Billionaires and Millionaires Fighting Over Money
Sports fans continues to wait. We continue to wait for a distraction from politics, virus news and having to talk to our coworkers about the random show they are binge watching on Netflix.
The NHL has a plan to resume play. It's different, but it's something. NASCAR has started back up with races at certain speedways. The NFL still plans on an August start. The NBA is working towards resuming with some kind of season in July. The MLB is working on a plan as well too. And of course, the billionaire owners are fighting with the millionaire players over...money.
Far to often in the history of baseball the reason we haven't been able to watch baseball is over money. Right now we can blame the virus, but be real. It's about money. The owners recently proposed a salary reduction for the season. A tiered scale system that would have the lowest paid players taking less of a cut, while the highest paid players taking a larger percent of the cut. A scale that went from 25% reduction to 75% reduction. This was of course instantly shot down by the MLBPA. The players are now coming up with their own proposal that is a straight up prorated pay plan that includes a longer season.
Here is the bottom line. 28 million people have lost their jobs since March. Countless more have had to take pay cuts. We all have been effected some way by this pandemic. While I don't agree with the owners, I also don't agree with the players. If the billionaires need to lose multi-millions so be it. If the millionaires need to lose millions so be it. We all have, or know somebody that has made sacrifices. If they can't do the same, then clearly they live in more of a fantasy world than we thought.
You would think through all the tributes, specials, fundraisers and the outpouring of support for "everyday heroes", these athletes and owners would realize what they do is entertainment with a ball and a stick. You might be the best in the world at what you do, but the nurse treating patients and putting themselves at risk everyday is more of a hero than you. The least you can do is make a sacrifice so when that nurse is done with their shift, they can go watch a game...can't stress that word enough...a game, to take their mind off the day they just had.
So, dear MLB owners and MLBPA. Suck it up. Nothing is normal this year. You won't bring in the same amount of revenue (ticket sales, ad dollars, etc.) so don't expect to get the same amount of pay. Make the cuts and take the cuts you need to this year and next year you can get back to your 30 million dollar salary and 100 million dollar team profit. But for one summer, can you please make some financial sacrifices so we can all get a little escape. Just get out there and play ball.