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Jim VBThe entire difference between MLB and the NFL is Television revenue. Football had little or no money for years and when Rozelle negotiated it, the league handled negotiations, collection, and distribution. Every team get the same %, so it's pretty easy to set a uniform salary cap.
Baseball has had TV money in it for years and it has always been done through the individual teams. Like everything else in life, some do it way better than others. Big markets have some advantage but it's more than just that. The Yankees, the Braves, the Cubs, the Red Sox and more recently, the Mets have built a regional and/or national brand that commands more money from advertisers. The Yankees were smart enough to start their own network so they get even more. The teams that have bumbling management in the front office have screwed up TV just as badly as they have player personel.
Dallas is a top 5 media market, yet they have screwed up their TV revenue as badly as they have the team. St. Louis is only the #21 TV market, yet they manage to field a competitive team every year.
Hell, the Yankees have huge TV revenue as we mentioned, and they haven't won a World Series in years.
You can win from any size market with a good front office. True, the bigger have a better chance to be competitive every year, but they don't always win.
As it is, MLB forced a revenue sharing plan on the owners a few years ago. The Yankees pay a huge payroll tax. The small market teams that collect often pocket that money as profit rather than spend it on payroll. Kind of defeats the purpose. You'll never get the owners to agree to pooling the money and splitting it.