With MLB change in tax status, Selig salary can remain secret

Bud Selig's last known salary was in 2007 for $18.3 million a 22% increase from the previous year (a taboo subject among Selig's rank and file as he is their job bank). MLB Inc.'s tax status was changed from non-profit to for profit in 2007.

• As a result, he no longer has to disclose his salary (or Bob Du Puy's), per Sports Business Journal which says

• the change was made in part to avoid pesky public disclosures of this kind. So his salary could be much higher now but it's secret.

What is MLB hiding? They want public testing of all its players, why shouldn't their records be out in the sunshine? At minimum, MLB should not assume the morally superior position of lecturing ordinary Americans to donate to charity unless it makes its own income and donations public.

• NY Post: "The Dodgers last week announced that tickets to their three-game series against the Yankees will be put on sale March 6 -- with one catch.
• For every Yankees-Dodgers ticket one buys, one must buy a 14, 21 or 28-game ticket package. Minimally, it's a
• buy-14/ get-one deal.

A few days before Selig gave this latest-in-a-series extortion his tacit approval, the Cubs announced a tickets "pre-sale." Jump to the head of the Cubs ticket line -- if you're willing to pay 15-20 percent over face value.

• This latest Selig-allowed scalp job is in concert with MasterCard, which has become the official ticket-scalping partner of the Cubs, much the way American Express auctions off tickets above face value and shares the take with Madison Square Garden.

A few years ago, the Cubs fed thousands of tickets to a team executive, who set up a ticket-brokerage business. Incredible. But who was going to stop them, Bud Selig?

• Selig's annual salary -- in the $18 million neighborhood -- can buy a lot of
• silence and neglect.
• Looking the other way surely must be the first unspoken term of his engagement.

Our commissioners rarely have to suffer the shame, the kind they deserve when they pretend to serve the best interests of their game -- when they're actually the concierges of team owners' counting parlors. Shame on our

• path-of-least-resistance media."...

Reference: Sports Business Journal, 2/2/09, "Selig's pay climbs past $18 million," by Eric Fisher

• NY Post by Phil Mushnick, 2/29/10, "He's not your Bud"

A commenter to the NY Post article:

• "I'm Guiseppe Franco, 02/28/2010 11:07 AM

As an alternative to the $850 single game Yankee ticket, you can get a 71-game season ticket the the New Britain Rock Cats (Twins AA affiliate). Its one of the best minor league parks around and has great energy on those sold out weekend nights. Plus you would have $200 left over for beer money."

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