Luxury tax figures were released the other day. The Red Sox owe $6.06 million this year. The only other team that owes any money, is the New York Yankees, who owe $23.88 million.Since luxury tax was instated in 2003, only one other team, the Los Angeles Angels, has ever paid the tax. Over the years, the Angels have paid a total of $927,059, the Red Sox have paid a total of $13,860,000 and the Yankees have paid a total of $121,600,000 million.
It would appear that revenue sharing is working. There have there be seven different World Series winners in the last eight years. In addition, Major League Baseball hasn't seen a 100-game-winning team in two years, and it's seen only one 20-game-winning pitcher over that same time span.
Still, revenue sharing is clearly a flawed system. There need to be regulations as to how lower salary teams spend the money. Teams like the Florida Marlins get $30 million in revenue sharing, and an additional $30 million in shared profits from mlb.com. That's $60 million before you even factor in the money they make off of ticket sales and merchandising. Yet, the Marlins are expected to have a payroll which could be as low as $15 million next year.
