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According to an item in Sports Business Journal, Bud Selig is the highest paid sports commissioner, pulling in over $18 million during fiscal year 2007. That’s a 22 percent increase from the previous year.
The PTI wags wondered if this figure was appropriate and decided it was, since baseball set an all-time attendance high. But what specifically does Selig do? He certainly doesn’t drive in any runs or throw any no-hitters. If baseball is so concerned about keeping costs down in this economy, they might start at the top.
There are a couple of two books I recommend dealing with the role of baseball commissioner. The late sportswriter Jerome Holtzman published The Commissioners: Baseball’s Midlife Crisis (Total Sports, 1998). More recently Andrew Zimbalist, baseball’s de facto economist, wrote In the Best Interests of Baseball: The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig (Wiley 2006). I’m reading the latter right now and it also gives a good overview of the Commissioner system, which began in 1920 after the Black Sox World Series scandal the year before. Zimbalist, by the way, was an adviser to the defunct Israel Baseball League.
And in case your wondering:
Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, $11.2 million
David Stern, NBA, $10.5 million
Gary Bettman, NHL, $5.59 million
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