Baseball and Billions: A Probing Look Inside the Business of Our National Pastime (Paperback)

by Andrew Zimbalist (Author) "Although baseball's origins as a sport will always remain shrounded, its origins as a business are clearly traceable to the 1860s..." (more)
Key Phrases: national media contracts, national media revenues, team win percentage, New York, World Series, White Sox (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A professor of economics at Smith College, Zimbalist ( Comparing Economic Systems ) here presents the best recent work about baseball's economic aspects. He analyzes profits, franchise values, attendance and ticket pricing, the relations between teams and their host cities, minor-league ball and player salaries. Admirably objective, he is skeptical about the owners, whose creative bookkeeping practices make their cries of poverty almost credible; he is skeptical about the players, who generally play poorly after they sign multi-year contracts; he is skeptical about the media, whom he finds massively ignorant of sports economics and presumably content to be so. Finally, he demonstrates that those who predict the demise of the national pastime need not be right. Scholarly and impressive.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
"If I were a rich man," sings Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof . Change the words of this catchy tune to "I am a rich man" and you have the owners and athletes who play catch in Zimbalist's (economics, Smith Coll.) book. Baseball and Billions describes a game with revenues approximating those of corporations, owners who receive public taxes worth millions, and ballplayers with salaries averaging over $1 million a year . The author has assembled facts and figures from owners, front office personnel, players, and politicians to present a picture of a national pastime that is threatened by greed, exploitation, and abuse of public trust. From Brooklyn to St. Petersburg, Florida there is agreement that something needs to be done to make the game less corporate and more responsible to its fans. This book will be of interest to both scholars and fans of the game who enjoy the cry, "Play ball!"-- Albert Spencer, Coll. of Education, Univ. of Nevada-Las Vegas
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; Updated edition (February 19, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465006159
• ISBN-13: 978-0465006151
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #59,566 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Look at What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It, April 5, 2008

By	Michael D. Mallinger (Woodbridge, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In "Baseball and Billions," economics professor Andrew Zimbalist addresses problems that plague Major League Baseball and alienate many young people who would otherwise be fans. Zimbalist, who has consulted for the players' union, focuses on strategic behavior by owners including artificially limiting creation of new teams, concealing profits while demanding taxpayer subsidies, and moving television broadcasts from the public airwaves to pay television services. These problems damage Major League Baseball's credibility among younger fans and lead many of them to watch football and basketball instead. Throughout the book, Zimbalist examines how owners' decisions harm small market teams. Doing so is vitally important because the sport's distorted economic landscape prevents teams in smaller cities from competing for playoff spots. Confronting these problems will be necessary for baseball to regain the top position among America's sports enthusiasts.

The book's fundamental theme is that baseball is harmed greatly by the lack of separation between management and ownership. Managers of publicly-traded companies face powerful incentives to report their profits in order to raise capital and appease shareholders. Major League Baseball's individual owners, in contrast, focus more on reducing their tax liabilities, shifting revenues around in order to conceal them, and exaggerating their financial problems. Under the antitrust exemption, they can limit the availability of expansion teams for cities seeking to attract a franchise. As a result, the owners can make credible threats to leave for greener pastures while demanding greater and greater taxpayer subsidies for stadiums as well as larger shares of concession, parking, and luxury box revenues.

Zimbalist explains that immediately before 1994, competitive balance remained strong, with 12 different teams winning the World Series over the prior 15 seasons. He credits the institution of the amateur draft, the salary arbitration system, and the advent of free agency for offering small market teams access to the talent necessary to compete. However, Zimbalist acknowledges that steady revenue is necessary to sign top draft picks, sign free agents, and win arbitration cases. This is why revenue sharing is vital to baseball's success.

Unfortunately, Major League Baseball's revenue sharing system was deeply flawed at the time. Although ticket revenues were shared, parking, concession, and personal seat licenses for premium seats were not. As rapid price increases for the latter three became stronger income sources for large city teams, a shrinking overall portion of total gate receipts was shared with small market teams. This problem was compounded by the migration of television broadcasts from the public airwaves to cable television. National television broadcast revenues were shared among the teams, but local cable broadcast revenues were not. As more and more games were moved to cable, small market teams were further marginalized.

Zimbalist explains that the owners' television revenue is maximized when the large cities' teams rise to the top of the standings. The owners of large cities' teams attempt to justify baseball's economic landscape by saying that because they paid more for their teams, they deserve to make more money. Their behavior has undercut the small market teams' ability to retain their best players, and in the long run, Major League Baseball's appeal to much of its fan base.

To restore fundamental fairness to the equation, Zimbalist recommends that revenue sharing be increased by offering greater percentages of new revenue streams developed over time to small market clubs. He would move more games back to broadcast television and make up the reduction in larger teams' revenues by allowing fans who live outside of their favorite team's geographical media market to purchase that team's games via pay per view. Finally, he would expand the league to include teams in every media market that could support one to end the owners' bilking of taxpayers. These proposals represent strong opportunities for owners to rebuild public confidence in the sport.

"Baseball and Billions" paints an accurate portrait of how owners' greed alienated fans and contributed to the strike of 1994, an event from which many say the game's popularity has not yet recovered. Zimbalist does not let the players entirely off the hook. He accuses them of supporting an arbitration system that offers incentives to pad individual stats at the expense of doing the little things necessary to win every game. But overall, the book offers a concise summary of why many younger fans became frustrated with baseball and began to follow other sports instead. Will the owners ever learn their lesson? Only time will tell.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insight into business of professional baseball, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

Very interesting insight into the economics that drive the business side of baseball. I recommend this to anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes business of baseball.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Updated to cover recent events, June 11, 1998

By	workbook (Lee, NH) - See all my reviews

Updated to cover events such as Fay Vincent's dismissal as baseball commissioner, and the lawsuit over the Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants' decisions not to move to Tampa