this all happened. And, most importantly, this will illustrate how it’s gotten to the point where Angelos and his legal eagles spend an extraordinary amount of time in courtrooms in the New York Supreme Court fighting over these hundreds of millions of dollars.
The money is now astronomical and always discussed by Scott Boras and the world of MLB agents, who seek to expose the ocean of revenue the sport has thrown off primarily via media arms like local and national cable revenue and their multimedia Baseball Advanced Media (BAM) revenue sharing.
Angelos isn’t the only MLB owner hoarding hundreds of millions in profits. The industry of baseball is keeping more of the money and the players are getting far less on a percentage basis. There’s no better look at that math than this piece of Fangraphs outlining the overall MLB money tree.
And if you want a very frank, honest, accurate account of how Angelos and other MLB owners lessening the product is becoming the “industry standard,” Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky nails it for you.
The situation that ties Baltimore and Washington baseball together shows the inherent conflict of interest that makes Peter G. Angelos the greediest of the bunch. He is strongly punished for any nickel that leaves MASN and goes toward the baseball teams. Keep in mind that 84% or more of that has been his for a decade.
All his.
In the end, every dollar that the Nationals receive greatly reduces Angelos’ profit line. And for every dollar he cedes to the Nationals, he has to give the same to the Orioles – per the poison pill that he demanded in 2004. Once distributed to the teams, both sets of monies would also be “taxed” at a 34% rate and thrown into a general pool that is divided among the 30 MLB teams.
This is not unique to MASN as the owner of the regional sports network for two franchises. The New England Sports Network (NESN) and the Yes! Network are also co-joined to the ownership groups of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees and have routinely been accused of “underpaying” their MLB partners to circumvent the MLB 34% “pooling” of funds from every team that is split 30 ways to more evenly distribute local television monies across the sport.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and the league office get pressure from the other owners to grow that pie. Angelos is at war in the New York Supreme Court with his partners and the Washington Nationals to make sure it doesn’t come from the MASN pile of money.
The 34% “socialism” on local cable television revenue was designed to promote fairness and the ability for small market teams to compete for free agents. It would make it more like what the NFL has done over the decades to maintain competitive balance and allow superstars to work or stay in smaller markets.
And make no mistake about it, the Baltimore Orioles’ ownership stake in MASN pushed the franchise far outside the realm of a pauper club in a “small market.”
But the Orioles are being cheated out of money the franchise rightly deserves from the MASN pie but the owner is too busy fighting with the Nationals for anyone to recognize the suppression of revenue for his own team and how that affects the club on the field.
You would think that fans would ask better questions when Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz walked out the door last offseason? Or if Chris Davis and Wei-Yin Chen sign elsewhere this month and aren’t replaced on the diamond?
The Orioles have spent $381 million on player payroll since 2011. The Nationals have spent $509 million, while having their revenue suppressed by their MASN daddy, Mr. Angelos, who has dragged them into what feels like a perpetual court brawl.
At one point, MLB quietly gave the Nationals a $25 million check to keep the peace. Jonah Keri reported via Grantland two years ago that “MLB has sent the team an undisclosed sum every year to help bridge the gap.”
This backroom partnership between MLB and the Nats was not lost …
