Minor League Clubs file suit claiming MLB conspiracy to scrap clubs

It has been a very long time (at least 45 years) since I read this, but I think I recall that the Supreme Court case was decided based upon the fact that organized baseball came before anti trust laws were established. Baseball was grandfathered out of the requirements in question in that case. Hope somebody can correct me if that is not right, my memory is not what it once was.

 

That would make sense.

 

IIRC MLB made the move due to financials. The benefits of having extra minor teams did not justify the costs.

 

Not saying it does not make sense but did all monopolies get grandfathered in?

It seems the antitrust laws broke up a lot of companies if I remember correctly like Standard Oil and the Steel monopoly.

 

They did. NBA limits the number of players to affiliate contracts and two-way contracts as well. If there were no restrictions imposed by the NBA, some teams would have a lot of players on non-NBA deals developing them for themselves to try to gain a small edge. Though, if everyone did that, it would just drive up costs without noticeably impacting the NBA product.

Almost everything the sports league offices do is anti-competitive and for the benefit of the teams in the league.

 

Salary caps and max contracts are anti competitive. Ownership jointly negotiating with player unions is anti competitive.

 

That doesn't make it illegal though. It's not like the law says "anything anti-competitive is forbidden".

 

I think it has to be unreasonable. Salary caps and max contracts would be unreasonable if not collectively bargained.

 

There is a lot of incentive for the players to maintain the status quo regarding ownership jointly negotiating. States have vastly different laws that strengthen or weaken union positions in negotiations. Many right to work states could wind up with no union at all. Overall membership would be reduced dramatically, leaving players unions with less funding and leverage in all states. Although I would be for it the players union would certainly not be.

 

Fun Fact: way back when baseball was granted the antitrust exemption, it was largely due to the judgement of the courts that the business of baseball did not constitute interstate traffic.

 

How many World Series would the Astros need to win in a row to back up traffic to Louisiana?