Compensation Issue Stalls Divisional Realignment

The plan to realign baseball’s American and National leagues into three divisions each in 1994 and add an extra playoff round is not the certainty it once seemed.

The plan requires approval of the players union, and a sharp division exists on how the players should be compensated for their postseason participation.

“I’m still on the optimistic side, but my optimism is waning,” Eugene Orza, the union’s associate general counsel, said Friday in reference to a possible agreement.

With the collective bargaining agreement technically expired, owners and players agreed to negotiate postseason compensation independent of other issues. But almost two months of sporadic talks have gone nowhere, Orza said.

Adding that two union proposals have been rejected, he said that the union is waiting for a second owners’ proposal but is not certain when it will come.

“I’m disappointed it’s taking this long but not surprised,” he said, referring to the long history of troubled negotiations between the two sides.

Is there a deadline, after which it would be difficult to implement realignment and the extra playoff tier for 1994?

“I think it should be resolved one way or the other by the end of the year,” said Richard Ravitch, president of the owners’ Player Relations Council. He cited issues of scheduling, marketing and the sale of television advertising time. Ravitch refused to discuss the status of negotiations and said only he was hopeful of formulating a new proposal with the owners soon.

“I don’t make those decisions independently,” he said.

Sources close to the PRC indicate Ravitch is frustrated with bickering owners over 1) their inability to agree on a revenue-sharing formula that would be the basis of a salary cap system and would enable him to finally begin collective bargaining negotiations with the union and 2) the additional delay in formulating a meaningful proposal on postseason compensation.

The players’ postseason shares have always come from the net gate receipts of the first four games of a series, whether it was the playoffs or World Series. The television networks paid baseball a postseason rights fee that did not change, no matter how many games were played.

Next year, however, with baseball’s new partnership with ABC and NBC, advertising revenue will be distributed on a per-game basis. The union contends that the players should also be paid on a per-game basis.

But the owners, who want to retain the four-game formula, have raised the question of integrity, implying the players could find ways to lengthen a series if they knew they were getting paid more for six or seven games than four.

“The integrity issue is a real one,” acting commissioner Bud Selig said. “You can’t minimize it. The perception of the fans is very important.”

Orza scoffed at the owners’ attempt to use the players’ integrity as an issue.

“These are the same people who were guilty of collusion in not putting their best teams on the field,” he said. “Why would a player risk $50,000 to make three or four thousand more?”