--- title: Baseball looks a little uglier but business is booming - The Hustle description: “This is our year” will be uttered by fans of all 30 Major League Baseball teams today as a new season starts — by fall, 29 of those fan bases will discover they were terribly, terribly wrong. But those fans will have forked over a lot of money along the way. MLB set a $10.8B+ revenue record last season and image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1085845606-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMarch2030202023baseball_sponsor_patches-scaled.webp --- # Baseball looks a little uglier but business is booming ![Ben Berkley](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Ben Berkley](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/ben-berkley) Published: April 04, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 “This is our year” will be uttered by fans of all 30 Major League Baseball teams today as a new season starts — by fall, 29 of those fan bases will discover they were terribly, terribly wrong. ![Baseball looks a little uglier but business is booming](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1085845606-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMarch2030202023baseball_sponsor_patches-scaled.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1085845606-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMarch2030202023baseball_sponsor_patches-scaled.webp) But those fans will have forked over a lot of money along the way. MLB set a [$10.8B+](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2023/01/10/mlb-sets-new-revenue-record-exceeding-108-billion-for-2022/?sh=41dcf6dd77ee) revenue record last season and franchise values are soaring (the average team is worth $2.31B, [per](https://d3data.sportico.com/MLBVal2022/MLBVal.html) *Sportico*). #### **Putting up big stats** Since Houston hoisted the trophy last November, teams have signed players to a combined $3.79B in contracts, [per](https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/) Spotrac. Why the confident spending? - **Streaming pays off: **Early streaming tech developed by MLB sold to Disney for $3.48B, [per](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2022/11/30/disney-purchases-mlbs-remaining-15-in-disney-streaming-for-900-million/?sh=511cc1a4a4e4) *Forbes*. The deal’s final $900m came through this offseason. - **Seats at a premium:** A night at the ballpark — tickets, parking, souvenirs, drinks, and hot dogs for four — now costs an average of $256/game, [per](https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2023/03/29/astros-ticket-prices) *Axios*. Plus, MLB will make [$400m+](https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-seatgeek-resale-deal-includes-181255763.html) through a newly inked ticketing partnership with SeatGeek. - **More money up their sleeves:** … Well, *on* their sleeves. Teams can now sell (grotesque) ad space on their uniforms. Deals for the (atrocious) sponsored patches [range](https://frontofficesports.com/mlb-jersey-patch-market-warming-up-reds-ink-deal/) from $5m to $17m per year. #### **Not all fun and ballgames** America’s pastime remains a lucrative business, but MLB has lost its throne to the NFL (and its [~$19B](https://www.sportico.com/leagues/football/2023/nfl-revenue-whats-next-1234708609/) in revenue). And there are plenty of other threats to baseball’s finances: - Attendance has dropped for nine straight seasons (excluding 2020). To bring live audiences back, MLB is debuting [three new rules](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/27/sports/baseball/rob-manfred-mlb-new-rules.html) this season to make games faster and more action-packed — and they hired Nike’s famed ad firm Wieden+Kennedy to tell the story. - Diamond Sports Group, broadcasting partner for 14 MLB teams, filed for bankruptcy this month. Diamond’s uncertainty looms large — regional TV deals comprise ~20% of teams’ revenue, [per](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35864012/rsns-diamond-sports-group-bankruptcy-bally-blackouts-mlb-tv) *ESPN*. Oh, and have we mentioned yet how ugly those jersey patches are? 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