Could someone explain the World Series shares to me?

Question

I saw the Cardinals got the most ever last season and the Red Sox didn't get as much this year.

How does this work? Reasons the Cardinals got more?

Thanks Craig.

Answer 1

The pool takes 60 percent of ticket money from the first four games of the World Series, as well as the first four games of the league championships and first three games of each division series. Because Fenway is such a small venue, the overall pool money was down slightly this season.

From that pool, moneys are divvied up for every team in the playoffs, so even the Cubs got about $25K each despite losing in the first round.

Answer 2

Craig's got the general answer, where the money comes from (series minimum lengths, so there is no player financial incentive to "ensure" that additional games are needed).

The pool is then split thusly:
World Series winning team -- 36%
World Series losing team -- 24%
LCS losing teams (2) -- 12% each
Division Series losing teams (4) -- 3% each
Non-postseason second-place teams (4) -- 1% each

(No idea what happens if there is a divisional tie for second place between non-playoff teams, though I expect it is either (a) the pool share is split between them or (b) the standard tiebreaker methods are used to determine which team gets the money. I think (a) would be fairer.)

Each team, before 01-September, has the players vote on how any postseason bonus money will be divided, into full shares, partial shares, and flat cash awards. When the money is available, the cash awards are subtracted, and the remaining money is divided by the number of shares.

So, three factors play into how much a full Red Sox share was: how much total money was available (and Fenway's small capacity does constrain this a bit), where they finished (champions! did you hear? CHAMPIONS!!!), and how many shares and awards the team voted to distribute.

The percentages are from the 2002-06 CBA but there has been no apparent change to the formula in the current CBA.