MLB’s Revenues Passed $8 Billion This Year and Other Bullets

Dec 18, 2013

Money It’s another driving day today – the driving home variety – so, the usual expectations are in place: normal posting, but I won’t be around much in the comments/Twitter/Facebook/etc.

While the Chicago Cubs’ revenues remain a relatively opaque subject for debate, Forbes is reporting that revenues for MLB as a whole continue to shoot through the roof. Just a year after the league reportedly recorded revenues in the $7.5 billion range, Forbes says MLB will clear the $8 billion hurdle in 2013, and the figure could go as high as $8.5 billion. That’s astonishing revenue growth in a year when, to my knowledge, attendance didn’t rocket upward. Instead, bigger and bigger TV deals are driving the bulk of the revenue growth – and the new national TV deals don’t even kick in until next season. Say what you will about the waning state of MLB in the public’s consciousness, but, as a business enterprise, it’s certainly a healthy beast.

The Cubs reportedly agreed to terms with reliever Jose Veras last night, and Veras confirms the signing to MLB.com with this … calm quote: “There’s a lot of good talent, good guys on that team. Hopefully, we’ll see it’s going to be good. Maybe it’s the same situation as Houston with the Latin guys being young guys who had a lot of talent. I still have to do my job anyway.” Whoa there, Jose. Pull back the reins on the excitement sleigh. (I kid – he’s clearly got a pretty good sense of what lies ahead of him, and he knows that, realistically, the best thing you can say for the 2014 Cubs’ chances of not being terrible involves words like “maybe,” “hope,” and “we’ll see”. But, well, maybe some guys will break out, I hope there are roster amplifications over the next few months, and we’ll see what happens.).

Former Cubs pitcher Chris Carpenter, best known as the compensation the Cubs sent the Red Sox for hiring Theo Epstein (to a promotion), has been released so that he can pursue an opportunity in Japan.

Cee Angi, writing for Deadspin, discusses the merits of Sammy Sosa as a Hall of Fame candidate, and wonders whether he was really all that good in the first place.

There’s a Chicago sports team pushing for the playoffs, and I’m going to highlight it, damn it, even if it isn’t the Cubs. Jay digs (deeply) into the multifarious playoff scenarios for the Bears over at the BN Bears page. Makes me appreciate that baseball’s playoff picture is settled 99% of the time by the old “I won more games than you won, so shove off” metric.

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

MLB’s Revenues Passed $8 Billion This Year and Other Bullets

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