Maury Brown reported last night that baseball’s latest revenue numbers are in: $7.5 billion for 2012. Perspective: in 1995, revenues were at $1.4 billion.
Oh, and starting in 2014 the new national broadcast deals with FOX, ESPN, and TBS kick in, which will represent another $788 million a year. And each time a new local TV deal is inked, it’s more money to the bottom line. Remember: the Dodgers are supposed to add $200 million+ each year.
The disparities brought on by each team having wildly different local TV dollars is a concern for baseball going forward, but the overall financial health of the industry is pretty damn strong.
-
- El Bravo - Dec 10, 2012 at 10:32 AM
-
C.R.E.A.M.
-
- Alex K - Dec 10, 2012 at 11:46 AM
-
Get the money, dolla dolla bills, ya’ll
-
- mojosmagic - Dec 10, 2012 at 10:33 AM
-
And you wonder why there is no crying in baseball.
-
- indaburg - Dec 10, 2012 at 10:54 AM
-
$7.5 billion. If baseball is dying, I’d like to die a little too.
-
- ireportyoudecide - Dec 10, 2012 at 12:16 PM
-
Baseball is not dying, but you can’t deny that among the 14-29 year old age group it is slipping in popularity amongst pro sports. That’s not the end of the world, the NBA is #3 right now and still makes a lot of money, but 20 years from baseball will probably be #3. It’s not like it’s on the verge of becoming hockey anytime soon.
-
- stex52 - Dec 10, 2012 at 12:19 PM
-
Just the same concern about a bubble building in these cable deals. One wonders what happens when the companies can’t make these 100 MM$+ payments to the teams. But that obviously hasn’t happened yet.
-
- historiophiliac - Dec 10, 2012 at 12:53 PM
-
I had the same thought: what if the TV bubble bursts?
-
- nolanwiffle - Dec 10, 2012 at 3:21 PM
-
…hot molten magma will flow from the HDM1 portal and set your shag carpet aflame.
-
- hankg42 - Dec 10, 2012 at 3:31 PM
-
Really… how long can we continue to have our cable / satellite TV bills rise to pay for all of these big TV deals? We all pay for it in the end.
-
- gloccamorra - Dec 11, 2012 at 3:32 PM
-
It’s not the cable bills that will go up, it’ll be the expansion of pay-per-view to key series, and a real danger to baseball if low income fans can’t watch their team regularly.
-
- qcubed3 - Dec 10, 2012 at 12:33 PM
-
Using 1995 is a bit disingenuous as that was the first year after the ’94 work stoppage, but the overall point is well taken.
-
- teamobijuan - Dec 10, 2012 at 1:47 PM
-
Also, $1.5B in 1995 is $2.28B in 2012.
-
- tcostant - Dec 10, 2012 at 1:42 PM
-
If the Nationals don’t get $100M/year from they MASN deal something is wrong. The dispute over their fee in cyrrently in MLB’s lap waiting for a vertict. MLB tied to push MASN to sell to Fox to reslolve the dispute but the O’s owner said no. MAKE HIM PAY – GIVE THE NATIONALS REAL MARKET VALUE!!!
-
- rcali - Dec 10, 2012 at 9:59 PM
-
ESPEEEN says baseball is dead…or at least their talking radio heads say that.
