Baseball ownership approved the $112 million sale of 80 percent of Blue Jays to Rogers Communications. Alex Rodriguez wants a $200 million contract. Ugh. ------------------ Mmmmmmm. Sacrelicious.
Jeff, Should baseball be called a sport anymore or is just some sort business or startegic financial board game like monopoly....... Smeg ------------------ In 1993-94 Mugsy Bogues averaged more boards for the season than Mo is this season!!
It's becoming, or should I say has become, rediculous. It's sick. I was glad to see Selig in Washington addressing this problem. Baseball's economics, that is. ------------------ www.dsscake.com
It is ugly! Here are the big money issues: - No salary cap. - Teams do not share revenues. - Teams are responsible for the cost of their own rosters as well as that of all their minor league affiliates. There are really 3 MLB's. One represents about 6-8 teams: Yankees, Mets, Dogers, Orioles, Indians and Braves. Another represents probably 15 teams: Astros, Cardinals, Padres, Texas and a some others. The rest are in the third category: Montreal, Kansas City, the Twins, etc. Each category is based on salary expenses. The top pays better than $80 million per year in salary. The middle pays between $50 and $70 million. The rest pay below $40 million - some under $20 million. It has become an embarrassment. Owners seem to be colluding again like they did in the late 80's to protect their payrolls. Players are criticized by the union if they don't take the highest paying contract they can get. Ticket prices are going up another 16 percent league-wide yet attendance is dropping again. To top it all off, it is likely that another work stoppage will occur after next season with the current collective bargaining agreement running out. It's a good think I'm not a big baseball fan. The whole system is really pathetic. ------------------ Mmmmmmm. Sacrelicious.
Am I the only one who thinks that Drayton chooses to be among the mid-market clubs ? I know he doesn't have an outrageous tv deal, but does Cleveland, St. Louis or Colorado ? Those teams may draw better than us (last year), but if the Stro's would have continued winning, we may have led the league in attendance. I think Drayton is trying to actually make money to compensate for the years of being in the red. I don't really blame him. But to have more revenue yet spend less makes him look bad. Hopefully, he will change his mind in a few years. I think the potential to be a larger market club is there. ------------------ "There are two players carrying the Rockets right now. Hakeem and Olajuwon." Isiah Thomas
An unfortunate Catch-22 is that the owner's get blamed for paying the outrageous salaries, yet if they try and hold the salaries down, they get accused of collusion. ------------------
Why do you think I boycotted the "Subway Series"? **** Bud Selig. If he and the other owners want to stack the deck to the point where they FINALLY get the World Series they want-- if they enjoy contrivance-- then I'm not watching. **** em. You watch, this fall it will be two more big market teams, probably the stupid Subway Series II or some ****. And PS, Bud, I'm in your No. 1 target advertising audience-- affluent white males aged 25 to 34-- so you're screwing the poodle big time on this one.
Here's my cynical viewpoint: I think most of the owners are happy with the system the way it is. And why wouldn't they be? The teams that want to win, spend the cash to do so. The teams that don't want to win, have a built in excuse: salary disparity. Plus, they get to tell the fans that they need a new ballpark, so they can "compete". There's no reason that clubs like the Cubs, Astros, Giants, or Mariners couldn't spend with the Braves, Dodgers, Orioles, Red Sox, or Yankees. The Braves make money off their cable deal - but that's because they are owned by the same people who own the cable company. Its a paper transfer of money - like owning your own company and paying yourself a salary. I've been to Baltimore several times, and let me tell you its a lot smaller than Houston or the bay area. Yeah, a salary cap, or revenue sharing, might help create parity in baseball. But from the owners' standpoint, why fix what isn't broken? ------------------ I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve immortality by not dying. - Woody Allen
