From $500M Losses to $500M Profits: The CFO Who Helped Major League Baseball Win off the Field

In 1997, the Florida Marlins won the World Series, but they also lost $30 million in the process. In 2002, only three Major League Baseball teams had positive EBITDA. Due to a dramatic collective bargaining agreement, five years later, only three clubs had negative EBITDA, and the MLB had gone from $500 million in losses to a $500 million in profit. Today’s guest had a front row seat to the action. Jonathan Mariner is the former CFO of the Florida Marlins, the Florida Panthers, and Major League Baseball. He is also he founder of TaxDay and a seasoned board member on different boards, including Tyson Foods, OneStream, and Delaware North, among others. In this episode, he takes us inside the complex economics of pro sports. The conversation covers the surprising way sports franchises are actually valued, the massive shift from cable TV to streaming, the complex world of player merchandising, the challenges of expanding sports internationally, and how Jonathan helped implement a controversial EBITDA rule to rein in league-wide debt.

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LINKS:

Jonathan Mariner on TaxDay: https://www.taxday.com/team/

Tax Day:

https://www.taxday.com/

CJ on X (@cjgustafson222): https://x.com/cjgustafson222

Mostly metrics:

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:35) Sponsor – Pulley | Brex | Aleph

(07:11) How Jonathan Became CFO of the Florida Marlins and Panthers

(13:17) The Marlins: Winning the World Series and Losing $30 Million

(16:03) Sponsor – RightRev | Navan | Rillet

(20:08) How Not Having a Salary Cap Affects the MLB

(21:27) The Collective Bargaining Agreement That Changed the Economics of the MLB

(30:00) The Science of How Sports Franchises Are Valued: Revenue

(31:53) The Art of How Sports Franchises Are Valued: Perception

(36:20) How Local Broadcast Rights and Revenue Sharing Work

(37:44) Contractually Obligated Income and Its Ramifications

(41:57) How Player Jersey Sales Really Work

(46:34) The Shift From Cable to Streaming and the Economic Effects

(53:48) The Challenges and Opportunities of Global Expansion

(59:57) Expansion Teams & Franchise Fees

(1:01:58) Being on the Tyson Foods Board During COVID

(1:05:39) Jonathan’s Other High-Stakes Moments as a Board Member

(1:08:03) Founding TaxDay

(1:11:41) Long-Ass Lightning Round: Career Mistakes

(1:14:00) Advice to Younger Self

(1:15:11) The Best Sporting Events Jonathan’s Ever Attended

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