Starting in 2024 the WLB Economics system was changed. The details of those changes are below.
Revenue Sharing
Revenue sharing was increased to 50% of all local revenue (All ticket revenue, local media revenue, and merchandising revenue) is included. (MLB has shared 47% since 2017.)
Competitive Balance Tax (CBT, Luxury Tax)
A Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) was added. Anything above 140% of Payroll will be taxed 10% in 2024, 20% in 2025, and 30% in 2026 and later.
A Competitive Balance Tax (CBT, also known as the Luxury Tax)
Market Score
Markets in WLB are now set according to the MLBPA Basic Agreement, converted to OOTP’s market scale (rounded to the nearest integer).
Fan Loyalty
Fan Loyalty is set based on research conducted in 2018-2019 before we switched to OOTP.
Revenue Estimates for Competitive Balance Picks and IAFA Bonus Pools
Prior to implementation of the updated economic system hundreds of seasons were run to estimate the impact of the changes on available revenues. The results were used to build a revenue model to determine which teams are eligible for CBT picks and higher IAFA Bonus Pools.
Like MLB, the lowest rated teams are permanently eligible for a CBT pick. Additionally the eight teams with the lowest revenue in a season are also eligible for picks. (Most of the picks overlap.)
Competitive Balance Picks (CBP)
How MLB Competitive Balance Picks Work in MLB
In MLB the bottom 10 teams in an MLB/MLBPA market rankings and the 10 teams with the lowest revenue in a year (the lists overlap quite a bit) get Competitive Balance Picks either between the 1st and 2nd rounds or between the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Since there is a lot of overlap between having a small market and revenue, typically there are about 14 or 15 Competitive Balance picks each year.
Once the list of eligible teams is generated MLB splits the teams into two groups, Group One picks after the first round and Group Two picks after the second round. The picks within groups are ordered based on Winning Percentage (higher gets a better pick). Group One contains six teams. Group Two consists of the other teams getting picks.
The groups flip-flop between the 1st/2nd round and 2nd/3rd rounds every other year. Since market size doesn’t change much, Group One pretty much doesn’t change. It’s the same six teams in Group One and mostly the same teams in Group Two.
Clubs drafting in the Competitive Balance Rounds also receive more international bonus pool money than the minimum of $5.144 million. Those drafting in Competitive Balance Round A will receive $5.6855 million, while those in Competitive Balance Round B will get $6,226,900 million.
| 2024 Base Pool | $5,144,000 |
| Signing Bonus Pool A | $5,685,500 |
| Signing Bonus Pool B | $6,226,900 |
We have similar info available to us so it’s possible to replicate the process in WLB.
https://www.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/competitive-balance-draft-picks