We all know the Dodgers have the best local TV deal in sports. 25 years. $8.35 billion. Average annual payments of $334 million. That’s an absurd amount of money, especially as regional sports networks across the country file for bankruptcy and some teams effectively now receive $0 for their local TV rights.
But that’s not all. When the Dodgers were bought out of bankruptcy court in 2012 for a record $2 billion, MLB set the annual value of the team’s local TV rights at $84 million. That means when the Dodgers later sold their local media rights for $334 million per year, MLB was legally required to stop collecting revenue-share payments above $84 million. Or, in other words, the Dodgers signed a better deal than MLB thought they could get and, in the process, shielded hundreds of millions of dollars in annual income from the league’s revenue-sharing system.
MLB and the Dodgers later came to a new agreement that set the floor at around $130 million per year. But you get the point. Because MLB takes 48% of each team’s local revenue and redistributes it to other teams, the Dodgers will pocket billions in additional revenue that should have been subject to revenue sharing.
This deal alone is the biggest reason why the Dodgers have dominated baseball over the last few years. It’s simple math. If the Dodgers have hundreds of millions more than other teams coming in the door every year, which they do, they can spend more money on player salaries, upgraded facilities, and a larger analytics staff. The Dodgers do all three and have won back-to-back World Series titles.
But what if I told you the Dodgers TV deal is somehow even better than that? Or, even crazier, what if thousands of everyday Americans who invested money in retirement products have been secretly funding the team’s television network?
Well, that’s exactly what is happening…and there is a paper trail to prove it.
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