There’s about a month left in Major League Baseball’s regular season. But how long will it be until the next regular-season game after this season comes to an end?
With an expiring collective bargaining agreement, baseball owners and players are trying to avoid a work stoppage while also protecting their personal interests and we have learned each side is willing to dig in even if the cost is a strike or lockout.
The early stages of negotiation are already underway. Arbitration, service time, free agency, salary floor, salary cap, luxury tax, expanded playoffs. Those are just some of the terms you will hear as these negotiations continue on.
But I have a suggestion. Stop negotiating. Extend the current CBA and try again in a year or two.
As the delta variant continues to impact all facets of life, how can negotiations really take place when no one knows for sure what the world will look like on the other side of the Pandemic.
So let’s get through this and allow attendance, capacity, and revenue to normalize across all of baseball and then try to negotiate when there is at least an understanding of the fiscal environment.
Those negotiations will still be nasty but at least everyone on each side will know where they stand. And at the end of the day, like almost everything, this all comes down to money.