Sports economist Andrew Zimbalist on XM re revenue sharing

Boston is only the 20th tv market in the country, yet they have to pay revenue sharing. Zimbalist doesn't think this makes sense---Red Sox owners are being penalized for making the business perform better than would be expected. He thinks revenue sharing should exist, but based on market size---larger markets should pay tax independent of how well/how much money the team makes. Smaller markets should get revenue sharing whether they do well or not. The current system penalizes success & rewards failure. He says the Phillies have the largest unshared media market, but when they weren't doing well a few years ago were getting rev. sharing. Currently, it's against smaller market teams' interests to better themselves---they'll lose the rev. sharing. Zimbalist says Bud Selig along with his social skills has managed to do what no one else has in about 40 years: move baseball forward. While things haven't always been better, great changes have taken place & are continuing with Selig. It's almost impossible to get this group of 30 baseball owners to agree on anything, but he's managed to do it one way or another. Further changes in finances will take place, but it will take time with this group.

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