another shabby story

Major League Baseball is reportedly threatening to pull its annual grant to the historic Cape Cod League unless all of the league teams that use the names of MLB teams buy all future uniforms and souvenir merchandise from more expensive MLB-licensed vendors. Effective immediately, that would include the upcoming season. Teams would be prohibited from selling items, such as teddy bears and mugs, not available from those vendors. MLB is also requesting an 11% royalty on sales from existing inventory by the six league teams affected. The Cape Cod League operates on a yearly budget of $1.5 to $2 million a year. The MLB contribution is $100,000. Shriek if you want about intellectual property, this sounds like simple greed. Surely there is some other, less punishing way of dealing with the matter.