Baseball union head criticizes MLB salary cap ad campaign, says claims of economic woe are perverse

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The head of baseball’s players’ union chastised management on Tuesday for its advertising campaign in support of a salary cap.

Bruce Meyer, who took over when Tony Clark was forced out in February, said the sport was thriving.

“The supposed stewards of the game have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince those same fans that they don’t have hope or they shouldn’t have hope or that the product that they’re paying to consume in record numbers is somehow broken,” he said. “I think it’s perverse.”

Attendance has averaged 29,230 this season, up 1.2% from 28,895 through similar dates last year. MLB is on pace for its highest attendance since 2017.

Management in May proposed a salary cap system, which players say they will never accept. MLB’s “Level the Field” campaign claims fans support a salary cap, a system baseball players have long rejected.

“I believe that this system is bad for players and would be for generations to come,” Meyer said.

Baseball’s five-year labor contract expires Dec. 1 and management is expected to immediately start a lockout, the sport’s 10th work stoppage since 1972. No games have been lost since a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 caused the World Series to be canceled for the first in 90 years.

“Teams in every market across the league can afford to compete,” Meyer said. “Many of them are choosing not to.”

Meyer said unions for players in the NFL, NBA and NHL agreed to caps under duress.

“In one way or other they were broken or forced into it,” he said.

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