BASEBALL FUN FACTS Baseball is back! As Major League Baseball's 2021 season gets underway, here is a look at the business baseball by the numbers. I N T E R N A T I O N A L A P P E A L Players on the 30 MLB teams' opening day rosters hail from 20 more than 20 countries and territories. They range from Aruba (Xander Bogaerts) and Australia (Liam Hendriks) to South Korea (Hyun-Jin Ryu) and Venezuela (Miguel Cabrera, Ronald Acuña Jr and Gleyber Torres). S I G N A T U R E S H O E S The seventh iteration of Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout's Nike shoe will drop this year; the only other Major League Baseball players with a 3 signature shoe include Bryce Harper (Under Armour) and Francisco Lindor (New Balance). P A Y D A Y Baseball’s highest-paid player in 2021 is $39 M Trout at $39 million, including an estimated $3.5 million from endorsements, licensing, memorabilia and appearances. T I C K E T P R I C E S The Los Angeles Dodgers had the highest average ticket price for Opening Day at $666. San Diego $666 Padres ticket prices are up 169 percent from opening day in 2019, according to TicketIQ. E C O N O M I C I M P A C T According to the Arizona Office of Tourism, before the pandemic, the Cactus League would see almost 2 $39 M million fans spending on average $644 million dollars and creating more than 6,000 jobs every spring. In Florida, the numbers are similar according to the Flordia Sports Foundation with spring training have a $687 million dollar impact. A T T E N D A N C E Every major league stadium will let in fans to start the season, but capacities vary, ranging from just over 1,000 to 40,300. The Texas Rangers were the only team to 100% allow full capacity on opening day, but Texas is expected to reduce the capacity for future games to allow for social distancing. M E R C H A N D I S E S A L E S Minor League Baseball and its 160 clubs in $85.7M the U.S. and Canada combined for a record $85.7 million in licensed merchandise sales in 2019, marking a 16 percent increase from 2018’s $73.8 million. F R A N C H I S E V A L U E S The New York Yankees have been named by Sportico as Major League Baseball’s (MLB) most valuable franchise at US$6.75 billion. The least valuable of MLB’s teams are $6.75B the Miami Marlins, who are estimated to be worth US$1.12 billion and the average MLB franchise is now said to be worth US$2.2 billion . SOURC E S : h t t p s : / / w w w .u s a t o d a y . c o m / s t o r y / s p o r t s /mlb/2021/03/31/mlb-2021-opening-day-trivia-stars-seeking-milestones-season/4826460001/ https://www.milb.com/news/bees-rank-in-milb-top-25-merchandise-sales https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2021/03/31/orioles-opening-day-tickets-among-most-expensive.html https://www.yahoo.com/now/mlb-highest-paid-players-2021-163035745.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/sports/baseball/mlb-stadium-capacity-2021.html https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/padres/story/2021-03-30/padres-opening-day-tickets-secondary-market https://www.foxbusiness.com/sports/mlb-spring-training-scores-with-businesses-fans-and-cities-after-2020-covid-19-cancelation-bringing-relief-to-local-businesses https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/new-york-yankees-2021-mlb-franchise-valuations-sportico-forbes.