Scott Boras Claims Contracts Have No Impact On Ticket Prices

Boras Says Contracts Do Not Cause Rise In Ticket Prices

Agent Scott Boras appeared on ESPN’s “Jim Rome Is Burning” Thursday and addressed a variety of issues, including the notion that the high-priced MLB contracts he has negotiated are pricing fans out of the game. Boras said, “The evidence is clear that the value given to players in their contracts is not relative to the ticket prices. There are teams who have no players with large contracts whose ticket prices are at or near the very same teams that have numerous players with large contracts.” He said when he became an agent, MLB was “about a $400(M) industry. Now it is a $6(B) industry, and the fan interest, the ratings, the attendance, all have gone up.” Boras added ticket prices in all sports “have gone up. It’s become more corporate.”  Asked if Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez’s torrid play is driving his market price up, Boras said, “The revenues of the game are more of a determiner, and players who perform well will benefit from that”  (ESPN, 6/14).