MLB teams whose TV revenues are hurting have a little help on the way: the money collected from teams that spend above the luxury tax. The Athletic has learned that Major League Baseball and the Players Association have agreed to alter the collective bargaining agreement so that the league can use its portion of competitive-balance-tax proceeds to give teams losing TV money up to $15 million each — with an estimated limit of $75 million in those payments leaguewide. Advertisement Teams “whose local media revenue declined from the year prior (2023) or from the year two years prior (2022)” are eligible for what’s being called a “media disruption distribution,” largely intended to deal with the problems of the Bally-branded regional sports networks and RSNs formerly operated by Warner Bros.
-Discovery. The arrangement is good for one year, and is the product of months of negotiations, after MLB approached the MLBPA about the idea early in the year. The union agreed to it on the belief that teams will now spend more on players.
“We believe this agreement should positively affect the player market by softening the impact of revenue declines, by increasing the number of clubs who have monies to spend, and by undermining the ability of clubs to weaponize recent developments in RSN markets,” the MLBPA wrote in a memo to players. MLB and the MLBPA declined comment. MLB and the players have always essentially split luxury-tax proceeds, with half of the money going to clu.
