Little League Open To Giving Athletes Cut Of The Action

The college sports diehards always have that one defense: “If you pay college athletes, won’t you have to pay players in the Little League World Series, too?” Well, someone asked Little League, and they’re open to the idea.

They have no plans to do it now, but CEO Steve Keener can see his organization giving the athletes a share of the TV revenue the LLWS generates:

“I’ve always felt we need to be as progressive an organization as we can….Whether at some point down the road any funds could be put aside to help them with college I don’t know. Down the road that’s something we might take a look at even if it’s feasible.”

It could be possible, since ESPN will be paying $7.5M a year for the LLWS through 2022. But some of that revenue is used for meals, travel, and accommodations for the participants, as well as uniforms and equipment the teams get to keep. And Little League is also using that revenue to lower the cost of entry fees for its 7,500 leagues by almost a third.

Then there’s the other issue: the pesky ol’ NCAA. Even though Mo’ne Davis’ last game garnered ratings bigger than any MLB game in the past seven years, and the fact that the NCAA has nothing to do with the LLWS, she can’t capitalize one cent off her recent fame or else she’ll be ruled automatically illegible. And for comparison, each SEC school is estimated to make at least $35M from TV this season, and they’re building locker rooms with indoor waterfalls and flat screens in the mirrors.

Read more at Yahoo! Sports.

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