As this week's massive free agent contracts indicated, Major League Baseball continues to do big business. Now we have some numbers to support that.
According to a Forbes report, the league's gross revenue was up $500 million in 2015, marking the 13th consecutive year MLB has seen record growth. The exact numbers have not been released by the league, but Forbes says the gross revenue will approach $9.5 billion. MLB reported a record $9 billion in gross revenue in 2014, which was more than a $1 billion increase from 2013.
As we've mentioned in the past, MLB's increased revenue is driven by several different vehicles at varying levels of the business structure. Fans obviously notice ticket prices above all else because that directly impacts their decision to attend games, but the money truly lies in how we watch the game from our homes, in our cars, at the dinner table or while we're pretending to work.
Maury Brown of Forbes explains:
Growth for baseball continued around media rights and other facets. While there continues to be talk of the media rights bubble bursting, dividends continue to come in. As an example, the Philadelphia Phillies saw rights fees increase from $25 million annually to $100 million as part of their new $2.4-3 billion deal.
New sponsorships added to the league’s coffers. All told, these new sponsorships reached in 2015 have total contract value over the life of the deals of $225-$275 million.
MLB Advanced Media had more than 3.5 million subscribers to its suite of digital products last year, including MLB.TV and the MLB.com At Bat mobile application. MLB.com At Bat, the highest-grossing iOS sports app of all-time, was downloaded 11 million times in 2014, surpassing its previous record of 10 million downloads set in 2013.
MLB’s attendance of approximately 74 million fans in 2014 was seventh highest ever. The last ten years have been the ten most attended seasons in baseball history.
As the revenue continues trending upward, so too will be the money that's spent. This year's free agent class is already striking it rich with David Price having signed a seven-year deal worth $217 million and with Zack Greinke now secured on a six-year, $206 million deal. Even reliever Ryan Madson, who didn't pitch in the big leagues for three seasons before returning in 2015, got $22 million guaranteed at age 35.
That's a massive amount of money that has already been shelled out, and there's plenty more where that came from with Johnny Cueto, Chris Davis, Jason Heyward and Yoenis Cespedes still on the market. Right now, there's no way to project how much money will be owed come opening day. That number surpassed $4 billion last season and should continue soaring as well.
Forbes foresees continued growth in the years ahead as more television deals are ironed out and in-market streaming becomes available for the 15 clubs that have FOX Sports support their regional sports networks.
Confirmation again that baseball is not dying, but thriving.
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