European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 22, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday. September 22, 1994 sports the stars and stripes Page 29 exemption pm Sybil Falk legally it no longer makes any sense if it Ever , illogical and inconsistent the supreme court called major league baseball s antitrust exemption three decades after conferring it. In practice the exemption has endowed baseball s owners with a hallowed status shielding them from competitive and Legal pressures faced by All other american businesses. It s the exemption economists and antitrust expert say that emboldened owners to threaten to impose a salary Cap on players salaries after the 1994 season As Suring a players strike and the season s destruction. It s the exemption that has helped baseball to de Mand Chicago and Milwaukee and new York and Host of other cities spend hundreds of millions of tax payers dollars to renovate or rebuild their stadiums. And it s the exemption that has permitted owners to Black out local games during National telecasts and pre vent a fan in one state say a Yankee fan in Massachusetts or a dodger fan in Brooklyn from buying Cable Access to. His favorite team s games. Legally the exemption is an anomaly concedes Bud Selig baseball s acting commissioner. The supreme court created the anomaly in 1922, ruling in the Case of Federal baseball that baseball was not involved in interstate Commerce. That of course was a time when National to contracts player salaries of $7 million a Yea Rand total revenues of $2 billion were All unimaginable. Most economists and Law experts Long ago conclude the exemption s time should have come and gone along with prohibition. Adequate justification does not exist for baseball s special exemption from antitrust Laws a special congressional committee concluded in 1976."its exemption should be  Why does baseball s antitrust exemption re main Why have members of Congress tried a dozen times since world War ii to lift the exemption and each time failed even to get a Bill out of committee fear. And political pressure. Each time the threat of removing its unique shield has been renewed baseball has raised the Specter of catastrophic consequences. Remove antitrust base Ball s lobbyists have argued in Congress and the National pastime would collapse into chaos. In the Nightmare scenario constructed by baseball the owners right to veto franchise moves would Beta Ken away and teams would Migrate from City to City like nomads. The minor leagues would collapse. Lawsuits would Spring up like weeds in Centerfield. Even the possibility of being held responsible for the disappearance of major league arid minor league teams has been enough to frighten away most  s a great scare tactic said a staff member of the Senate judiciary committee which along with its chair Man sen. Howard Metzenbaum a Ohio has held sever Al hearings on the exemption in recent Vears. The owners come in Here and say on election Day people will re member that you killed off their baseball team " but would baseball really be radically transformed if the exemption were removed would fans weep alongside Jerry Reinsdorf and Bud Selig and Georg Steinbrenner not skely says Paul Weiler a Harvard Law professor who specializes in sports Law. Not Likely says Fay Vin cent the game s last real commissioner. Not Likely say Many economists Legal experts and other observers of the sport who be studied the exemption and the consequences of its removal. _ i think there is Little question that fans would Bene fit from lifting the exemption especially if antitrust Law were used aggressively Weiler said. For the firs time what the owners did on such matters As Market ing Cable to and expansion would be subject to scrutiny in the  Vincent who resigned under pressure As commissioner two years ago says the doomsday scenarios of his former employers Are just so much rhetoric. Basketball and football Are doing just Fine without an anti Trust exemption Vincent said. It s Good for baseball to have it. I Don t think it s  unlike baseball owners in other pro sports know that unions potential competitors and angry customer scan always Challenge their actions under antitrust Law. Nil players did just that several years ago and got rid of the plan b free Agency system imposed by owners this antitrust experts say provides a Check on arro Gance As Well As a powerful incentive to bargain for Union approval for changes owners seek. What would happen if the exemption were lifted nothing at first. Owners would simply be More vulnerable to Legal at tacks on practices designed to limit Normal free mar Ket Competition. Over time courts would decide what aspects of baseball s operations Are intolerably anti analysis juiced Ball exemption competitive and which Are not. That s Why it s impossible to predict precisely what changes would occur. But most knowledgeable observe ers say the owners predictions of catastrophe  be fulfilled. And they say lifting the exemption would almost invariably Lead to changes most fan would embrace. Among the Likely results fewer strikes and lockouts in the future. Removal of the exemption a pen t guarantee baseball would t continue to suffer labor management strife. Other sports have strikes and lockouts too. But with eight lockouts and strikes in the past 22 years baseball the Only sport with an exemption by far has had the most bitter collisions Between players and  experts say there s a direct connection there lifting the exemption would have a major Impact on labor relations said Andrew Zimbalist an economist at Smith College who distilled a two year study of baseball into the Book baseball and billions a probing look in Side the big business of our National  the threat of successful lawsuits would provide More incentive for the owners to act reason ably. Especially because under antitrust Law a guilt party is responsible for triple damages. It might hum ble them Zimbalist said. Weiler agrees. You d have More lawsuits but  an end to owners blackmailing Host cities int using hundreds of millions of taxpayers dollars to build or renovate their stadiums. In the past several years the Chicago White sox Cleveland indians san Francisco giants and Seattle mariners have All threatened to move to Sun Belt Cit ies. Some of these teams have won huge concessions from Host cities including Reinsdorf s White sox who were Given $150 million for a new stadium a. City paid buyout of homeowners at the new site a $2 million an Nual subsidy of the team and a guarantee that if Atten dance Falls below 1.5 million annually the taxpayers will buy 300,000 tickets a year. Teams can get these kind of sweetheart deals Zimbalist said because baseball now pits cities against each other creating a constant and frantic Competition to please owners. But without its exemption baseball would have to marry off prospective mistresses like Tampa St. Petersburg and Phoenix to expansion franchises. And it would have to happen quickly. Why because without expansion courts would Al most certainly find that owners have deliberately and artificially limited the number of franchises. The Case for that Legal experts say is Strong despite complaint that it has watered Down its product baseball has expanded More slowly than any other major sport. Lifting the exemption would result in expansion absolutely Weiler said. With major markets filled owners could no longer convincingly threaten to leave town. The Downside a further thinning of available Talent. But advocates of lifting the exemption argue that de spite grumbling among fans each time baseball has expanded expansion has always boosted not Hurt base Ball s Overall popularity. In fact before the strike baseball was setting attendance records just As it has every year after expansion. More television options. To enhance the value fits National to contracts baseball also strictly controls How teams televise their games to local audiences teams Are prohibited from intruding into other teams territories. ,.,Such limitations might be subject to a successful Challenge said Roger Abrams Dean of the Rutgers school of Law in Newark who teaches a course in sports Law. -.-. A successful Challenge of the minor league Reserve clause and the current draft. Currently baseball drafts players of of High school and College and ties them up for seven years. Except for the very top layer of picks these major league hopefuls have virtually no bargain ing Power which is Why the average minor leaguer is paid about $10,000. Baseball argues that altering or removing in seven year Reserve period or increasing minor leagues salaries would Force teams to Cut Way Back on the num Ber of minor league teams and players depriving Small towns of Access to professional baseball. A lot of communities that have minor league teams would lose them said Stanley Brand vice president of the National association of professional baseball leagues the minors governing body. I but antitrust experts say courts almost certainly would find justification in a modified Reserve system of minor leagues. And even if costs of running these teams in creased major league baseball would have no Choice but to pay the Price. Teams could not survive without a farm. System. You d see some Rookie league and single a teams fold but most of the triple a and double a team would survive said Miles Wolf publisher of the minor league Magazine baseball  and the founder of the Independent Northern league. A constant threat of a new league forming if own ers treat baseball s customers too arrogantly. Of All sports Only baseball has t seen a rival league Spring up since world War ii. The exemption has a lot to do with that particularly since it has enabled baseball to tie up almost All the Young Talent from the Day player graduate from High school. So will Congress once again discuss lifting the exemption and then run the other Way if the current strike goes into the 1995 season congressional supporters of lifting the exemption say pressure May build on formerly fearful colleagues. Weiler. Who has tracked the Legal and eco nomic history of All the major sports agrees. New Day