A SIMPLE QUESTION WITH COMPLEX ANSWERS

Determining the value of minor league teams is at the heart of PBA dispute between MLB and the minor leagues

- J.J. COOPER

What is a minor league team worth?

Ask a dozen people deeply involved in the game that question and you will get a number of answers.

Several will rightfully point out that the team is worth whatever you can find someone else willing to pay. They’ll look at what other teams in the same classification—or with similar markets or ballparks—have garnered in recent sales and say that’s a rough estimate. Some will take a much more practical approach—take the balance sheet, look at the yearly profits and multiply that by a multiple of three, five or maybe seven. Others will talk about the level of classification, the stadium, the lease, and the scarcity of available affiliated teams and come up with a number based on that.

This simple question has complex answers.

It’s also a much more important question than the average fan understands. If you are looking for an explanation of why Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball are in the final stages of a tense, difficult Professional Baseball Agreement negotiation over the future of the minors, it’s in part because of the price of minor league teams.

There are MLB owners who believe they were forced to overpay for overpriced minor league teams over the past decade. That has led those owners to be some of the most strident in their beliefs that the entire affiliation system that has guided MLB-MiLB pairings for the past 50 years needs to be completely overhauled.