it difficult for there to be a salary cap. Their salaries would not have to be counted on a cap because there teams wouldn’t be able to field a team by taking that kind of hit on the cap. “The biggest problem is the owners that are willing to pay these astronomical salaries. Until the owners all get together and agree something will never happen.” (Zook) There are wealthy owners that can just go out and buy a winning team. The Yankees will always be in contention year after year as long as George Steinbrenner is the owner. He has the money to have a yearly team payroll of around $115 million. So being a rich owner in theory gives your team a better chance on winning in the Major Leagues. Just because a team has the money to go out and pay the high price free agents, does that mean that they are going to be successful? Not necessarily, as the Baltimore Orioles have shown, they have one of the higher team payrolls in the majors but they are at the bottom of their division. So maybe it is what you do with the money that matters. And in the Minnesota Twin’s case this year, who are a small-market team, they got the best out of their relatively unknown players. But the thing that eventually hurt them was their inability to go out and get a key player before the trading deadline. Baseball like all other sporting events is entertainment. No professional sports organization could succeed without the support of their fans. Every year as the athletes salaries are increasing, so are the ticket prices. It costs a family of four an average of around $90 to go to a game. (Zook) Eventually the average sports fan will not be able to take his family to a game. The owners need a ticket increase every year to help pay the always growing salaries of their ball players. “The owners and players need to realize they are all working towards the same goal: to keep baseball thriving for the forseable future.” (Zook) The MLBPA ...
