New ownership in Seattle makes a splash with a deal in place to purchase a controlling interest in an area cable network – ROOT Sports. The deal will assist the team financially for many years to come as it has for teams like the New York Yankees (YES Network) and Boston Red Sox (NESN). The cable sports network deal in place is one that covers the Pacific Northwest – featuring the Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Mariners, among many others teams. Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times explains:
“In baseball, it’s particularly popular because when you own the network, it enables you to shield money from MLB’s revenue-sharing pile. The Yankees have been doing it for years. As owner of the network, the team charges itself a nominal sum for the right to broadcast games. That sum gets reported to MLB by the team as the revenue taken in for the rights to those games. In some cases, the revenue might actually be two, three or even four times higher. But that gets run through the TV network’s books and is not associated with MLB revenue sharing. It’s a neat little trick and it’s done all the time. Now, the Mariners will be able to take advantage like other teams have. In other words, they will have the revenues coming in to compete with payrolls much larger than they are now deploying against AL West behemoths like the Rangers and Angels.”
It’s evident that some of the most valuable teams in baseball are prosperous and leaving other teams in the dust due to moves like this. Below is a 2013 list marking the most valuable teams in baseball:
1 – New York Yankees: $1.85 Billion
2 – LA Dodgers: $1.4 Billion
3 – Boston Red Sox: $1 Billion
4 – Chicago Cubs: $879 Million
5 – Philadelphia Phillies: $723 Million
6 – New York Mets: $719 Million
7 – Texas Rangers: $674 Million
8 – LA Angels of Anaheim: $656 Million
9 – SF Giants: $643 Million
10 – Chicago White Sox: $600 Million
Dead Last – Oakland A’s: $321 Million