When Does The Lockout End? Answer: March 10th, 2022

[Jopal78]

The warning signs are there.

 

Looking at the attendance figures at BRef...

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/misc.shtml

 

The evolution of league attendance over the last 50 years or so has been something like...

 

1973-76 (29 to 31 million) 1977 (expansion, 38 million) 1978-80 (40-43 million) 1981 (strike, 26 million) 1982-86 (44-48 million) 1987-92 (52-57 million) 1993 (expansion, 70 million) 1994-95 (strike, 50 million) 1996-97 (60-63 million) 1998 (expansion, 70 million)

 

From 1999 until 2019 it mostly moves around the 70 million range. A little dip to 67 million in 2002-03, then a pretty steady climb from 73 to 79 million from 2004-08 before dropping back down around 73 million from 2009 until 2017.

 

But even before no fans in 2020 & limited attendance (45 million) in 2021, there was a dip down to 69.7 million in 2018 & then another lil fall off to 68.5 million in 2019.

 

Between whatever looming COVID trepidation might be out there this summer & the possibility games might be lost due to labor strife, plus whatever further fan disinterest that will possibly yield, MLB might not hit 70 million in attendance again until the next time they expand.

 

If the business model was dependent on ticket sales the Brewers along with many other small market clubs would have folded 30 years ago. There are many ways to consume the product and I don’t think it matters as much to Attanasio as many think of you buy a ticket, watch the game at home on TV, listen on the radio, watch it at a bar, stream it online, or buy new brewers gear. You’re still consuming his product. I don’t think any posters here are saying “I’m done with baseball I don’t care and am not going to watch, listen, or follow it”. Fans are irrelevant in the discussion between owners and labor as they’ve already proven they’ll consume the product regardless

[OldSchoolSnapper]

This will be my last season as SSH only because I already paid. My geographic location isn't great fo attending so I only use about half the games anyway, but I'm just done endorsing this sort of thing.

 

I don't agree at all with above that the tickets don't matter. The tickets matter a ton and that is evidenced clearly by how hard they work to sell them. It matters even more for teams like the Brewers with fewer avenues of compensating for poor ticket sales.

 

I don't even follow the logic there. There is 0 cost to listening to Uecker; that is quite obviously way less lucrative than buying 4 tickets per season.

[StearnsFTW]

Obviously tickets matter. Gimme a break.

[Thurston Fluff]

Pretty sure someone who goes to a game, buys gear, food and beverages at the game bring in more revenue for the team than the person sitting at home or in a bar watching it.

[jerichoholicninja]

Who is your average fan that goes to a game? Is it a Brewerfan.net poster/diehard or is it the casual just going because it's something to do type? I haven't been to an MLB game in 5 years mainly because that's when our first kid was born and it's just too hard to make it work but there are certainly plenty of other reasons why. My last few years of going I could tell the crowd was mainly college kids who want to get drunk and families having a day out. Those two groups will continue to show up no matter what because they really don't care about what's happening on the field. And I think teams have realized that. New ballparks are built with the intent of trying to distract you from the fact that you're at a baseball game and older parks are constantly adding things to do the same. Just look at almost every Miller Park addition over the last decade.

[Jopal78]

This will be my last season as SSH only because I already paid. My geographic location isn't great fo attending so I only use about half the games anyway, but I'm just done endorsing this sort of thing.

 

I don't agree at all with above that the tickets don't matter. The tickets matter a ton and that is evidenced clearly by how hard they work to sell them. It matters even more for teams like the Brewers with fewer avenues of compensating for poor ticket sales.

 

I don't even follow the logic there. There is 0 cost to listening to Uecker; that is quite obviously way less lucrative than buying 4 tickets per season.

 

This is all pretty simple stuff. Brewers/and MLB sell their broadcasting rights to broadcasters. The price paid is usually driven by the viewership/ratings etc. the broadcasts get. True it doesn’t cost you a thing to listen to the radio, but the amount of listeners absolutely effects the money they charge for those rights. It is fact that broadcast revenues are up across the league, as are team payrolls, while someone else pointed out paid attendance is actually down. Moreover, broadcast revenues far outpace what teams take at the gate.

 

Clearly, if teams were dependent on gate receipts to survive you’d never see a team tank or sell at the deadline.

 

At the ballpark, concerts, luxury suite leases and 81 game packages in the premium seats are what make up the bulk of their revenue (Again simple math, they cost the most and are usually the most filled in sections). I assume most of the suites and Diamond box tickets on a day to day basis are purchased by businesses who are able to write the cost off as entertainment on their taxes, and will continue to be buyers despite any labor strife.

 

I’m sure the teams would love to sell out every game all year it just means more revenue in their pocket. However, in the grand scheme of things the traditional family of four who go to a couple games a year and buy hot dogs, beer and t-shirts don’t likely make up as large a slice of the revenue pie as one would think.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Yeah, I'm sorry, but you're simply just wrong. They spend a LOT of money trying to get butts in seats, not just for gate ticket price, but once someone is in the stadium there is a huge amount of captive spending that takes place. This is a way bigger deal for small market than large market where advertising and broadcast contracts can compensate for poor attendance.

 

And in response to the other post, no, those people do not show up regardless of what is happening on the field. The attendance very clearly tracks with winning, sometimes by a difference of a million people per year.

[nate82]

This is all pretty simple stuff. Brewers/and MLB sell their broadcasting rights to broadcasters. The price paid is usually driven by the viewership/ratings etc. the broadcasts get. True it doesn’t cost you a thing to listen to the radio, but the amount of listeners absolutely effects the money they charge for those rights. It is fact that broadcast revenues are up across the league, as are team payrolls, while someone else pointed out paid attendance is actually down. Moreover, broadcast revenues far outpace what teams take at the gate.

 

 

I don't believe this is the case for the Brewers. The Brewers still have one of the lowest TV contracts and I doubt their radio contract is much more and whatever the league gives to the team for the streaming on MLB.TV can't be all that much more than what their current TV deal is paying them. At best I think the broadcast revenue is covering about 40% of the teams operating expenses.

 

I believe ticket sales, merchandising and other revenue aspects cover the rest. If the Brewers are depending on the broadcast revenues then they would be operating at a negative a rather large negative at that. Previously the Brewers were only getting about $30m a year from their TV contract the current deal I haven't seen any figures for. Lets assume they got a nice bump up and now bring in $50m a year. That won't even cover the teams player payroll for the year so yeah ticket revenue is far more important to a team like the Brewers than the Yankees or Dodgers who are getting paid nearly four times as much each year. Ticket revenue for the smaller market teams is extremely important as it is how they are able to close the gap and have a payroll higher than $60m a year.

 

Some basic math here the Brewers average ticket price is about $40 and the Brewers average about 30k fans per game. Over a full season that is about $97m just on ticket sales. If you say the average attendee pays in total about $80 (parking, tickets, food and merchandise) per game that figure now doubles to about $200m. I don't see how you can claim the revenue from the media outpaces gate revenue as the numbers just do not match up. The Brewers would have to be bringing in about $200m+ to outpace the gate revenue.

[TURBO]

The Major League Baseball Players Association has rejected Major League Baseball's request for a federal mediator to assist in collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

 

MLB made the request on Thursday in lieu of a counter proposal, and it's no surprise that the MLBA has opted to reject the idea. The MLBPA writes in a statement that "the clearest path to a fair and timely agreement is to get back to the table. Players stand ready to negotiate." The MLB owners are scheduled to meet next week, but there is currently no next meeting between MLB and the MLBPA on the docket. Spring training is currently scheduled to begin in 10 days, but that's not happening.

 

SOURCE: MLBPA Communications on Twitter

Feb 4, 2022, 1:49 PM ET

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

The Major League Baseball Players Association has rejected Major League Baseball's request for a federal mediator to assist in collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

 

MLB made the request on Thursday in lieu of a counter proposal, and it's no surprise that the MLBA has opted to reject the idea. The MLBPA writes in a statement that "the clearest path to a fair and timely agreement is to get back to the table. Players stand ready to negotiate." The MLB owners are scheduled to meet next week, but there is currently no next meeting between MLB and the MLBPA on the docket. Spring training is currently scheduled to begin in 10 days, but that's not happening.

 

SOURCE: MLBPA Communications on Twitter

Feb 4, 2022, 1:49 PM ET

 

This is a bad look for the players' union IMO. It points to the idea that they were afraid a federal mediator (who would be paid to be a neutral party) would not give the players everything they are looking for, in effect siding with MLB.

[rickh150]

No hot stove in Dec. No baseball talk now except negotiations. It’s all hurting the game. I would have to believe more and more are planning to use their baseball funds in other ways. If there was an organized fan boycott in 2022, I would think a majority of fans would be publicly on board, if only to get the attention of both players and owners. I can’t see myself going to more games this year than usual. Probably far less. Very discouraging.

[Jopal78]

This is all pretty simple stuff. Brewers/and MLB sell their broadcasting rights to broadcasters. The price paid is usually driven by the viewership/ratings etc. the broadcasts get. True it doesn’t cost you a thing to listen to the radio, but the amount of listeners absolutely effects the money they charge for those rights. It is fact that broadcast revenues are up across the league, as are team payrolls, while someone else pointed out paid attendance is actually down. Moreover, broadcast revenues far outpace what teams take at the gate.

 

 

I don't believe this is the case for the Brewers. The Brewers still have one of the lowest TV contracts and I doubt their radio contract is much more and whatever the league gives to the team for the streaming on MLB.TV can't be all that much more than what their current TV deal is paying them. At best I think the broadcast revenue is covering about 40% of the teams operating expenses.

 

I believe ticket sales, merchandising and other revenue aspects cover the rest. If the Brewers are depending on the broadcast revenues then they would be operating at a negative a rather large negative at that. Previously the Brewers were only getting about $30m a year from their TV contract the current deal I haven't seen any figures for. Lets assume they got a nice bump up and now bring in $50m a year. That won't even cover the teams player payroll for the year so yeah ticket revenue is far more important to a team like the Brewers than the Yankees or Dodgers who are getting paid nearly four times as much each year. Ticket revenue for the smaller market teams is extremely important as it is how they are able to close the gap and have a payroll higher than $60m a year.

 

Some basic math here the Brewers average ticket price is about $40 and the Brewers average about 30k fans per game. Over a full season that is about $97m just on ticket sales. If you say the average attendee pays in total about $80 (parking, tickets, food and merchandise) per game that figure now doubles to about $200m. I don't see how you can claim the revenue from the media outpaces gate revenue as the numbers just do not match up. The Brewers would have to be bringing in about $200m+ to outpace the gate revenue.

 

You’re leaving out the MLB contracts with Fox, ESPN, Westwood Radio, Facebook Live, YouTube etc. those pay MLB billions each year for games and the Brewers take 1/30th of those billions. Plus whatever their local contracts are in their market. I’m not sure how MLB licensed gear works, but I imagine they sell a license to Mitchell & Ness and the Brewers take 1/30th of that fee regardless if Mitchell & Ness makes a Brewers jersey or not. The team store is merely a double dip where the Brewers have already gotten the fee for licens8ng the items to the manufacturer and they are double dipping as the retailer selling it to the fan at their stadium. Again the double dip is great but their business model doesn’t depend on it to any great extent.

[nate82]

You’re leaving out the MLB contracts with Fox, ESPN, Westwood Radio, Facebook Live, YouTube etc. those pay MLB billions each year for games and the Brewers take 1/30th of those billions. Plus whatever their local contracts are in their market. I’m not sure how MLB licensed gear works, but I imagine they sell a license to Mitchell & Ness and the Brewers take 1/30th of that fee regardless if Mitchell & Ness makes a Brewers jersey or not. The team store is merely a double dip where the Brewers have already gotten the fee for licens8ng the items to the manufacturer and they are double dipping as the retailer selling it to the fan at their stadium. Again the double dip is great but their business model doesn’t depend on it to any great extent.

 

The Facebook deal is only $30m and the YouTube one is probably close to $30m also. The Fox contract is $700 million a year, the ESPN contract is $700 million a year and TBS is $470m a year. The radio deals are going to be far less probably around $25-50 million a season. So if we add up all of the contracts that are known it is about $2.1 billion and the teams don't get 1/30th of this revenue as MLB also takes their cut. Since we don't know how much MLB is taking I am going to assume it is a 40/60 split with the league taking 40 and the rest being divided out to each team. That is only about $40m a year to each team and with the Brewers local TV contract that brings them to about even with the ticket sales.

 

Tickets are the bread and butter for the Brewers and other small market teams. The media revenue is just not enough to sustain the team for the whole year when you add in players payroll, general payroll, minor leagues, spring training and other miscellaneous expenses. If you just look at player salaries then yes the media revenue is enough to sustain a team and the ticket sales are basically a bonus.

[Jopal78]

You’re leaving out the MLB contracts with Fox, ESPN, Westwood Radio, Facebook Live, YouTube etc. those pay MLB billions each year for games and the Brewers take 1/30th of those billions. Plus whatever their local contracts are in their market. I’m not sure how MLB licensed gear works, but I imagine they sell a license to Mitchell & Ness and the Brewers take 1/30th of that fee regardless if Mitchell & Ness makes a Brewers jersey or not. The team store is merely a double dip where the Brewers have already gotten the fee for licens8ng the items to the manufacturer and they are double dipping as the retailer selling it to the fan at their stadium. Again the double dip is great but their business model doesn’t depend on it to any great extent.

 

The Facebook deal is only $30m and the YouTube one is probably close to $30m also. The Fox contract is $700 million a year, the ESPN contract is $700 million a year and TBS is $470m a year. The radio deals are going to be far less probably around $25-50 million a season. So if we add up all of the contracts that are known it is about $2.1 billion and the teams don't get 1/30th of this revenue as MLB also takes their cut. Since we don't know how much MLB is taking I am going to assume it is a 40/60 split with the league taking 40 and the rest being divided out to each team. That is only about $40m a year to each team and with the Brewers local TV contract that brings them to about even with the ticket sales.

 

Tickets are the bread and butter for the Brewers and other small market teams. The media revenue is just not enough to sustain the team for the whole year when you add in players payroll, general payroll, minor leagues, spring training and other miscellaneous expenses. If you just look at player salaries then yes the media revenue is enough to sustain a team and the ticket sales are basically a bonus.

 

I don’t know what it is you believe MLB, Inc does which they would be entitled to nearly a billion dollars a year in revenue but whatever.

 

Like I’ve said, Professional baseball is a product and they have many ways to sell that product in 2022 as opposed to 1950.

 

The reality is the players don’t care about the fans, they’re in it for the money. The owners don’t care about the fans either because the fans have already proven over the last 40 years they’ll continue to consume the product in one way or the other no matter how screwed up it is.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Jopal, I'm sorry, but it just seems like you spoke on something out of sheer ignorance and are trying to double down on it now. What you are saying simply doesn't make any business sense. If they Brewers didn't care about attendance, they aren't doing free shirt Fridays and 25 other promotions throughout the year. They're not giving away seats for 50% off on special days or giving SSH a bunch of free perks to entice renewal. You're just way off on this. If you ever fill out a ticket interest form and don't follow through they will proceed to blow up your phone for weeks. What you need to realize is that all of the things I just said come at a considerable expense to the club, and if that wasn't justified by a large profit, they wouldn't be doing it. There is a reason they said they were "over the moon" with attendance figures once fans were allowed back in last season.

 

This "you'll consume the product anyway" is just way too dismissive and simple. It likely takes a huge quantity of radio listeners or TV viewers to come close to somebody buying 4 seats to a single game financially. The most efficient profit margin is by FAR a butt in the seat that's also buying marked up concessions.

 

They don't care about the fans? Well OK, but they definitely care about their money and that is quite clear.

 

The earlier point that new stadiums and experienced are designed with entertainment and dining options and distractions is fair, but really insignificant. It's all about attendance. And they would not be bothering with all that shift in strategy if they didn't care about attendance. It's just a freezing cold take.

 

Let's pretend that all things are equal. A difference between 1.7mm and 3.1mm though the gate, which the Brewers have seen in the last 18 years, is an approximate gate revenue difference of $41 million. That is without parking or a single penny of food or merch.

 

To suggest that's not hugely significant to the Brewers is just absurd.

[ewitkows]

If the average person spends $55 to see a game, $30 ticket/$12 parking/beer and a brat and we average 30k a game, that 1.6m a game and over 82 games that 135M. The Brewers care about butts in the seats.

[Jopal78]

Jopal, I'm sorry, but it just seems like you spoke on something out of sheer ignorance and are trying to double down on it now. What you are saying simply doesn't make any business sense. If they Brewers didn't care about attendance, they aren't doing free shirt Fridays and 25 other promotions throughout the year. They're not giving away seats for 50% off on special days or giving SSH a bunch of free perks to entice renewal. You're just way off on this. If you ever fill out a ticket interest form and don't follow through they will proceed to blow up your phone for weeks. What you need to realize is that all of the things I just said come at a considerable expense to the club, and if that wasn't justified by a large profit, they wouldn't be doing it. There is a reason they said they were "over the moon" with attendance figures once fans were allowed back in last season.

 

This "you'll consume the product anyway" is just way too dismissive and simple. It likely takes a huge quantity of radio listeners or TV viewers to come close to somebody buying 4 seats to a single game financially. The most efficient profit margin is by FAR a butt in the seat that's also buying marked up concessions.

 

They don't care about the fans? Well OK, but they definitely care about their money and that is quite clear.

 

The earlier point that new stadiums and experienced are designed with entertainment and dining options and distractions is fair, but really insignificant. It's all about attendance. And they would not be bothering with all that shift in strategy if they didn't care about attendance. It's just a freezing cold take.

 

Let's pretend that all things are equal. A difference between 1.7mm and 3.1mm though the gate, which the Brewers have seen in the last 18 years, is an approximate gate revenue difference of $41 million. That is without parking or a single penny of food or merch.

 

To suggest that's not hugely significant to the Brewers is just absurd.

 

But it’s not. If you ran a business what would be more important: guaranteed revenue streams, or revenue streams that can fluctuate by non-controllable variables?

 

Pro Baseball live and die on TV, Radio, Licensing rights for merchandise, Internet, Luxury Box Leases and season ticket packages . They have this money in hand before the season starts, if there is a rain out, the team is tanking, the team is a deadline seller, decimated by injury, bad luck whatever it doesn’t matter the money is in their pocket already.

 

Ticket revenue is great, and I’m sure it’s 100% worth the hourly wages they pay their seasonal labor to push tickets n people. But no team in 2021 lives and dies on ticket sales. It just doesn’t happen. When has a team sucked for 15 years and gone out of business? Did the Brewers collapse in the 90s because they were terrible and drew 8,000 fans most weeknights? No.

 

That’s the point, people who state they’re angry about the labor dispute and aren’t going to go to games, the owners didn’t need them to go to games to be successful. If one wants to protest the state of the game, unplug completely otherwise your still funneling money in their pockets.

[sveumrules]

If you ran a business what would be more important: guaranteed revenue streams, or revenue streams that can fluctuate by non-controllable variables?

 

Maximizing all revenue streams is important. If all the TV money is already "guaranteed" anyway (though I don't believe local TV deals paid out for a full 162 in 2020), I'd be putting more effort into maximizing in person revenue.

 

Who was making more money, the Seligs in the decade plus before they sold when the team was a joke or the Attanasios in the last 15 years they've been providing mostly contending teams with a much improved ballpark experience?

 

Baseball has had a problem that predates this CBA & COVID. The game is not entertaining, it hasn't been for awhile. For an entertainment product, that is problematic. Sure, us diehards that post on a baseball message board will keep consuming the product one way or another, we've been indoctrinated already. Without serious changes, MLB won't have that same luxury forever.

[xisxisxis]

Like I’ve said, Professional baseball is a product and they have many ways to sell that product in 2022 as opposed to 1950.

Yes, but EVERY one of those other ways is on a multi-year fixed contract so there is ZERO chance the Brewers can capture any additional revenue from changes in how the consumer, consumes the product, for years. Merchandise is only a fraction and that typically tracks with attendance so dropping attendance is likely not offset by any improvement in merchandise expenses.

 

As an entertainment business, baseball spends almost all of it's budget on fixed costs. I would guess that a payroll budget of $100M for the Brewers comes with a $50-$75M to cover the minors, scouting, gameday costs, other personnel, travel costs, insurance, etc. Other than getting rid of low-cost ticket agents and ultra-low cost Ushers and vendors there is minimal cost savings if the team is playing in front of no fans or 40,000 fans. My guess is less than 1% of overall costs can be adjusted for any year based on attendance levels. However, there is always extra dollars from getting more and more people into the seats.

 

Any reputable business on the planet wants to maximize revenue for fixed costs. For the Brewers, or any baseball team, that means filling stadiums as much as possible. So they will most definitely spend money to get butts into the seats. And they will definitely be concerned if they have dropping attendance especially when they are at the beginning of their TV/Streaming contracts because revenue doesn't change for years so fans watching on cable, listening on the radio, etc. won't increase the teams other income streams one iota. When the cost of getting people into seats is so high that it won't effect the bottom line is when teams won't care about fans in the stands, but that may never happen.

[TURBO]

If the average person spends $55 to see a game, $30 ticket/$12 parking/beer and a brat and we average 30k a game, that 1.6m a game and over 82 games that 135M. The Brewers care about butts in the seats.

 

$12 to park, ummm, that is light...

 

An average person doesn't get in and out of that stadium for less than $75. Most will exceed that by quite a bit just because they are there and want to have a good time.

[xisxisxis]

But it’s not. If you ran a business what would be more important: guaranteed revenue streams, or revenue streams that can fluctuate by non-controllable variables?

It depends on the size of the different revenue streams and their costs of acquisition. Any business will gladly give up revenue if their margins are small and if they are a publicly traded company then Wall Street will expect them to jettison low margin revenue streams, but as I stated in an earlier post, the cost of putting on the show (each game) is not that different for 1,000 people in attendance than 40,000 people in attendance, so there is definitely a reason to spend money to maximize attendance.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Jopal, the circles are pointless at this point. You're talking about what is very likely a $150 million revenue stream and for some reason still pretending that's not an absolutely gigantic thing the Brewers rely on. There's a point in these topics where it becomes clear somebody just doesn't want to say, ok, I probably said more about something than I should have because I didn't really think it through.

 

To your point about the revenue stream being variable, yeah, it's variable, but the floor is still a huge sum of money.

Edited February 6, 2022 by OldSchoolSnapper

[OldSchoolSnapper]

If the average person spends $55 to see a game, $30 ticket/$12 parking/beer and a brat and we average 30k a game, that 1.6m a game and over 82 games that 135M. The Brewers care about butts in the seats.

 

$12 to park, ummm, that is light...

 

An average person doesn't get in and out of that stadium for less than $75. Most will exceed that by quite a bit just because they are there and want to have a good time.

 

It's $15 to park for a non-marquee, quite a bit less if you buy a pass with season tickets. But even at the $15 price Milwaukee fans don't seem to know how good they have it with parking fees. Not every fan in attendance drives there alone and parks so the numbers will always be flubbed here and there.

 

I'm not sure what the average person gets out of there for but there are ways to see a game for very, very little.

 

So much of the parking is groups splitting cost with large numbers of people. The carry-in policy is extremely generous and really for most of the season, second-hand tickets can be had for next to nothing. I went throughout my 20s for WAY less than $75, sometimes not spending $20.

[Paul77]

From Forbes:

 

"Revenue from tickets, parking and concessions account for roughly 40% of revenue for pro baseball, he said, but for a small market like Milwaukee, ticket revenue is more significant.

 

The Covid-19 pandemic cut the team’s schedule from its traditional 162 games to a truncated 60-game slate. That meant instead of teams having 81 home games, each club hosted just 30 games. Perhaps more notably, teams played their games without fans in the stands due to social-distancing considerations.

 

The result: More than $5 billion in lost revenue across the league, according to TMR’s calculations. The New York Yankees topped the list, with an estimated $437 million in game-day revenue lost compared with what the Yankees might have drawn with fans attending a traditional 81-game home schedule.

 

The Brewers were not far behind at No. 13, with $178.3 million in projected game-day revenue lost. The team had attendance of 2.92 million during the 2019 season, or an average of 36,091 per game, which ranked within the top 10 in MLB that season."

[Jopal78]

Jopal, the circles are pointless at this point. You're talking about what is very likely a $150 million revenue stream and for some reason still pretending that's not an absolutely gigantic thing the Brewers rely on. There's a point in these topics where it becomes clear somebody just doesn't want to say, ok, I probably said more about something than I should have because I didn't really think it through.

 

To your point about the revenue stream being variable, yeah, it's variable, but the floor is still a huge sum of money.

 

First of all, 150 million dollars divided by 81 games and 41,900 (assuming every game is a sellout) comes out to approximately $45. According to the most recent information published the Brewers average ticket price is $28. Mathematically there is no way they’re making 150 million dollars in revenue on pure ticket sales.

 

But you don’t have to take my word for it, the player agents and MLBPA argue all the time: despite owners crying poor with crappy attendance and or small market, when’s the last time one of them folded? The reason being they’re sophisticated multi-million dollar corporations with numerous diversified revenue streams. Coupled with a desire to keep people from knowing how much they have and where all their money comes from.

 

But the point remains, the luxury boxes are still going to get leased regardless of any PR hit from a labor fight. The Diamond boxes season tickets are still going to sell. Group outings will still happen. Joe Lunchpail might be angry and skip taking his family to a game, but odds are he’ll still watch games on TV, and buy licensed merchandise regardless. Minimizing any real loss.