Shut Out: Exploring the Effects of Minor League Baseball Contraction on the Well-Being of American Cities & Communities

Abstract

The importance of Professional Minor League Baseball(MiLB) on the American landscape is one that I hope to emphasize throughout this thesis. As the proverbial little brother to Major League Baseball (MLB), the MiLB’s survival has been predicated on the success of the MLB’s providing of funding. Up until 2020, both leagues had been bound under the Professional Baseball Agreement, which instituted the organizational and legal duties between the two sides. Under the agreement, MLB would pay for the players’ salaries, while the MILB would pay for other costs, including repairs, merchandising, and any other fees in the day to day process. With this structure, it has led to minor league baseball to become a money losing business, with teams struggling to stay afloat. At the conclusion of the 2020 season, the Professional Baseball Agreement was set to expire, with a new structure having to take fold for the future of minor league baseball. As minor league baseball was already struggling to stay afloat, the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated the timeline in which professional baseball would be altered. Due to the pandemic, the MLB played 60 of its standard 162 game season, with fans being absent from the stands until the later stages of the playoffs and World Series. On the other hand, the entire 2020 MiLB was cancelled, leaving the futures of many minor league franchises, employees, and players in doubt. As a result, many minor league teams lost their affiliations with Major League Baseball, leaving them with the option of being a fully independent team, or joining one of the MLB Partner Leagues. In this thesis, I will balance the value of MLB affiliation to minor league teams, and hypothesize that the teams and cities that lost their affiliated franchises will have negative impacts economically, socially, and politically in the cities and communities that host them.. In contrast, the select franchises that move from independent baseball to affiliated minor leagues will have more positive impacts economically, socially, and politically in the communities that host them.