Bracing for a potentially protracted labor fight, MLB owners have funded a war chest of about $75 million per team to provide some financial protection should games be lost to a work stoppage.
There appears near-unanimous sentiment among owners to seek a salary cap as part of the next CBA, sources told The Post. The Players Association has long resisted the concept of a cap. Regarding such a proposal, one top executive on the team side insisted, “I have never seen the clubs more united.”
The players union remains adamantly against a cap and has expressed a strong expectation that the owners will lock out players when the current deal expires Dec. 1. Neither regular-season games for this season nor formal negotiations for a new CBA have yet to begin, yet already there is an ominous feeling within the industry that games — or even the whole 2027 season — could be in peril. Of course, there’s been tough rhetoric many times before, and there haven’t been games lost to a labor dispute in more than 30 years, since 1994-95.
Then, like now, owners have always held back money from a central fund going into a CBA year to have a stash for the worst-case scenario — missed games and, therefore, a need to have financial resources in reserve without ticket sales, money from sponsors and fulfillment of contracts with broadcasters.