While ‘The Huddle’ speculated on the matter a few weeks ago, it appears to be moving closer and closer to a real possibility: We may not see the Vermont Lake Monsters in 2020. And sadly, we may never see them again.
Lets address the former here as presented by JJ Cooper of Baseball America.
One of the key parts of this story also applies to MLB. If there is no 2020 season with fans the make goods for 2021 (rolled over season tickets and advertising/sponsorships) could cut significantly into the 2021 revenues for teams.https://t.co/2iUAAr3IFw
— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) April 16, 2020
From the article:
“Many MiLB leagues stretch across numerous states. Getting approval from each state, county and city to resume adds several additional logistical hurdles—the South Atlantic League (a league that plays in 14 cities in seven states) or Pacific Coast League (which has 16 teams in 11 states) can’t easily resume if only half of its teams are in areas where mass meetings are allowed.
Even if somehow those issues were resolved and MiLB leagues were cleared by local and state governments to play, there are further obstacles. MLB teams would have to decide they are comfortable sending players to travel from town to town for a MiLB season.”
And then think about the rest of this: If sports can’t be played with fans, then how will the Lake Monsters make any money? Nearly all of the money comes from “the gate” and not television, so no fans would be pointless for the organization.
If MLB is intent on even having an MiLB season, they could very well just think about holding games on their spring training complexes in contained areas.
And then looking forward to 2021: If all the revenue is wiped out from 2020, then all the sponsorship dollars in place for 2020 will likely be rolled over to 2021, which will make it hard for any MiLB to go and make MORE money in 2021 to alleviate concerns.
Remember, the Lake Monsters were already on the MiLB contracted teams list prior to the season — does this have any impact on that moving forward?
We will wait and see.
