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Sports commentators, an international peace mediator and Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig trooped to Capitol Hill to call for a more level playing field between big-revenue teams such as the Yankees and small-market clubs such as the Montreal Expos.
"The enduring success of our game rests on the hope and faith of each fan that his or her team will be competitive," Selig told Senator Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican and chair of the Antitrust, Business Rights and Competition Subcommittee.
"At the start of spring training, there no longer exists hope and faith for the fans of more than half of our 30 clubs."
A committee appointed by Selig to study the "competitive imbalance" between the country's teams issued a report in July showing major revenue gaps among the clubs, with only three - the Yankees, Cleveland Indians and Colorado Rockies - generating an operating profit from 1995 to 1999.
"Today ... the revenue and payroll disparities are so great and the role of media revenue is so significant that small-market clubs are faced with situations that appear hopeless," Selig said.
Smaller teams cannot afford the talented players they need to be competitive, critics of the current situation say.
The July report recommended several ways to increase competitiveness, including allowing some teams to move to richer markets.
Officials in Washington and in neighboring northern Virginia have long eyed teams in Montreal, Minnesota, Florida and elsewhere as candidates for relocation to the U.S. capital region.
The report also called for a 50-percent luxury tax on payrolls above $84 million, a sharing of 40-50 percent of all local revenue among clubs, and use of a central fund to assist low-revenue clubs meet a minimum payroll of $40 million.
The panel comprised former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Yale President Richard Levin and political commentator George Will.
Economist Rodney Fort of Washington State University on Tuesday questioned data showing the revenue gap between the richest and poorest teams had rocketed from $30 million in 1989 to $130 million in 1999, adding there was not enough data yet to prove a crisis existed.
Other skeptics point to another legendary Yankees winning streak of 11 world titles between 1947 and 1964, before the advent of the lucrative cable television contracts that many blame for the disparity among teams.
That winning streak is no reason for inaction, NBC baseball commentator Bob Costas said.
"Simply citing historical precedent for objectionable conditions is hardly an argument for the continuation of that condition under new circumstances," Costas told the panel.
Mitchell, a key player in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations, said that top teams would suffer, too, if their competitors were allowed to fall by the wayside.
Selig, who must persuade team owners and player unions to go along with reforms, offered no time frame for change but expressed confidence it would occur.
"The vast majority of clubs are not only very supportive of my efforts but will be supportive when we come to the moment of truth, and I mean the vast majority," Selig said.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, the commissioner played down prospects of teams decamping for other cities.
"We're going to solve all of the problems that we have and go from there," Selig said. "If you don't change the system there's no sense moving franchises around."
The Washington Post on Tuesday quoted Expos Executive Vice President David Samson as saying the Washington area could be an attractive market for a team.
But Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos is reluctant to see a competitor move into the area and time has run out in any case for any move for the coming season, Selig noted.
He declined to say whether a move was possible for the 2002 season.
"We have some significant economic problems to solve and there's going to be a myriad solutions," Selig said.
Reuters