Lots going on in the sports world.

NBA and NHL playoff races, MLB starting, March Madness finishing, The Masters next week. It’s hard to keep track of it all. Luckily there’s us.

In this edition, we have:

⚾️🤑📉 Which MLB owners are good people?
🥊🏒📈 Fighting is back in hockey
☀️🏀🌕 Solar eclipse effects on March Madness

LEARNING MODULE 💡 

Choose your own adventure ⚾️

This baseball season snuck up on us.

While we were talking about P Diddy, Taylor Swift’s new billionaire status, and the solar eclipse, MLB Opening Day tapped us on the shoulder 👋 to remind us of the real American pastime.

If you decide to enjoy a hot dog and $18 beer at your local ballgame this season - and we hope you do - we’re here to equip you with back-pocket knowledge about the league. ⬇️

Economics in the MLB look a lot different than other leagues

In the NFL and NBA, sharing is caring. Big chunks of revenue come from national media split evenly across all teams and everyone is happy. 🤗

Those leagues, along with the NHL, have salary caps that limit each team’s spend on players. It’s meant to even the playing field in leagues, ensuring every team has a fighting chance of winning.

The MLB is different.

Baseball is an “eat what you kill” situation. 🥩 There are no salary caps, little shared revenue between teams, and ample opportunity for different money-making strategies to flourish.

It also leads to larger disparities in operating income at the end of the year ⬇️

Digging deeper into how different ownership strategies can play out, let’s look at the New York Yankees and the Oakland Athletics.

New York Yankees - 2023

📈 MLB’s most valuable team at $7.55B
📈 Spent $279M on player contracts
📈 Own their own television network (YES networks)
📈 Made $679M in revenue
🤔 Operating income of $2M

It seems like a lot of big numbers just to have an operating income of only $2M, right?

Heaven forbid the biggest, most storied baseball franchise representative of American capitalism is a non-profit?!

The Yankees spend boatloads of money 💰 on player contracts and fan experience to build their brand and chase championships instead of turning a big profit year over year. It’s an honorable endeavor by the owner that lifts the entire game of baseball. 🏋️

Oakland Athletics - 2023

📉 MLB’s second least valuable team at $1.2B
📉 Spent only $62M on player contracts last year
📉 Made $241M in revenue in 2023
🤔 Operating loss of $11M

Only an $11M loss? While the team garners just one-third of the Yankees’ revenue, they also spend 78% less than the Bronx Bombers on players, allowing them to break even and turn a profit some years.

This practice of spending less and squeezing a team for profits is called Moneyball - made famous by Brad Pitt’s jawline - and it may sound nice to Mckinsey consultants 💼 but in the real world, it’s the fans that suffer.

In a situation such as Oakland’s, fans have turned their back on the franchise that turned its back on them, only filling less than 20% of the stadium on average each game.

Next time you’re at a baseball game, take a moment to look around. 👀 Is the food good? Are the bathrooms upgraded? Do you know a single player on the team?

The answer to those questions should give a sense of ownership strategies and what the people up top are prioritizing.

QUICK BITES ⏮

🏒🏆📊 The race is on

The NHL regular season ends in 2 weeks and we officially have a playoff race underway.

7 teams are currently fighting for one remaining Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference and the remaining 5-6 games have huge implications.

This data visualization from Moneypuck shows the odds of each team making it through the playoffs.

🏒🥊🔺 Gotta bump those numbers up

Hockey's fights-per-game stats got a bump this week, all thanks to the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. The teams got off to a hot start, kicking off their Wednesday game with not one, not two, but five full-on brawls. 🥊

Back in the day, these "line brawls" were the NHL's bread and butter, especially when arch-nemeses clashed on the ice. 

But times have changed, and the gloves have stayed on. As the SportsBall Vault reveals, this week's throwdown was a blast from the past. ⬇️

🏀☀️🌖 Baller (solar) eclipse

Both the Men's and Women’s Final Fours are set.

⛹️ M: Uconn | NC State | Alabama | Purdue
⛹️‍♀️ W: Uconn | NC State | South Carolina | Iowa

In the world of college hoops, seeing one school's duo of men's and women's teams winning their way to the Final Four is a rare sight. 👯 

Two schools pulling off this feat? It’s never happened before.

The last time even a single school eclipsed the Final Four like this was in 2017 as South Carolina made it with both teams, the same year as the last full solar eclipse… Coincidence? 🧐 I think not.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK 🏆

🏀 Caitlin Clark

It seems like every week Caitlin Clark is breaking records and here we are again. 🔁

Caitlin's 41 points against rival Angel Reese and LSU in the Elite 8 was a historic night as it garnered 12.3 million viewers, setting records not only for a Women’s basketball game but American sports in general.

THIS NEXT WEEK ⏭

⛹️ March Madness - Men’s Final 4

NC State vs. Purdue - Saturday 3:09 PM PST
Alabama vs. Uconn - Saturday 5:49 PM PST

Championship Game - Monday time TBD

⛹️‍♀️ March Madness - Women’s Final 4

NC State vs. South Carolina - Friday 4:00 PM PST
Uconn vs. Iowa - Saturday 6:30 PM PST

Championship Game - Sunday time TBD

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

— Claire and Riley