clarinews@clarinet.com (WILLIAM D. MURRAY, UPI Sports Writer) (02/02/90)
SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) -- From Boston's Fenway Park to San Francisco's Candlestick Park, there is a new closing refrain to ``Take Me Out to the Ball Game.'' It goes something like this: ``For it's one, two, three million and up, at the old ball game.'' Seven players have signed contracts that will pay them on average at least $3 million a season, and both Milwaukee's Robin Yount and Paul Molitor are looking to join the exclusive club. Some say baseball is heading for a financial Waterloo. Others believe the huge salaries are a byproduct of the league's state of economic bliss. ``It would be incorrect to conclude that the $3 million contracts you are seeing will put the owners in the poorhouse,'' said Gerald Scully, a management professor at the University of Texas at Dallas and author of ``The Business of Major League Baseball.'' ``There is scarce talent on the open market and the owners are willing to bid high for it.'' Baseball is reaping the benefits of a television contract negotiated late last year. CBS will pay the major leagues $1.06 billion over the next four seasons and ESPN will pay $400 million for cable rights. That adds up to $14.04 million a season per team for the life of the two contracts. And that does not include local broadcasting rights that run as high as the New York Yankees' 12-year, $500 million deal. Further, nine teams -- Oakland, San Francisco, St. Louis, the Chicago Cubs, Toronto, Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City and Texas -- set attendance marks in 1989 and the league as a whole drew a record 55,173,597 fans. Then there is the reservoir of money accumulated by the clubs during the era of collusion. All of which adds up to a very healthy industry, where a team like the Yankees will make in excess of $50 million a season before selling a single T-shirt, ticket or parking space. ``I think the kind of salaries we are seeing today were predictable once the league signed its new television contract,'' Scully said. ``Baseball is a very healthy sport and the contracts are a reflection of that fact.'' San Francisco Giants first baseman Will Clark recently signed for an average of $3.75 million a season, a record. ``I never thought I'd sign a contract this large,'' he said. ``I think the breakthrough came with several players signing in the $3 million range. Baseball is a very prosperous sport right now and I think you are seeing that by the contracts that are being signed.'' As late as 1987, contracts actually were dropping while team revenues grew. In the era of collusion, the average contract fell from a 1986 high of $410,517 to $402,094. ``Because of collusion, the clubs had been able to bank a lot of money,'' Scully said. Last year, the average annual contract escalated from $430,000 to $488,000, and is projected to be in the $575,000 range for the 1990 season. Industry sources say that figure will grow to an average of $1 million a season within the next two years. The NBA, with its new television contract, will see its average player's salary rise to $1 million this year. ``There is always a trickle-down effect,'' said sports attorney Jeff Morad, who along with partner, Leigh Steinberg, represent Clark and others. ``The big contracts like Clark's impact contracts across the board.'' How high will the contracts go? ``As long as fans come to the games and television is willing to pay the large rights fees, baseball's profits will continue to grown,'' Scully said. ``I think it's possible that by the end of the century we may see a $10 million a year contract.''