Super agent Scott Boras held court outside the media room at the Winter Meetings on Wednesday, and touched on a variety of topics. Asked whether this was a unique offseason and the seemingly strong spending was indicative of a change in the market, he said:
“We’ve seen franchise values go from $700 to $800 million for premium markets to where they’re now worth $2.5 to maybe $4 billion. Owners have made in franchise valuation, $2 to $2.5 billion. We’ve also seen a record revenue stream come to baseball from two media sources, in the fact that we’ve got a new TV contract where each club is going to get $25 million more per team per year. And almost any club in baseball, before they sell a ticket, off the general fund, revenue sharing and others, even the bottom teams, they’re going to have well over $110 to $120 million to spend, add on their ticket, concessions and other values. It’s really kind of a baseline where everybody’s at $180 million and above to begin. You also have the value of regional media rights, which we’ve seen in L.A. and we’re going to see in other markets like Chicago.
“If you look at certain owners, you have to say the Ricketts family for example, they’re the Ameritrade family. Well, I see why. They bought something for $800 million that’s now worth probably $2.5 billion and they have a new TV contract to negotiate in 2014 off the basis of what’s going on in Los Angeles with a $6 billion TV rights deal. And Philadelphia which may be equivalent to that, and then following, Chicago. Many of these teams can be great economic goliaths, and their owners have made very wise decisions buying those teams in the early 2000s.”
