MLB is big business, and big government helps it make insane sums of money.

MLB got nearly $11 billion in revenue during the 2022 season, according to Forbes . It is a highly lucrative business. However, part of its success is due to big government policies. These policies are another reminder that big government benefits the rich, not working people.

MLB teams owned by billionaires have received plenty of government help finding locations to play.

Many MLB teams play in taxpayer-funded stadiums despite evidence that they are a waste of money and will not spur economic growth . When the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars on stadiums, that generally means consumers will take the money they would expend elsewhere in the community and spend it at the ballpark rather than generating new money.

When states and municipalities use hundreds of millions in public infrastructure dollars to fund MLB stadiums, they force the federal government to subsidize stadium construction. They do so by using tax-exempt municipal bonds to finance stadium construction.

So when New York City used $1.7 billion in tax-exempt municipal bonds to build the new Yankee Stadium, completed in 2009, the Yankees effectively received a $431 million federal subsidy to build it, according to the Brookings Institution .

Not only do teams owned by billionaires receive stadium subsidies from municipal, state, and federal governments, but the government also sometimes takes desirable land from homeowners and small-business owners to give teams a place to build a stadium.

In a country with 3.8 million square miles of land, using eminent domain to construct professional sports stadiums is a terrible abuse of power. Yet Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California; Nationals Stadium in Washington, D.C.; and Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas, formerly home to the Texas Rangers, are just a few examples of MLB stadiums constructed using this egregious practice.

Additionally, MLB benefits from its archaic antitrust exemption . In 1922, the Supreme Court ruled in Federal Baseball Club v. National League that MLB was exempt from antitrust law because it did not constitute interstate commerce. An entity that now draws nearly $11 billion per year in revenue and has 29 teams in the United States and one team in Canada is not engaging in interstate commerce, according to the federal government.

The ruling gives MLB more authority over its teams, making it more difficult for them to relocate. It also allows them to negotiate television and media rights deals without the threat of being subjected to antitrust lawsuits. Whether or not one thinks that is good or bad is irrelevant. The league has grown in the past 100 years and should constitute international commerce, not just interstate commerce.

Plus, Minor League Baseball players, those trying to make it to the big leagues, are not millionaires. Many earn less than the paltry $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage. The federal government affirmatively declared in 2018 that they are seasonal employees and are exempt from minimum wage laws. The law was tucked away in a wasteful 2,232-page omnibus spending bill . How many small businesses get that same type of exemption written into federal law to keep their labor costs down? Not many.

So while big leaguers make millions and billionaire owners get richer, remember who makes the business more lucrative at the expense of working people: the government.

Tom Joyce ( @TomJoyceSports ) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.