MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred at the CAA World Congress of Sports emphasized the importance of the World Baseball ClassicTony Florez
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred spent the majority of his featured conversation at SBJ World Congress of Sports yesterday discussing the growth of baseball and the momentum the league has in doing so. In his talk with AEG CEO Dan Beckerman and Mandalay Entertainment Group Chair Peter Guber, Manfred emphasized the importance of the World Baseball Classic, the league’s grassroots efforts to capture more substantial audience segments such as African Americans, and the shifting media landscape being an opportunity for MLB to make its product more national. “The RSN model drove our economics for a decade and a half,” Manfred said. “But one of the drawbacks of it is it is inherently local. We think with a broader distribution system, you can eliminate blackouts, you can develop a more national product. ... People in New York need to see Mike Trout on a regular basis.” Manfred reiterated his stance that if some local media rights start reverting back to MLB in the wake of Diamond Sports Group’s recent Chapter 11 filing, fans will still be able to see games with the league stepping in: “It's disruptive, it's unsettling for clubs. But the one thing that we're absolutely certain of is that we have the capacity to protect our fans. No matter what Diamond decides to do -- if they walk away from rights, we will step in, the games will be broadcast, and they will be available to our fans.”
CONTRACT CONCERNS: Manfred also addressed the long-term contracts that clubs are continuing to hand out to their biggest stars. Not long after Padres owner Peter Seidler stressed the benefits of such contracts -- especially as they relate to building long-term fan loyalty -- during an earlier conversation at WCOS, Manfred said that the league’s owners want to limit them. “A reform that has been of interest to ownership for a number of years is a limitation of contract length,” he said. “Obviously, players love it. It gives them financial security for a very long period of time. The difficulty -- and I think players will come to appreciate this as time goes by -- is those contracts result in a transfer from the current stars to yesterday’s stars. At some point, that has to be true, and I think it is an issue that is important for us to stay focused on, because it creates inflexibility that affects the quality of the teams that you put on the field.”
UNION RESPONSE: In response to that sentiment, MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark said in a statement to The Athletic: “The public statements from Rob Manfred about the owners’ desire to limit guaranteed contracts is just one more in a series of statements attacking fundamental aspects of baseball’s free market system and the freedom of clubs and players to structure deals in the best interests of all parties. The ability of individual clubs to act in their own self-interest in determining how best to put an exciting product on the field for their fans is not something that should be restricted. Anyone who believes that players would ever endorse an assault by management on guaranteed contracts is badly mistaken.”
