#competitive-balance

#competitive-balance

Tampa is clearly the weakest team in the division after a quintessential Rays offseason that involved letting several marquee players go. They traded long-time second baseman-and known Blue Jays killer-Brandon Lowe to the Pittsburgh Pirates and watched closer Pete Fairbanks sign a one-year deal in Miami, among other moves.

MLB is the only one of the four major American sports without a minimum and maximum limit to spending, and some owners may be looking to change that. According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the early projections from the league suggest a salary cap of around $260-280 million, along with a salary floor of around $140-160 million.

Many in the industry expect a lockout and some even worry about the potential for lost games in 2027. Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of The New York Post report that the league has put aside a war chest of about $2 billion, roughly $75MM per team, from a central fund to help weather a potentially lengthy stoppage. The MLBPA has made similar preparations but the report doesn't provide specifics for that side.

There are a lot of them, and they do not exist only on social media. They are inside of group chats that talk about how much money the Los Angeles Dodgers are spending after winning the past two World Series, and they are in cities big and small that look at the Dodgers with envy masked by eye-rolls and curses.

Few competitions in the world have the capacity to turn wine into water quicker than the Six Nations. Only a few days ago players, coaches and fans of Ireland, Scotland and Wales were poring over the championship fixture list with their customary annual relish. Now, after just one round, they are having to deal with the most sobering Celtic wakeup call for more than a quarter of a century. Take your pick from the following trio of chastening outcomes.

When you have momentum like we have that you've worked as hard as we have to get, you know that is a force that puts people in a frame of mind that they should understand they need to make an agreement, OK? Despite that momentum, we have a couple of issues that we hear about from our fans all the time: blackouts and the perception that some teams are not competitive. We got to address those issues. How we figure out the way to address those issues is the challenge of the bargaining process, and jumping to the idea that it's going to be salary cap, no salary cap is a premature thing to do. To maintain the momentum we all understand we have, I think we need to address those two issues and I think we'll figure out a way to do it.

It was the transfer window when spending by Premier League clubs went into uncharted territory. Buoyed by the start of a record 6.7bn four-year domestic TV deal, and the extra revenue generated by newly expanded European club competitions, the top flight invested more than ever before this summer. But while the unprecedented 3bn outlay, and the drama of a frenetic deadline day, undoubtedly fuels even more interest in the league, does it also raise concerns?