Bargaining and Power in Sports Contracts
This past winter, some of the largest sports contracts in history were signed by MLB players. One of the most exciting stories coming out of the baseball off-season was the signing of Bryce Harper to the Philadelphia Phillies with a $330 million dollar contract. This deal was announced relatively late in the off-season, which was surprising for such a talented and sought-after athlete. Bidding for the star player took much longer than expected because Harper was asking for an unusually long contract, considering his young age. He also, rightly so, wanted to get paid a large amount for his service to a team, and MLB owners had trouble negotiating away from long, expensive contracts which often do not end well for teams.
This contract negotiation in particular, and sports contract negotiations in general, are very closely related to the discussions of bargaining and power which we discussed in class. There is a large network of teams which Harper could negotiate with, while there are obviously many athletes which the teams can chose from to fill roles on the team. Teams, however, must also consider the abilities of the athletes who they sign as well as their potential to make money for the team. Harper, who is an above average player, does have one of the highest selling jerseys in baseball and continues to be one of the games biggest stars. Fans will want to come to games and spend money wherever Bryce Harper is playing, and so teams have to consider that does have some power in the contract negotiations. Because of the fact that there are not actually many players like Harper in the MLB, especially not in the free agent class of 2019, teams actually had less power than Harper when signing the contract. Although it took a long time, Harper understood his power in negotiations and was able to secure a contract which was favorable to him. His contract was the largest in sports history when he signed it, and gives him security in the MLB until he is almost 40 years old. This type of contract is very beneficial to the player at the potential sacrifice of the team, and so it can be clearly seen that Harper held more power in negotiations than the Phillies did when they signed the deal.