Braves President Stan Kasten said last night on FSN's
"The Last Word" that MLB's economic disparity is "a problem
for all of us in baseball." Kasten: "We've had unanimity on
many of these issues, and while there is still room for
differences of opinions on the various solutions we can
adopt, there is unanimity on the fact we have a problem. ...
We cannot last very long with people -- two-thirds of our
fans -- thinking that their teams have no chance." Kasten,
on revenue sharing: "I think we need to continue that and I
think we need to grow it and we need to expand it."
CAP THE ANSWER? Asked about a possible MLB salary cap,
Kasten said, "I think ... some salary constraint mechanism
that just ties the amount of payroll in with the amount of
revenue ... [would] make the game so much more stable."
Pirates Managing General Partner Kevin McClatchy: "Right
now, [teams] are maxing out their revenues on player
salaries, and if that keeps going, the only way that they're
going to be able to do that is to raise ticket prices. And,
that's the biggest mistake we can make as an industry ...
because right now, that's our best competitive advantage
over all the other leagues" ("The Last Word," FSN, 4/26).
