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IPFS News Link • Entertainment: Sports

MLB Commissioner Says 2020 Baseball Season Will Likely Be Canceled Amid Labor Dispute

• Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden

alk about a bitter irony. During an ESPN program entitled "the Return of Sports", MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Monday evening that the league is on the verge of scrapping the 2020 MLB season, a 180-degree reversal from his promise made last Wednesday that a season would "100%" happen, even if players had to perform in empty stadiums to TV-only audiences.

WSJ explains that an increasingly fraught labor dispute between the league, the owners and the player's union has jeopardized an abbreviated 50-game season that had been set to start as soon as July 4th Weekend, getting a jump on other American sports. That jump could have maybe helped baseball recapture the interest of fans who have started to abandon the sport. Instead, the problem of how owners can profitably run a business without a critical pillar of revenue - ie ticket sales and sales of food, beverages and merchandise from live game attendfance - has reared its ugly head.

"The owners are 100% committed to getting baseball back on the field," Manfred said. "Unfortunately, I can't tell you that I'm 100% certain that's going to happen."


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