Baseball Hall of Fame’s Class Size Impacts the Shrine’s Bottom Line

The Baseball Hall of Fame is set to fill out its 2026 induction class late Tuesday with the release of voting results from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, and already, larger classes have proven to be good for business.

The upcoming voting results, set to be disclosed live at 6 p.m. ET on the MLB Network, will show who will join former slugging infielder Jeff Kent in this year’s Hall of Fame class. Kent, the league’s all-time home run leader among second basemen, was elected last month by the shrine’s Contemporary Era Committee, emerging from a stacked, eight-player ballot that included Don Mattingly, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and the late Fernando Valenzuela.

In publicly available BBWAA ballots collated by Hall of Fame tracker Ryan Thibodaux, outfielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones are above the necessary 75% threshold for induction. There is often a subsequent drop in final vote totals, however, leaving the candidacy of Jones still in some question. 

The emerging voting results also show a struggle that voters still have in assessing the troublesome behavior of some players. While playing with the Astros, Beltrán had a meaningful role in that club’s 2017 sign-stealing scandal, helping derail his subsequent managerial stint with the Mets before he helmed a single game. Voters, however, appear to be locking in on his status as one of baseball’s greatest switch-hitters. 

Former standout starting pitcher Andy Pettitte, meanwhile, is set to see his voting totals rise by about 30 points compared to a year ago and more than 40 points above his 2024 total, despite prior admitted use of human growth hormone while recovering from an injury. Pettitte will still finish below the induction threshold this year, but his escalation in the vote totals still contrasts sharply with the harsh treatment that Hall of Fame voters typically have given admitted users of HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs. 

Financial Results

The Cooperstown, N.Y.-based Hall of Fame, meanwhile, said in a recently filed tax return that it generated $17.2 million in revenue for 2024, the most recent year for which data is available. That total is up 25% from the prior year as the institution welcomed a robust induction class that year that included Adrian Beltré, Todd Helton, Joe Mauer, and Jim Leyland. 

Net income, meanwhile, swung from a prior $1.26 million loss, its first year in the red in a decade, to a gain of $683,112. 

Attendance for the induction weekend in 2024 reached 28,000, more than twice the 2023 figure that came out for Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen. Crowds for that summertime event, as well as visitor turnout for the entire year at the Hall of Fame, often swing materially based on the size of the induction class each year and the popularity of the players involved.

A five-person 2025 class led in part by Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia saw the induction weekend crowd swell even more, reaching 30,000, and likely will be reflected in the Hall of Fame’s next tax return. 

During 2024, though, the Hall of Fame also saw strong increases in each of its key revenue areas, including admissions, charitable donations, merchandise sales, and investments.

Also of note from the financial filings: Josh Rawitch, Hall of Fame president since 2021, earned $489,393 in total compensation in 2024.