Major League Baseball regains financial muscle. United States Professional Baseball League, Major League Baseball (MLB), has closed 2022 with a turnover of 10.8 billion dollarswhich represents a record figure and a recovery of pre-pandemic levels.
After two years in which the highest American baseball competition saw its income diminished by the pandemic, in 2022, the turnover of 2019 was exceeded by one hundred million dollarsgoing from 10.7 billion dollars in 2019 to 10.8 billion dollars in 2022, according to Forbes.
The number is significant, since the competition was stopped for 99 days due to the strike to which the players succumbed due to the existing discrepancies with the employers over the new collective agreement.
The Major Baseball League was born in 2000 and is made up of thirty teams
The increase in revenue in 2022 was thanks to the renewal of television agreements with the three major American networks: Fox, TBS and Espn. At the end of 2021, the contracts with the three television companies ended and the renewal of the rights meant annual income for the competition of 1,760 million dollars per year, which represents an increase of around 250 million dollars compared to the previous contract.
Although the new contract with Espn was reduced by 150 million dollars, the employers were able to compensate the decrease in this income with new agreements with platforms streamingsuch as Apple and NBC, which brought in a revenue of 115 million dollars.
Los television revenues were the main financing channel of the league, although sponsorship deals continued to be critical in terms of revenue. According to an IEG report, the league had gross sponsorship revenue of $1.19 billion in 2022, an increase of 5.6% over 2021.
Contrary to the increase in the turnover figure for 2022, attendance at the stadiums during the past season decreased by 6% compared to the 2019 season, the last season before the pandemic.
Major League Baseball was born from the union of the National League and the American League in the year 2000.. It is made up of thirty teams divided into the National Baseball League (NL) and the American League (AL), with fifteen teams in each.
Among the most successful teams in the MBL are the New York Yankees, with 27 titles, the Saint Louis Cardinals, with 11 championships, the Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox, with nine trophies, and the San Francisco Giants, who won eight titles in their entire history.
