The announcement that 160 minor league baseball teams and tens of thousands of workers and players had long been expecting finally arrived Tuesday afternoon: The 2020 minor league baseball season will not happen.
It is the first time in the history of Minor League Baseball, which was founded in 1901, that a season has been canceled.
“These are unprecedented times for our country and our organization, as this is the first time in our history that we’ve had a summer without Minor League Baseball played,” Pat O’Conner, MiLB’s president and chief executive, said in a statement. “While this is a sad day for many, this announcement removes the uncertainty surrounding the 2020 season and allows our teams to begin planning for an exciting 2021 season.”
There really was no choice.
Major League Baseball allowed teams to gather 60 players this week, including at least 30 minor leaguers per franchise, for summer camps at MLB parks or alternate sites. Almost the entire roster of the Round Rock Express was chosen to work out with the parent-club Astros, mostly at the University of Houston. Those players would not be available for a Class AAA season.
Furthermore, government health and safety regulations from the COVID-19 pandemic severely limit potential attendance at minor league ballparks. In the case of the Astros’ Class AA affiliate in Round Rock, no more than 25 percent capacity is possible at the moment as a second coronavirus surge sweeps over Texas.
Playing a 2020 season was always a more daunting undertaking for Minor League Baseball than for MLB. Unlike franchises in the majors, minor league teams rely heavily on revenue from people in the stands — tickets, beer and hot dog sales and sponsorships tied to attendance.
Because they do not have widespread TV or streaming deals, it would not be feasible for MiLB to play games in empty stadiums, as MLB plans to do. Another complicating factor: Minor League Baseball plays in smaller towns across the country and would have had to negotiate many more state and local reopening guidelines.
Pacific Coast League president Branch Rickey told the Austin American-Statesman in May there would be no games without the ability to put a significant amount of fans in the stands.
Round Rock general manager Tim Jackson was asked earlier what a season cancellation would mean for his franchise, annually one of the minor league attendance leaders.
“It would be devastating,” he told the American-Statesman. “People think of us as a big business because we sell 600,000 tickets a year. We’re not. We’re a small business with a pretty tight operating margin. How do you recover from losing an entire season?”
According to MiLB figures, minor league teams earn an average of $70,000 in gross revenue per home game and $5.4 million per year. Most of that money goes to operating expenses, including paying employees (each team averages 21 full-timers and 200 seasonal workers) and rent (teams pay a combined $65 million annually, the majority to local governments). MLB teams have paid for and provided the minor league players and coaches.
The Express laid off almost half their 50-some full-time employees in early June. Additionally, they have 200 to 300 seasonal employees. Other minor league franchises from coast to coast also have trimmed staffs.
With the operating agreement between MLB and MiLB set to expire in September, Major League Baseball already had plans for 2021 to pare down the affiliated minors from 160 teams to 120 in a cost-saving measure. Without a season, several minor league owners feared some teams would fold permanently because they could not go 18 months without revenue — in effect giving Major League Baseball the minor league contraction it has sought.
O’Conner told reporters Tuesday night that more than half of the minor league team owners could either be forced to sell their teams or go insolvent without outside financial help.
“This is the perfect storm,” he said. “There are many teams that are not liquid.”
As for players, many of the roughly 8,000 minor leaguers — those who are not part of their affiliated MLB team’s 60-man player pool for the 2020 season — will miss an entire year of their careers.
Most major league teams have, however, committed to paying their minor league players, many of whom earn less than $15,000 per season, $400 a week beyond June 30.
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Minor league season's cancellation likely dooms some affiliates - Houston Chronicle
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