Fed governor on Anti-Trust exemption

[southsider2k5]

Major league baseball's long-standing exemption from federal antitrust regulation has no reasonable basis, Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Governor Edward Gramlich said on Friday.

 

 

 

"Let me say, first off, loud and clear, that I agree that there is no logical argument for baseball's antitrust exemption, especially since the other pro sports do not have it," Gramlich said during a panel discussion of the sport sponsored by the centrist Brookings Institution.

 

 

The discussion was held to mark the publication of a new book on baseball economics written by noted Smith College professor Andrew Zimbalist and published by Brookings.

 

 

Prior to joining the Fed in 1997, Gramlich was a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan and in 1992 served as staff director for an economic study on major league baseball.

 

 

Gramlich said he was puzzled that pro baseball's exemption from competition, unique among major sports that have in the past seen competing leagues, had not made it much different in terms of competitive balance, the number of teams or the ability to move franchises between cities.

 

 

"I strongly agree with (Zimbalist) that the antitrust exemption should go, but if it goes, short of going all the way to competitive leagues, which we don't have in any sport, how will baseball be any different from football, basketball or hockey?" he asked.

 

 

Gramlich also dismissed much of the economic benefit analysis used to build local support for bids for major league franchises.

 

 

"This analysis ignores just about every basic economic postulate that it's possible to ignore," he said.

 

 

But he said there was a valid interest in cities keeping a franchise.

 

 

"Imagine Boston without the Red Sox. Imagine Chicago without the Cubs. What would these people talk about?" he said.

[LDF]

so what can possibly happen now?

[mreye]

"Imagine Boston without the Red Sox. Imagine Chicago without the Cubs. What would these people talk about?" he said.

 

Huh? I guess we would all just become a bunch of deaf-mutes without the Cubs?

[Chisoxfn]

I've always been of the belief that MLB should forget about it. That way they could have teams that go under simply file bankrupcy instead of have to deal with all the stuff they would now.

 

It would be much easier if a team wasn't sucessful and lost a ton of money and the owner couldn't pay the bills, for them to simply file for bankrupcy and close the doors without players permission and my understanding is they could do this.