The pandemic hit Major League Baseball extremely hard last season.
How hard did the pandemic-shortened season hit Major League Baseball last season? The answer could have big implications for how much players, who saw base wages for 40-man rosters fall by $2.5 billion in 2020, will get paid in the coming year. Commissioner Rob Manfred reportedly told Sportico in late October MLB will suffer between $2.8 billion and $3 billion in “operational losses.” But during the winter meetings earlier this month, super agent Scott Boras reportedly said not a single team lost money in 2020. Who’s right? Depends on how you count. The numbers based on the reporting I have done leading up to Forbes’ annual baseball valuations in April 2021 show baseball’s total revenue dropped about $6.5 billion in 2020, to just under $4 billion. Meanwhile, operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the league’s 30 teams was a negative $1 billion versus a positive $1.5 billion the prior year. Note: Two differences between my revenue and operating income figures above and the ones that will be published with our next MLB valuations in April is that the latter will include (that is, deduct from revenue) stadium debt payments teams had to make, as well as proceeds from non-MLB events (minimal in 2020 but significant in 2019) at the ballpark.
