Revenue Sharing

There were a few snags--what would a baseball labor deal be without complications?--but no last-minute surprises in Dorado Beach, Puerto Rico, on Thursday. Baseball players, as expected, ratified the proposed labor deal, officially ending a bitter four-year battle with owners that forced cancellation of the 1994 World Series and led to more than $1 billion in losses for owners and players during the 232-day strike of 1994-95.

Major league baseball owners voted Thursday to provide financial assistance to their most needy clubs through an interim revenue-sharing plan that will begin this year if the players' union approves. Randy Levine, management's lead negotiator, presented it to the union as part of a collective bargaining proposal that contained significant new elements and seemed to move the sides significantly closer.

Despite continuing financial woes, county officials are planning to share sales tax revenues for the first time in history with a retail development, according to documents obtained by The Times. County officials, who wished to remain anonymous, said that tax breaks must be given to Newhall Land & Farming Co. to ensure that the county land on which the $80-million Valencia Marketplace mall is being built is not annexed by the city of Santa Clarita.

Major league baseball owners, in a two-day meeting beginning today in Phoenix, might vote on a revenue-sharing plan that would require large-revenue clubs to subsidize the less-fortunate clubs starting this season. Acting Commissioner Bud Selig said there will be a comprehensive discussion of revenue sharing but would not speculate on a vote.

Acres of empty seats are spreading like crab grass across the grandstands of America. Through Memorial Day, baseball ticket sales were running about 3.4 million less than for comparable dates last year. If each fan spends $20 on a ticket plus concessions, that's almost $70 million in losses. And the season is only one-fourth over. Most teams were already deep in red ink even before last year's strike.

Only 24 hours after a frustrated Bud Selig, the acting commissioner, withdrew from baseball's labor talks and an angry Jerry McMorris threatened to, the protracted process seemed to regain a degree of momentum on Friday. Resuming talks that appeared on the verge of collapse Thursday, union negotiators made a new series of suggestions in which they accepted the owners' revenue-sharing plan and expressed flexibility regarding the payroll level at which a luxury tax would be triggered.

Baseball talks teetered on the verge of collapse Thursday night, when several owners said they were leaving the bargaining table and contemplating bringing in hard-line negotiators. After a two-hour meeting with the union, acting Commissioner Bud Selig said he would return to Milwaukee later in the evening, but some management negotiators would remain. "We couldn't get around to talking about the luxury tax," Boston Red Sox Chief Executive Officer John Harrington said.

Exploiting a loophole in a deal struck with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a San Diego County Indian tribe has avoided paying the cash-strapped state $30 million in gambling profits. Voters in February allowed four tribes to expand their casino operations in exchange for a larger share of their revenues.

Chad Hurley, co-founder of YouTube Inc., said his wildly successful website would start sharing revenue with its millions of users. Hurley said one of the major proposed innovations was a way to allow users to be paid for content. San Bruno, Calif.-based YouTube, which was sold to Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc. for $1.65 billion in November, has become an Internet phenomenon since it began to catch on in late 2005. About 70 million videos are viewed on the site each day.

The New York Yankees failed to win the World Series again last season, for the sixth consecutive year. It was a great thing for baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals won, and yet another city shouted itself hoarse at an October victory parade. Perhaps autumn screams will be heard this year in Cleveland or Philadelphia, in Toronto or San Diego.