Embrace the greedy fans, greedy players and greedy owners

Recently, Liberty Media released financial statements, as is required for publicly traded companies. Liberty Media is a massive operation and among its holding are the Atlanta Braves. This means we get much better financial information – even if still not perfect – about the Braves than most every other club out there. The Braves, according to these financial documents, made over $100 million last year.

Now, the Braves went to the World Series, so the expectation is that they should have made a lot of money. But the fact that it was nine digits caught me off guard. My completely uninformed guess would have been in the neighborhood of half that much. It’s a huge number that perhaps came at the exact wrong time for owners engaged in a lockout.

Since news broke about the statements, MLB has been more interested in negotiating. Some believe there’s a direct correlation. My opinion is that it was strictly a coincidence.

If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you know that my sympathies lean much, much more toward the players than the owners. One should feel free to dismiss my opinions knowing from where they originate. It’s my opinion that the owners’ sudden willingness to bargain was part of a master plan drawn up before the lockout was put in place, rather than a reaction to something in the news cycle.

Despite my pro-player slant, it’s my belief that the owners have every right to make the best deal possible for themselves in collective bargaining. Furthermore, it’s my belief that they executed a very smart plan, one that gave them the best chance to win at the bargaining table. Bully for them.

So, what was the plan?

To me, the idea was to control the process as much as one side could, even if it made them take some short-term PR hits. Traditionally, neither side wants to be the one that “caused” the work stoppage, whether that’s the owners with a lockout or the players with a strike. But when the players instituted a strike during the 1994 season and kept the owners from collecting playoff money – the players were the ones controlling the process.

Once the owners instituted a lockout, they continued to control the process. They went an extended period without any negotiations whatsoever. And when they finally came to the table, they drew numerous lines in the sand over what they would not negotiate. And on the few items that they seemed willing to bargain, they made the barest possible concessions that any group could possibly make.

Then, they declared they would make a proposal but instead opted to go down the federal mediation avenue, knowing full well that the players wouldn’t accept that idea, especially with virtually no bargaining from the owners’ side having occurred previously. Whatever little PR hit the owners may have taken over instituting the lockout was probably negated when the players rejected outside mediation.

The owners continued to control the process, declaring dates that a deal would need to be done by in order to have Spring Training and regular season games start on time. All the while, they refused to budge on any of the major issues on which they previously declared off limits. Meanwhile, we saw the players back off on earlier demands, like declaring all players arbitration-eligible after two years.

Maybe that was the players’ plan all along. But dropping that demand without any concession from the owners’ side doesn’t seem like the greatest negotiation ploy ever.

With their artificial deadline on when a new deal needed to be struck to keep Opening Day intact, the owners picked up the bargaining pace. Instead of 15-minute meeting with the players, we now have multi-hour bargaining sessions. From the outside, it sure looks like progress is being made now when virtually none was made in the previous 2.5 months.

There’s even been stories where ownership is pressing for continued negotiation. Also, they’ve pushed back their self-imposed deadline to start the season on time. Just more of controlling the negotiations and now with the added benefit of PR wins, as the public sees the owners as doing what it takes for the season to start on time.

My opinion is that the owners planned this all well in advance. Lockout the players, refuse to negotiate, make a premature call for federal mediation, impossibly short bargaining sessions and then a last-minute effort. All while making as few concessions as possible.

Kudos to them for a well-designed and implemented strategy to get the best deal possible.

What we’ve seen in every other bargaining situation where games were lost is that ultimately, the owners crack before the players do. The only way the players can beat the owners’ strategy in this negotiation is to take it into the regular season. The players have to risk that PR hit. And there will certainly be a hit, one much greater than the owners took when they instituted the lockout that started it all.

The players have to ask themselves if minimal gains in both the luxury tax threshold and the overall minimum salary are worth keeping the status quo elsewhere. Maybe it is. It’s easy for me to say that these are “minimal gains,” as the ones who get the bump in salary might view it completely different. But if they come to a deal on the owners’ artificial deadline, then they are certainly not getting the best deal that they could have gotten.

The Liberty Media numbers may not have produced the increase in bargaining that we’ve seen in the last week. But they are the best indication yet of what’s at stake for the owners. If the winner of the World Series clears over $100 million – that’s a nice chunk of change. Maybe $100 million to Steve Cohen is like $100 to a schlep like me. It wouldn’t kill me to lose $100 but you can be damn sure I wouldn’t be happy when it was lost.

My sincere hope as a greedy fan is that the season starts on time and we have a 162-game season. But I’m not going to crucify the players if they opt to continue negotiations rather than play this out on the owners’ terms. There’s an old business maxim that goes – You don’t get what’s fair, you get what you negotiate.

So far, the owners have played their hand as best as they could during the lockout. As a baseball fan, it’s been frustrating, no doubt. But there hasn’t been any hatred towards the owners from this self-proclaimed, pro-player fan. They’ve enacted a strategy that’s completely legal. My hope is that if the players try to play their hand as best as they can – and refuse to take a last-minute deal just to start the season on time – that other fans won’t decide they’re the ones 100% at fault.