NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez, among four groups of bidders for a possible purchase of the New York Mets, called for baseball players to accept the type of revenue-sharing system that is tied to a salary cap and sparked quick opposition from the union.
Preparing for the start of his third season as an analyst on ESPN’s Sunday night telecasts, Rodriguez said baseball players’ leverage had changed since they fought off the owners’ salary-cap proposal with a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95. He said the rise of the NFL and NBA had changed the equation along with digital media, and said the players’ association should work collaboratively with MLB to raise the sport’s market share.
“The only way it’s going to happen is if they get to the table and say the No. 1 goal, let’s get from $10 to $15 billion and then we’ll split the economics evenly,” he said Thursday during a conference call. “But that’s the type of conversation instead of fighting and fighting against each other because there’s too much competition out there right now.”
Rodriguez made about $448 million in his big league career. He debuted with Texas in July 1994 and was sent back to Triple-A 10 days before the strike started on Aug. 12. He maintains an “understanding that the leverage of the players in 1994 was wholly different than today.”
“Then we had a stranglehold on professional sports. Baseball was 1,” he said. “Today the NBA has become an international conglomerate, NFL’s a juggernaut. Back then there was no Netflix, there was no Snapchat, there was no Disney+, ESPN+ and everything they’re doing to attract their attention. So today we have to really work collaborative, with the players and the owners, to say how do we compete together to become No. 1?”
Baseball players have resisted the types of salary cap and revenue sharing used by the NFL, NBA and NHL.
“Alex benefited as much as anybody from the battles this union fought against owners’ repeated attempts to get a salary cap,” union head Tony Clark said in a statement. “Now that he is attempting to become an owner himself his perspective appears to be different. And that perspective does not reflect the best interests of the players.”
Preparing for the start of his third season as an analyst on ESPN’s Sunday night telecasts, Rodriguez said baseball players’ leverage had changed since they fought off the owners’ salary-cap proposal with a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95. He said the rise of the NFL and NBA had changed the equation along with digital media, and said the players’ association should work collaboratively with MLB to raise the sport’s market share.
“The only way it’s going to happen is if they get to the table and say the No. 1 goal, let’s get from $10 to $15 billion and then we’ll split the economics evenly,” he said Thursday during a conference call. “But that’s the type of conversation instead of fighting and fighting against each other because there’s too much competition out there right now.”
Rodriguez made about $448 million in his big league career. He debuted with Texas in July 1994 and was sent back to Triple-A 10 days before the strike started on Aug. 12. He maintains an “understanding that the leverage of the players in 1994 was wholly different than today.”
“Then we had a stranglehold on professional sports. Baseball was 1,” he said. “Today the NBA has become an international conglomerate, NFL’s a juggernaut. Back then there was no Netflix, there was no Snapchat, there was no Disney+, ESPN+ and everything they’re doing to attract their attention. So today we have to really work collaborative, with the players and the owners, to say how do we compete together to become No. 1?”
Baseball players have resisted the types of salary cap and revenue sharing used by the NFL, NBA and NHL.
“Alex benefited as much as anybody from the battles this union fought against owners’ repeated attempts to get a salary cap,” union head Tony Clark said in a statement. “Now that he is attempting to become an owner himself his perspective appears to be different. And that perspective does not reflect the best interests of the players.”
