🚴 Walmart’s new commute

“This is our year” will be uttered by fans of all 30 Major League Baseball teams today as a new season starts — by fall, 29 of those fan bases will discover they were terribly, terribly wrong.

But those fans will have forked over a lot of money along the way.

MLB set a $10.8B+ revenue record last season and franchise values are soaring (the average team is worth $2.31B, per Sportico).

Putting up big stats

Since Houston hoisted the trophy last November, teams have signed players to a combined $3.79B in contracts, per Spotrac. Why the confident spending?

• Streaming pays off: Early streaming tech developed by MLB sold to Disney for $3.48B, per Forbes. The deal’s final $900m came through this offseason.
• Seats at a premium: A night at the ballpark — tickets, parking, souvenirs, drinks, and hot dogs for four — now costs an average of $256/game, per Axios. Plus, MLB will make $400m+ through a newly inked ticketing partnership with SeatGeek.
• More money up their sleeves: … Well, on their sleeves. Teams can now sell (grotesque) ad space on their uniforms. Deals for the (atrocious) sponsored patches range from $5m to $17m per year.

Not all fun and ballgames

America’s pastime remains a lucrative business, but MLB has lost its throne to the NFL (and its ~$19B in revenue). And there are plenty of other threats to baseball’s finances:

• Attendance has dropped for nine straight seasons (excluding 2020). To bring live audiences back, MLB is debuting three new rules this season to make games faster and more action-packed — and they hired Nike’s famed ad firm Wieden+Kennedy to tell the story.
• Diamond Sports Group, broadcasting partner for 14 MLB teams, filed for bankruptcy this month. Diamond’s uncertainty looms large — regional TV deals comprise ~20% of teams’ revenue, per ESPN.

Oh, and have we mentioned yet how ugly those jersey patches are?

Ahoy there, matey! Did ye know that major cruise lines be rakin’ in more booty than Blackbeard himself?

Alright, enough of that.

In 2020, we estimated the average cruise ship made $291 in profit per passenger, per cruise.

Major cruise lines pocket a substantial sum of their revenue thanks to tax exemptions outlined in the US tax code. By registering ships elsewhere and flying foreign flags, industry critics argue that cruise lines are able to avoid paying millions in US corporate taxes.

But how is this loophole possible? It’s like they’re sailin’ the seven seas with a secret map to buried treasure, all while the rest of us landlubbers are left high and dry. Arrr!

Ok, seriously, we’re done.

Remember learning to ride your bike in the school parking lot, or the humbling agony of a Razor scooter obliterating your ankle?

Same. But dust off your helmet and hike up your tube socks, because it might be time for a new set of wheels. Walmart Inc. created a position in 2022 called the “director of workplace mobility,” per Bloomberg, and it could hint at a broader corporate trend.

Kourtney Barrett, who was hired for the role, is charged with:

• Getting 10% of employees at the company’s Arkansas headquarters to commute to work by any means other than single-passenger driving by 2025.
• Encouraging options like walking, biking, riding a scooter, carpooling, or taking public transportation.

To hit the 10% goal, employees must use alternative modes of transportation 2x-3x per week for a year. Currently, less than 1% of the Arkansas workforce meets that standard, so Barrett has her work cut out for her.

Riding into the future

Walmart introduced the 10% goal not only to cut carbon emissions, but also to help employees lead healthier lives and decrease local traffic congestion.

And it’s blazing a trail that other corporations will likely follow. Per a report from the IBM Institute of Business Value:

• Seven in 10 workers say they’re more likely to stay with an employer that has a good reputation for sustainability.
• Three in 4 say they expect their employer to take action on social responsibility issues.

Could handlebar tassels be the next big office merch category? Here’s hopin’.