It must change now. We urge Selig to be assertive and innovative in saving the sport. Already, team owners voted to give the commissioner's office all revenues derived from Internet rights for him to distribute to small-market teams. But Selig also must redistribute national TV revenues, which will mean taking them away from the wealthier clubs. He must beef up the revenue-sharing plan and find new ways to share the wealth.
Baseball is at a critical juncture.
Already, some teams are virtually minor league, unable to keep good players because they don't have the money to pay them. Meanwhile, the rich teams have driven up ballplayer salaries, making it harder and harder for small-market teams to afford to compete. If Selig can engineer real equity, he can save the game from itself. A big problem he faces is the players association, which could insist on being allowed to approve any new revenue-sharing plan. The current weak revenue-sharing agreement was included in the labor agreement between the players and the owners.