Many people have wondered why New Jersey doesn’t have its own Major League Baseball team. After all, the residents of New Jersey would most likely love to have a team there, and the state leadership would be more than happy to support it. In fact, the state even has the three main components that are nearly essential to owning and operating a successful MLB franchise. So why doesn’t New Jersey have a team? As it turns out, a Supreme Court Ruling from 1922 might be to blame.
The Perfect Storm
There are three things you need, three elements that have to be in place in order to host a successful MLB franchise. First, you have to make sure that the local and state political leadership is on board. As anyone who has ever tried to build anything knows, you have to have permits for just about everything. Permits and permissions come from the government, so if the government isn’t on board, there’s no deal. Fortunately for northern New Jersey, the state and local government seems more than willing to host and support an MLB franchise.
Secondly, you have to have a cable television outlet willing to show and promote the games. Since the Madison Square Garden Network lost the Yankees and the Mets when the two franchises started up a new local sports network, and they could use a summer programming option like Major League Baseball, there’s likely a billion dollars available for anyone who would want to set up a team. This means that storm number two, a willing and able cable network participant, is taken care of, as well.
Finally, you need corporate support in your location to run a successful MLB franchise. At first, this seemed like an issue, but since 2000 it has been clear that corporate support for a baseball team in northern New Jersey is available. And professionals, like Kevin Kerekes in NJ, know first-hand that business owners in the area would be more than happy for the revenue a MLB team brings. So what’s the hang up?
It’s Just a Game
According to Supreme Court Ruling 259 U.S. 200 (1922), there’s no such thing as a monopoly in baseball, because baseball is a game and not a business. That might seem like a shock to most people today, seeing as baseball is one of the most commercialized sporting endeavors in the world. With players earning millions of dollars, contracts being made, and players being traded (and often treated) like employees, it might seem like a no-brainer that baseball is, in fact, a business. But since nothing has changed about the law since 1922, it still stands that baseball team owners can do whatever they want to do, and they don’t have to allow competition into their locations. So, since New York already has several MLB teams, and other teams in the region are in no rush to have competition for the MLB viewership, New Jersey will likely be stalled indefinitely from creating or adopting an MLB franchise.
Yes, as it turns out, New Jersey may very well be blocked from having a MLB team simply because the surrounding teams don’t want them to. And according to the 1922 law, that sort of monopoly and suppression of competition is completely valid because baseball is not a business. Until a reversal of or update to that law occurs, it’s likely that New Jersey will be teamless for the foreseeable future.
Peter Miles writes about investments, real estate, and baseball. Spending time as a consultant, he’s now retired offering information in blog form from his home in Maine.