Bob Bowman, the man who made baseball owners not only extremely rich, but comfortable for the forseeable future, retired from MLB today:
Bowman has been with MLB for 17 years, starting as president and chief executive officer of MLB Advanced Media when it was founded in 2000. He became MLB’s president of business and media, taking over oversight of the MLB Network, in December 2014 during the transition from Commissioner Bud Selig to Rob Manfred, who took over the following month.
BAM created live-streaming technology and used its software to distribute video for other sports and companies.
Baseball split BAM’s non-baseball business into BAMTech, announced in August 2016 that was selling 33 percent of BAMTech to The Walt Disney Co. for $1 billion, then said last August it was selling an additional 42 percent to Disney for $1.58 billion.
Baseball learned from mistakes made when they did not embrace radio and television when those platforms first became available. MLB went all in on the internet, and Bowman did a superb job of not only leading the creation of the best professional sports website, but in developing technologies that would keep the owners rich if baseball disappeared off the face of the earth.
The only mistake MLBAM made was in trying drive out small fantasy operators with high license fees. Instead of having a small but steady stream of income, MLBAM and the player’s union lost all money from the venture.
Bowman, for putting the game on such a strong footing, deserves a place in the Hall of Fame.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2zmw7RP
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