts) and minor leaguers get suppressed.

MLB lobbied Congress to pass the Save America’s Pastime Act of 2018. Ultimately, it gave MLB teams more protection to pay minor league players at or below poverty level—certainly below minimum wage.

MLB’s monopoly power allowed it to cut minor league teams from 40 cities back in December of 2020. Several of the cities lost decades of their communities' effort to support the teams.

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Standing Tall for All,

J.D. Scholten

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