In this week’s column, California Sports Lawyer® CEO, Founder, and Managing Attorney Jeremy M. Evans writes about the Los Angeles Dodgers (MLB) spending and how other sports franchises can learn from them.
If smart spending wins baseball games, why are other teams not doing it?
You can read the full column below. (Past columns can be found, here).
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The biggest complaint against the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise is that the front office and ownership spend too much money to win games. The argument is that the Dodgers buy the best players by paying more than other teams. The claimed result is that because the Dodgers spend more money than other teams, they win more games.
This column will challenge the presumption or presupposition and argument that money wins games and furthermore that only big market teams have money to spend. History shows that a good balance of a farm system developing talent, spending money on system-developed talent and free agents, a strong front office, market, and lease or ownership with the venue are actually the most important factors to success on the field. Spending money without purpose or direction has never been a good business practice, in sports or life.
First, sponsorship revenues ($2 billion), viewership, and team values are at all time high across Major League Baseball (MLB) and the thirty franchises. Moreover, team revenues are at an all-time high. In looking at the chart at the link, it is apparent that 20/30 MLB teams spent less than half of their revenue on player salaries.
Second, what this means practically is that team ownership decided to collect profits on the team versus pushing to win by having better players. 66.7% of MLB teams spent less than half of revenues to get better as a franchise. The proof is in the results. The two teams in the 2025 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays, spent 73% and 71.5% of 2024 team revenues on 2025 payroll.
Third, from the twelve MLB teams that qualified for the 2025 postseason, ten spent at least 40.8% of revenue on payroll, while four spent at least 63.8% of team revenues. Only two teams that spent less than 40% of team revenues on payroll qualified for the 2025 postseason. The Athletics had the lowest revenue in baseball at $257 million, while the Dodgers had $752 million in revenue, but also paid $150 million in luxury tax going back to the money pool for other teams. The difference is that the Dodgers not only run a franchise that encourages fan excitement (e.g., revenue), but the ownership also reinvests profits into the team to win. The Dodgers spent 30% more of revenue than the Athletics and the results were apparent in 2025.
The argument that teams are without money lacks merit. Actually, a lack of MLB teams spending revenue on team payroll is the problem. Teams can also overspend (e.g., the New York Mets and San Diego Padres), which is a combination of spending on players that do not have success, luck, injuries, front office and roster management, but it is not for lack of trying. By comparison, the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), and MLB have the following revenue shares with the players: NBA (49-51%), NFL (48%), NHL (50%), and MLB (47%), but MLB is also paying for a well-established and robust minor league system that the NBA and NFL do not provide. MLB also does not have a salary cap, so league splitting revenues can be somewhat misleading for baseball. So again, if smart spending wins baseball games, why are other teams not doing it?
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About Jeremy M. Evans:
Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.
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