By Diane M. Grassi
Now that the 2012 Major League Baseball (MLB) post-season is in full swing, what better time than to revisit the access fans have to attend MLB games?
It has been the norm over the past decade or so for the haves and have-nots being the new normal during the playoffs, and fans’ access to tickets including the league division series, the World Series and now the expanded Wild Card games.
By Diane M. Grassi
The title of this report may come as no revelation to avid sports fans, business movers and shakers, and the politically connected, but every once in a while, it is worth taking stock of those most prominent in a field ripe for deception, deniability, and its penchant for unaccountability.
While the names Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Derek Jeter need no introduction, even to non-sports fans, few people would ably recognize the name Ted Forstmann. Forstmann reigns over arguably the most powerful agency in all of sports and Hollywood and represents the individual interests of the likes of Messrs. Woods, Federer, Nadal, and Jeter.
By Diane M. Grassi
But MLB has not learned much in the past couple of decades when it comes to the integrity of the game, in obeying the law and in protecting the best interests of its athletes, its most precious commodity.
If MLB does not proceed with caution and realize it has not merely entered the domain of industrial globalization but the world of global politics and diplomacy, it could prove damaging.
How MLB differs in the late 20th and early 21st centuries from its historic past, is by virtue of its yearly multi-billion dollar revenues it now enjoys, enabling it more unilateral power over the game of baseball in spite of the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and the World Umpires Association (WUA) with which it must collectively bargain.