Major League Baseball got some good news on the financial front ahead of their All-Star Game, when credit benchmark company Fitch Ratings reaffirmed baseball’s ‘A’ status on the league’s $500 million senior secured credit facility. Fitch also affirmed the ‘A’ rating on the outstanding $995.85 million term notes the league is carrying. They rate MLB as “stable”.
While fans have looked at declining television ratings for Major League Baseball at the national level, baseball continues to be a financial juggernaut, and Fitch honed in on that.
As Brown notes, all of the things people say about baseball -- that the national ratings suck, that the demographics make the Republican Party membership look young, hip and vibrant and that the sport somehow no longer occupies a favored place in the national consciousness -- the fundamentals of the sport are still strong. It’s profitable, its TV deals are lucrative and attendance continues to be strong.
This is probably one of those deals, we’ll be told sometime soon, where the numbers don’t tell us everything and that, really, in every way that matters, the sport is indeed doomed. Wait for it. You know it’ll come.