New York Yankees team president Randy Levine is unpleased with the revenue that some small market teams are generating.
The Yankees Dominate in MLB Revenue Numbers
According to R. Nikhil Parshy of Sportskeeda, Levine voiced his discontent with the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays being too dependent on the revenue-sharing pool:
“A lot more focus has to be on individual teams to do better and not just rely on revenue sharing,” Levine said. “You can’t have two Florida teams averaging 15,000 fans. You can’t have it. You don’t go into an NFL stadium or an NBA arena and see that.”
The Yankees are the most valuable franchise in baseball with a $7.1 billion valuation. The team brings in $657 million in revenue on an annual basis, per Forbes.
Though the top draw in the MLB, the Yankees are deep in the tax. Additionally, ‘America’s pastime’ has just begun to climb out of a hole in TV viewership as it’s otherwise struggled to do numbers across the board in comparison to the other major sports leagues for well over a decade.
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Marlins, Rays Part of a Bigger Problem In Baseball?
Levine is right in his assertion about the two Florida franchises. As a retirement state and top tourist attraction, especially in the Spring and Summer months, Miami and Tampa ought to be drawing more fans into their stadiums.
The Marlins averaged 14,355 fans and the Rays were not much better at 17,781 fans per game this season. Neither can put the blame on poor performance, as both teams finished above .500 and secured playoff berths.
Teams around the league pool 48 percent of their revenue to be distributed equally at about 3.3 percent per team as the current structure stands.
Both the Rays ($35M) and Marlins ($29M) underwhelmed at the gates in 2023. Those are just two teams that Levine isolated but the MLB must continue to find ways to put rears in seats and evolve the pace and attraction of the game once more.