The Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance

CRYSTAL LAKE HERALD

SPORTS – GNATS NOW
GM Ermola's State of the League Finance Report
Updated: November 9th, 2028 – 8:30 PM

By Howard Heskin, Gnats Beat Writer and ESPN PEBA Correspondent – Twitter @HowardHeskin1

As Ed Castle stepped off the stage at today's press conference, RJ Ermola stepped up with his power point and excel overhead projections to talk about the health of the league's finances. The room was still filing out and everyone chatting as he started to discuss league revenue per fan and standard deviation of team expenses per seat. Only Duluth's GM remained with his green binder paying attention to every page and formula.

"Unfortunately PEBA gross revenue has fallen to its lowest in the last 5 years," as you could hear a pin drop in the room because everyone had left or that caught everyone's attention. "This year teams generated revenue of $4.442 Billion down from last year's revenues of $4.595 Billion. With expenses league wide jumping to $4.447 Billion from $3.364 Billion PEBA posted a net loss for the first time in 5 years. Now I am not so worried since it appears teams were out to spend the extra cash on hand from 2027's high profit of $731 Million over all."

With league revenue consistently falling the last 5 years, questions rise... Why is PEBA Expanding? Could the real reason be the league needs a cash infusion? Is that really a long term solution or just pushing back the inevitable decline? Will Media partners looking at a soon renegotiation of the 2024 media deal be attempting to pull some of their leverage knowing PEBA needs the money? Stadium size has been growing over the last couple of years in some markets. But those seats are empty? All these questions lead to yet another question.

Notably, for 2028 the highest revenue team honor has been taken from Shin Seiki with West Virginia taking the top spot at $262 Million in Gross Revenue. The Lowest again was Yuma with revenue dropping to a 5 year low of $107 Million. Greatest increase in revenue from 2027 to 2028 was Scottish with a gross revenue increase of $61.6 Million. The sharpest decline over last season was Duluth with a $93.7 Million decline in revenue. The biggest increase in spending was Scottish with gross expenses increasing by $74.5 Million and the team increasing expenses the least was Crystal Lake with a $29.2 Million decrease.

Neo Tokyo posted the greatest net profit before revenue sharing at $55.9 Million. The greatest loss was $75.1 Million by Duluth.

"Look for revenue to increase next season Ermola stated at the end of his speech. We have 2 new teams and the loop hole in our media agreement calls for them to get an equal share to what teams are currently receiving. That's a gross increase of $144.6 Million already on the books for the league!"

GM Ermola left a stack of excel print outs at the end of his conference and I attached on here to this article in case you love math.

Gotta love those contractual loopholes!

Great report, RJ. Not the sort of report I want to be on so many times! Devastating financial year for the Warriors...

At least Ricky got his green binder back.

Warriors wrote:Gotta love those contractual loopholes!

Great report, RJ. Not the sort of report I want to be on so many times! Devastating financial year for the Warriors...

At least Ricky got his green binder back.

I hear you man! Thanks!

Sandgnats wrote:We have 2 new teams and the loop hole in our media agreement calls for them to get an equal share to what teams are currently receiving. That's a gross increase of $144.6 Million already on the books for the league!

This is a shell game. Saying that we've got a starting increase in revenue simply because there are new teams doesn't address underlying health issues. If the incumbent teams aren't getting a share of increased revenue... I'm sure that the owners are going to have some difficult conversations. It's disturbing to see that only 3 teams, West Virginia, Scottish, and Crystal Lake, had positive net changes.

Badgers wrote:

Sandgnats wrote:We have 2 new teams and the loop hole in our media agreement calls for them to get an equal share to what teams are currently receiving. That's a gross increase of $144.6 Million already on the books for the league!

This is a shell game. Saying that we've got a starting increase in revenue simply because there are new teams doesn't address underlying health issues. If the incumbent teams aren't getting a share of increased revenue... I'm sure that the owners are going to have some difficult conversations. It's disturbing to see that only 3 teams, West Virginia, Scottish, and Crystal Lake, had positive net changes.

The new teams will get a full share of the media revenue - the 'Media Agents' were all to happy to fork out that change, in exchange for letting the current contract run another year - that's a win for the media, as Sports Broadcasting (whatever avenue that may be - tv, radio, stream, holographic, pooled betting halls) rights continue to sky-rocket...

Did someone say Rocket?

Badgers wrote:

Sandgnats wrote:We have 2 new teams and the loop hole in our media agreement calls for them to get an equal share to what teams are currently receiving. That's a gross increase of $144.6 Million already on the books for the league!

This is a shell game. Saying that we've got a starting increase in revenue simply because there are new teams doesn't address underlying health issues. If the incumbent teams aren't getting a share of increased revenue... I'm sure that the owners are going to have some difficult conversations. It's disturbing to see that only 3 teams, West Virginia, Scottish, and Crystal Lake, had positive net changes.

I hear you Frank. Our revenue has been trending downward, but I think adding two Markets will help. Also there was alot of profit taking this season. That seems to alternate year to year. I'll do my best to keep the books balanced. I think Mike has an idea that's out of this world as well. We might need to work on some new marketing ideas.

Sorry, that was meant to be more in character than a legitimate complaint. I do think the new teams should have the same settings as other teams. If teams aren't doing a decent job watching their finances then, it should balance out once they starting hitting some limits.

Badgers wrote:Sorry, that was meant to be more in character than a legitimate complaint. I do think the new teams should have the same settings as other teams. If teams aren't doing a decent job watching their finances then, it should balance out once they starting hitting some limits.

The new teams will be on solid footing financially when they enter PEBA. They are going to get a jolt of our media deal and the ability to improve like Scottish was able to do this season.

Sandgnats wrote:

Badgers wrote:Sorry, that was meant to be more in character than a legitimate complaint. I do think the new teams should have the same settings as other teams. If teams aren't doing a decent job watching their finances then, it should balance out once they starting hitting some limits.

The new teams will be on solid footing financially when they enter PEBA. They are going to get a jolt of our media deal and the ability to improve like Scottish was able to do this season.

That's more or less the plan!!