http://www.law.illinois.edu/bljournal/post/2010/03/14/the-business-of-steroids-in-baseball.aspx
Steroid Use and the Economic Impact on the League
Players are not the only group who stand to benefit from the use of steroids. “While franchise values fell during the early 90’s, they increased dramatically during the Steroids Era, with the average MLB franchise value rising from $140 million in 1994 to $332 million in 2004.” [15] In fact, steroids may have saved baseball after the 1994-1995 strike, which angered fans and resulted in attendance dropping by almost 10 million in both the National and American leagues. [16] .[16] It was not until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s 1998 steroid fueled homerun race that the League began to recover. “Attendance in 1998 increased to almost 39 million in the National League, up seven million from the season before, and the fact is, the increase of almost seven million fans coincided with an increase of almost 400 home runs in the sport.” [17] Despite Major League Baseball’s current tough stance on steroids, individual franchises clearly had incentive to look the other way with regard to steroids in the mid-90’s.
