Owners Consider Sharing the Wealth

Major league baseball owners, in a two-day meeting beginning today in Phoenix, might vote on a revenue-sharing plan that would require large-revenue clubs to subsidize the less-fortunate clubs starting this season.

Acting Commissioner Bud Selig said there will be a comprehensive discussion of revenue sharing but would not speculate on a vote.

Selig, who favors revenue sharing as owner of the small-market Milwaukee Brewers, seldom puts an issue to vote unless he knows it can pass, and revenue sharing remains controversial.

Large-revenue clubs continue to insist that sharing must be linked to a salary cap or payroll tax in a new bargaining agreement with the players.

They also argue that it is too late to implement for 1996, since budgets have already been set.

The small-market teams, however, insist they need it immediately to survive, and one club official said they have the votes to approve it.

The adoption of revenue sharing would be considered revolutionary. Teams currently split national TV and merchandising revenue evenly. Visiting teams also share in gate receipts.

However, clubs basically retain all of their local revenue, creating a financial and--what some small-market owners claim--competitive imbalance.

Meeting in Florida in January of 1994, owners approved what is known as the Fort Lauderdale plan, through which large-revenue clubs would provide about $58 million a year to small-revenue teams after a phase-in period.

That plan, however, was contingent on a still unresolved labor agreement.

The interim plan, to be discussed in Phoenix, is said to be similar to the transition phase of the Fort Lauderdale plan, with 13 clubs giving and 13 receiving, according to sources. Colorado and Florida, the most recent expansion teams, would be excluded. Each of the large revenue teams would basically provide 22% of their local revenue to the subsidy fund. The New York Yankees would be hardest hit, forced to contribute about $7 million. The Pittsburgh Pirates, Montreal Expos and Kansas City Royals would be among major recipients.

The interim plan would also have to be approved by the union, but bargaining talks have left management officials convinced they will get that approval.

Revenue sharing is the dominant subject on the owners’ agenda. If there is a vote, it will come in a joint owners meeting on Thursday.

In addition, management negotiators will present a new bargaining proposal to their union counterparts in Phoenix on Thursday night.

Amid an amiable atmosphere and the absence of media scrutiny, each side has made two proposals since mid-November. A management source said the new proposal will be aimed at accelerating the process and the progress.

Said Randy Levine, the owners’ lead negotiator, “I wouldn’t say we’re on the same page yet, but we’re on the same chapter. There’s only one main issue--the nature of the [payroll] restraint.”

That, of course, has always been the issue.