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Comment on “A Business Analysis of A sian Baseball Leagues”

2016; Wiley; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/aepr.12122

1832-8105

Takanobu Nakajima,

American Sports and Literature

The purpose of Jang and Lee (2016) is to make a comparison of the baseball business environment among American Major League Baseball (MLB), Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), and KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) and to derive some policy implications for the future development of the Asian baseball business. Table 1 provides a summary of the results of Jang and Lee's comparison. The fundamental difference between MLB and NPB/KBO is in the governance system. This factor leads to a difference in their objectives: MLB tries to maximize profits as much as possible and share them among its member teams, whereas NPB/KBO attach great importance to winning to maintain the parent company's brand image. Jang and Lee derive six policy implications. First, NPB and KBO should shift their objectives from winning to profit maximization. Second, NPB and KBO should enhance their “competitive balance” by introducing a salary cap, luxury tax, and draft system as exists in MLB. Third, KBO should increase fan loyalty through international competitions like WBC and the Olympic Games. Fourth, when considering the risk of players moving to MLB, no excess apprehension is needed about the outflow of star players from NPB and KBO to MLB. Fifth, NPB and KBO teams should become business units that are more independent of their parent companies. Sixth, it is beneficial to create an international competition within the Northeast Asian leagues. Jang and Lee's proposals for the future development of NPB/KBO are substantial and worth listening to. However, considering the uniqueness of the Japanese baseball industry, there are some obstacles to realizing Jang and Lee's proposals in the following senses. First, NPB puts priority on each team's (and its parent company's) optimization over the success of the entire baseball business. The commissioner is a mere figurehead and has no power to coordinate the team's interests for overall optimization. Namiki (2013) provides comprehensive explanations of the problems that NPB currently holds. Second, NPB could expand fandom by utilizing the Internet, although the two leading Central League teams (the Yomiuri Giants and Chunichi Dragons) are subsidiaries of large newspaper companies that are cautious about the invasion of the Internet to news business. In particular, the Giants, which has the longest history and is the most influential team in NPB, is too conservative to change the current business model. Third, a close relationship between a youth league and professional baseball organizations is absolutely necessary for the development of the baseball business. In Japan, however, the youth league basically belongs to Japan High School Baseball (JHSB) Federation, which is managed independently from NPB. The principle of JHSB is not to make profits, but to cultivate sportsmanship as part of education.1 Finally, Japan will experience a serious shrinkage of its population and an aging society. It is almost hopeless to attract more talented youngsters to baseball over the plethora of other sports. The baseball business will become one of the declining industries in Japan and will need to make serious efforts to attract fans. The key factor to effectively realize Jang and Lee's policy proposals is the cooperation of the teams over each team's profit in the short run. The current Japanese baseball business, however, is just hotchpotch of the king of the castle. It is strongly recommended that the organization of the NPB be reconstructed to one with powerful leadership to consider the total optimization.