SEASONS OF CHANGE

The top 10 ways the minor leagues have changed and will keep changing in the near future

- J.J. COOPER

Even if you go to minor league baseball games every year, it's easy to miss the subtle changes that have occurred over the span of a couple of decades.

Some differences aren't very subtle. The arrival of a pitch clock at Triple-A in 2015 was hard to miss. The reduction of the ticket-taking, affiliated minor leagues from 160 to 120 teams was a seismic change.

A lot of other changes are a little less apparent. One year's bleachers become next year's party deck. A "bark in the park" joins the promotional schedule.

Any one of these moves is very minor, but they are the tweaks that over the years that transform the experience for players, teams and fans.

Here's a look at 10 ways the minor leagues have changed and will change over the next few years.

1. MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL OWNERSHIP IS CONSOLIDATING

The days of the mom and pop-owned minor league team largely disappeared in the 1990s, replaced by the wealthy owner or ownership group. For the owners who survived the threadbare days of the 1970s and '80s, the chance to sell at greatly increased valuations made it a logical time to get out.

Now, we are seeing another transformation. As part of MLB's takeover of the minor leagues, previous rules that prevented a single ownership group from owning more than one team in any league were eliminated.

That opened the doors for consolidation in a manner that had never been possible. Add the desire for some owners to cash out after losing an entire season to the pandemic in 2020, not to mention the concerns that MLB could push for further reductions in the minors in 2031, and the conditions were set for private equity groups to make big inroads into the minor leagues.