Steve Cohen: Good For Baseball, Or Great For Baseball?

None of us knows how much money the average Major League Baseball team earns in a calendar year. Despite the fact that US taxpayers have contributed approximately $5.3 billion towards stadium construction, the owners have not been willing to open their books to the public.

The one exception to this is the Atlanta Braves who, by virtue of being owned by a public company, must provide quarterly and annual financial disclosures. That’s how we know that, in 2021, the Atlanta Braves generated $526 million in baseball revenue. Granted, that was the year the Braves won the World Series, and in so doing, generated extra revenue from additional home games and a metric ton of merchandise sales. But nevertheless, the Braves have one of the lowest-paying TV rights deals in the league, roughly league average ticket prices, and play in just the 10th largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.

So if the Atlanta Braves generate $526 million in revenue in a given year, then what’s the conservative estimate of revenue generated by the New York Mets, a team that owned its own cable TV channel for decades, has higher ticket prices, and plays in the single most lucrative media market in the Western Hemisphere?

That’s the question you need to ask if you want to put Steve Cohen’s spending spree in context.

Bryan and Dan did just that in this week’s Over The Monster Podcast. Then, they celebrated Festivus with the annual airing of grievances, setting their sites on Red Sox Twitter. stadium bag bans, and more!