Latest news with #BruceMeyer
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
So You Bought a Fancy Vintage Car. Now Who's Going to Restore it?
Mike Regalia knows exactly where he was when he heard Elvis Presley had died: deep into restoring a Shelby 289 Cobra for Bruce Meyer, the Beverly Hills real estate scion and prominent collector who today owns swaths of Rodeo Drive. 'I had stripped it to bare metal, welded up a bunch of cracks and was in the booth painting it,' says Regalia, who spent months in 1977 getting the roadster from an unfortunate salmon-y hue to an arresting red, among other refurbishments. He heard the announcement about The King of Rock and Roll over the radio in his garage: 'I'll never forget it.'
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred 'pushes for salary cap'... but players are left skeptical
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is meeting directly with players to push for a salary cap, according to a union official who warns membership is showing 'the right amount of skepticism' over the notoriously contentious issue. 'It's kind of continuation of a pattern which has gone on for decades, which is, the other side… tries to go directly to players, tries to create divisions between players,' Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) deputy director Bruce Meyer told Foul Territory. 'The league and some of the individual owners have made no secret that they would like to see a system that they tried to get for 50 years, which is a salary-cap system.' The 1994-95 MLB strike that cost fans the 1994 World Series was fought over the same issue. Owners tried to play the 1995 season with replacement players, only to reach an agreement with the union on a new labor deal void of any salary cap. Since then, the two sides have worked out five collective bargaining agreements, most recently in 2022. That deal is set to expire on December 1, 2026. Currently MLB is the only major American sports league without some form of a salary cap. The NFL and NHL both have hard salary caps, while the NBA has a soft-salary cap that allows for a variety of exceptions. Manfred has been speaking to individual teams for the third consecutive season in an effort to convince players to make major changes to the sport's economic landscape, according to The Athletic. 'The pitch is like, 'Hey, this is really good for the players,' Meyer said. 'One of the things players immediately seize on is, 'Well, if this is so good for us, then why are they pushing it so hard? Why do they want it so desperately? Why did the other leagues lock out players to get it?' 'Guys immediately understand that the reason they want that system is not because they want to pay players more.' Manfred isn't publicly demanding a salary cap, but he hasn't exactly dismissed the idea either. After the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Shohei Ohtani a backloaded $700 million deal en route to last year's World Series crown, Manfred acknowledged 'there are fans in other markets who are concerned about their teams' ability to compete.' 'This is an issue that we need to be vigilant on,' Manfred said. 'We need to pay attention to it, and we need to determine whether there are things that can be done to allay those kinds of concerns and make sure we have a competitive and healthy game going forward.' This season the Dodgers have an MLB-high $408 million payroll, while the Miami Marlins rank last at $86 million. What's more, the league's 15 largest markets have won each of the last nine World Series titles, while a true 'small market' hasn't won the Commissioner's Trophy since the Kansas City Royals in 2015. But that discrepancy notwithstanding, Meyer told Foul Territory that baseball's recent labor deals have allowed for competitive balance, even as some teams ostensibly refuse to spend. 'I think the whole premise is wrong,' Meyer said. 'Baseball hasn't had a repeat winner in 26 years. To fans in small markets, I would say, look, competition is crucial for us, crucial for players. Our market system that we have, it's not perfect by any means, but it relies on competition. 'To the extent we have teams that are unwilling to compete, it's not because the Dodgers went out and signed some players. That doesn't explain why the Pittsburgh Pirates, for example, don't go out and spend money.' The players, meanwhile, still want the owners to accept a salary floor to encourage MLB's famous penny pinchers like the Pirates to spend on free agents. Of course, owners would obviously oppose a floor without the addition of a cap as well. Despite this, Meyer remains optimistic there won't be any games missed due to a work stoppage. 'I think we got reasonable people on both sides, hopefully,' Meyer said. 'I don't think it's in the economic interest of the owners, or the game, to shut down the game. They're making lots of money.' MLB revenue hit a record $12.1 billion in 2024, which is up from $11.6 billion a year earlier.
New York Times
10-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Rob Manfred is pushing for salary cap and players are skeptical, union official says
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred recently outlined his plans to convince players to make big changes to the sport's economics. On Tuesday, Bruce Meyer, the second-in-command at the Major League Baseball Players Association, said Manfred is trying to push for a salary cap, and that players in turn bear 'the right amount of skepticism.' Advertisement This is the third straight year Manfred has held meetings with each team. 'It's kind of continuation of a pattern which has gone on for decades, which is, the other side … tries to go directly to players, tries to create divisions between players,' said Meyer, the MLBPA's deputy director, on the television show Foul Territory. 'The league and some of the individual owners have made no secret that they would like to see a system that they tried to get for 50 years, which is a salary-cap system.' MLB's labor deal expires in December 2026. Baseball is the only major North American sport that does not have a salary cap, and the owners' push for one was central to the 1994-95 strike, which led to the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. The owners have proposed a cap or something similar at least five times going back to the 1970s, Meyer said, and another such proposal appears likely when bargaining begins this round. Manfred has said the owners have not yet chosen a course of action, but the arguments he makes to players seem tailored to a cap. 'The pitch is like, 'Hey, this is really good for the players,'' Meyer said. 'One of the things players immediately seize on is, 'Well, if this is so good for us, then why are they pushing it so hard? Why do they want it so desperately? Why did the other leagues lock out players to get it?' 'Guys immediately understand that the reason they want that system is not because they want to pay players more.' Manfred has continuously expressed concern over the way fans perceive the difference in revenues in the sport. The Los Angeles Dodgers have a payroll that will cost them a projected $408 million in 2025, per Cot's Contracts, an all-time high for the game. On the low end this season, the Miami Marlins come in at $86 million. 'I think the whole premise is wrong,' Meyer said on Foul Territory. 'Baseball hasn't had a repeat winner in 26 years. To fans in small markets, I would say, look, competition is crucial for us, crucial for players. Our market system that we have, it's not perfect by any means, but it relies on competition. Advertisement 'To the extent we have teams that are unwilling to compete, it's not because the Dodgers went out and signed some players. That doesn't explain why the Pittsburgh Pirates, for example, don't go out and spend money.' By market size, no bottom-15 team has won a World Series since the Kansas City Royals in 2015. Baseball's playoff system is something of a crapshoot, however, making World Series victories an incomplete gauge. 'There are things you can do to incentivize teams to spend,' Meyer said. 'Last time in bargaining, we proposed numerous changes to the revenue-sharing system. We said, 'Look, it doesn't make sense right now. You're giving all this money to certain teams and they're not spending it and they're basically putting the money away.' And what we heard from the league was, 'We don't disagree on some of these things, but we can't change it. We won't change it.'' Players want a salary floor, but owners are not going to give up a floor without a cap, which is 'really the opposite of competition,' Meyer said. 'It really is a form of collusion,' he continued. 'Nobody can compete to put the best team on the field on any given day.' One of Manfred's four points to players is that other major sports have a signing deadline, and therefore, more exciting free-agency periods. But cap systems would also likely bring less obvious changes that would be harmful to players, Meyer said. Baseball players have individual guaranteed contracts. 'You really can't have them in the cap systems the way our players have them,' he said. 'In football this is most obvious. Every free-agent period is like a bloodbath. They're cutting players, players at all levels — Pro Bowl players, middle-class players — to try and squeeze in a salary for a quarterback. Even the quarterbacks, they go to continuously and say, 'Well, would you take less so we could sign this guy?''' Advertisement Meyer said that escrow in basketball and hockey is significant because it also means pay in those sports is not guaranteed. The union has been holding its own set of meetings with players. Meyer and the rest of the union leadership regularly visit every team during spring training, and during this season, they are holding lunches where they discuss collective bargaining. Meyer suggested there's an irony to Manfred's meetings with players. 'I've run into owners at games and things, and when I introduce myself, they literally say, 'We're not allowed to talk to you,'' Meyer said. 'I think they get fined. … They're apparently afraid of their owners talking to us individually.' While the players' union does not operate its own television station the way the commissioner's office does MLB Network, the MLBPA has had a financial relationship with the network Meyer appeared on. Foul Territory is part of Make Plays Media, a company the MLBPA paid $207,500 to in 2024 for what's listed as 'media services,' per the union's annual financial filing. Since the 1994-95 strike ended, baseball had not entered a work stoppage until owners locked out the players in 2021. Spring training was delayed in 2022, but a new deal was reached that March without any games being missed. Manfred has said multiple times that offseason lockouts are a norm in professional sports, a point the union has taken to mean a lockout in baseball is a foregone conclusion come December 2026. 'What are we doing then for the months before that, when we're supposedly bargaining in good faith, if a lockout is a sure thing?' Meyer asked on the program. If there is another lockout, the key question will be the same as last time: are any games missed? 'I think we got reasonable people on both sides, hopefully,' Meyer said. 'I don't think it's in the economic interest of the owners, or the game, to shut down the game. They're making lots of money.' (Photo of Meyer: AP Photo / Richard Drew)
