Ticket prices were set at fifty cents per person. Hulbert wanted the power to rest with the owners and not with the players. Revisions were made to ensure that players were treated as no more than simple employees of the owners. Players who objected were fired and blacklisted. For the next 25 years National League owners would dictate over professional baseball.
Corruption strikes again.
In 1877 it was determined that four players on the Louisville Grays, George Hall, Bill Craver, Al Nichols, and Jim Devlin, had been paid off to throw games during play against Boston for the pennant, claiming they did so because owners were not paying their salaries. These players were banned from baseball for life by William Hulbert. The Louisville franchise subsequently folded. Due to unrelated financial problems, the Hartford and St. Louis clubs also folded. Teams from Providence, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee were added to the league for the 1878 season.