At the end of 2022, the Major League Baseball (MLB) will have broken its record for merchandise sales both nationally and internationally and will close with an attendance of 96% compared to the levels reached in 2019.
Despite a 99-day lockout that delayed the start of the current season, the league expects revenue of more than $10.7 billion.
We will surely exceed the revenue of 2019. It will be the year that we have sold the most merchandise, both nationally and internationally, ”the competition’s director of revenue, Noah Garden, told Forbes.
Leaguewide attendance is at 95-96% of pre-2019 pandemic levels, which has helped the Cleveland Guardians, who have struggled to attract fans despite winning their division. However, other teams have made successful returns to full capacity, such as the Dodgers and the new york yankeeswho occupy first and third place in attendance, respectively.
In March, the competition reached a sponsorship agreement with the Capital One bank, which became a sponsor of the competition. The bank will pay around 125 million over the next five years. The bank, in exchange, can use the league and the thirty teams that comprise it in its advertising campaigns. The agreement came weeks after the competition resolved a labor strike of almost a hundred days, due to disputes with the Players’ Association, which resulted in a new collective agreement.
Currently the MLB It has more than 1,600 sponsorships locally and nationally. Capital One replaces Bank of America, which had been the official banking partner since 2015 and contributed an average of 10 million per season, so with the new contract the league doubles its income.
The MLB It stopped entering amounts close to 3,000 million during 2020, due to the pandemic. The stoppage in the competition, the lack of public in the stands or the decrease in sponsorship and television agreements were the main causes. Additionally, the pandemic wreaked havoc on the 30 franchises, which have racked up more than $8.3 billion in debt, largely due to losses resulting from the pandemic and the season cut to 60 games in 2020.
In addition, there are other assets such as MLB.tv that serve to create more income opportunities.
“In the next 20 years, (today’s MLB.tv) is going to look as archaic as what we did 20 years ago,” Garden said.
