2 major league teams in peril

Houston Chronicle ^ | July 11, 2002 | RICHARD JUSTICE

[TheBattman]

Oh, my - I am so heart broken over this. How about we arrange for the Federal Government to pay Bud some bailout money. That way we can preserve our "national heritage". BARF!

If it weren't for the fact that a relatively few players make up literally millions of dollars of the payrolls of these teams, I might could have sympathy. And even though I am impressed with someone who can throw/catch/hit a baseball as a lot of these guys can, I will never believe that that skill is worth the millions that some make.

I mean, come on - these guys PLAY A GAME for a living! Lets put things in pespective....

The teams already bleed local cities and states for tax incentives, millions in stadium construction and upkeep, etc. If a team is not self supporting, then goodbye - "you are the weakest link".

[Timesink]

Ooooo! Americans may lose one of their "bread and circuses"!!! Heaven forbid that they actually become involved in life instead of staying glued to the tube.

Yeah people! Get off your duffs, get out there and start curling!

[Little Bill]

The leagues can't fold until the Red Sox are the champions, that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

[OldPossum]

I agree with duckman and others who have posted similar sentiments. Major League baseball has become a bunch of overpaid prima donnas.

They work with the assumption that their adoring American public will pay ever-increasing amounts for tickets and that the TV networks will continue to supply huge amounts of cash to keep them in a life to which they have obviously become accustomed.

I grew up loving baseball and still do but the strike in 1994 really stretched my loyalty. The threatened strike this year will push it over the ledge.

One other thing. If we don't see another World Series like last year and they revert back to Yankees-Braves contests, that seals it for me.

[CatoRenasci]

I loved baseball as a kid, going first to San Francisco Seals games with my dad (who'd been offered a contract by the Seals in the mid-1920s) and then to the Giants games after they moved out from the Polo Grounds. I played with great enthusiasm but no particular skill growing up. I also remember local semi-pro teams in small towns everywhere. Baseball used to be the national pastime in the summer, but its soul has been gone for 20 years or more, at least.

If baseball cannot make money, it's because the cost of putting on the show is greater than what people are willing to pay. The owners and players have to make a choice: cut costs or quit playing. I would love to see the game return to its roots, but I don't think that will happen. I just hope soccer doesn't replace baseball.

[Dog Gone]

I blame this almost entirely on the players. The baseball game I loved 30 years ago no longer exists. Free agency, arbitration, and ungodly salaries have destroyed the game.

I grew up as a diehard Dodger fan, but today I hardly know who is on the team, and it hardly matters. The players will certainly be different next year. Kids can hardly have a baseball hero anymore, because he's likely to be playing for the archrival next year.

To hell with the game. It died a long time ago, in my opinion.

[stylin_geek]

If I was a player, and I could get millions, I would. I see nowhere that says an owner has to pay these salaries. It all started when the first player demanded a multi-year, multi-million dollar guaranteed contract, and the owner agreed.

Remember, for there to be a seller, there has to be a buyer.

For owners to complain about spiraling costs is ludicrous, because they are obviously not doing anything to control costs. Then, with municipalities spending non-fans money on stadiums, via taxes, it help costs to keep escalating.

Plus, owners also put themselves under the illusion that they could get a new stadium on demand from municipalities by merely threatening to move the team. For a while, this worked, which allowed costs to keep spiraling. However,these threats are becoming empty, because voters are a little smarter about such games, and politicians are in fear of losing their jobs if they continue to cave to the demands of sport franchises.

[woofer]

I go to the AAA games with the kids, eat hot dogs, sit under the lights, put a few bucks in the hat as it goes by . . .

I've never seen the hat passed at Triple A ball games. Those boys are phone call away from the show. Rookie League (A Ball) maybe, like at the Grizzlies or the Cougars in Illinois.

[Ole Okie]

Heard on one of the Atlanta stations this morning that Tampa Bay and Arizona were the two teams.

[Alberta's Child]

. . . the club in the greatest jeopardy "will surprise you."

It just occurred to me that this might be the New York Mets. They've got a very high payroll, and from what I understand they went through a recent assessment process that produced some unexpected results (this assessment was needed because one of the partners is selling his half of the team to the other).

[Wyatt's Torch]

In 1994, I was in favor of the players striking as I am in favor of any person getting paid what someone else is willing to pay them. Then baseball goes out and expands....again. A few things need to happen:

1) A salary cap needs to be instituted. Normally I am all in favor of capitalistic businesses but the disparity of the big market teams (Yankees) versus small market teams (Pirates) isn't good for the game...unless you're a Yankee fan. Salary caps work extremely well in the NFL. That would be an ideal model.

2) There needs to be contraction. Cut out 6 teams (4 NL 2 AL). I don't want to hear about baseball losing money when they are overextended. This move will have the added bonus of improving play as at least a third of the pitchers have no business in the league.

3) Everyone needs to enforce the contracts that they sign. MLB needs to standardize penalty clauses for holding out for renegotiations. If the players don't like it, sign only one year deals.

<\soapbox>

[RichardW]

This is great news. Hope they all go down in flames. MLB is a farce in its present condition. A revolution is necessary to bring back sanity to the game. I would never pay a penny or spend one second of my time watching these clowns.

[sharktrager]

Don't forget that AAA boys are also "professionals". Heck, rookie leage players are "professionals. The financial problem isn't the players, it's the owners.

They agree to pay huge contracts for mediocre talent, and then whine about being broke. There are starting pitchers who have never had an ERA under 4.50 earning $4-5 million a year. There are middle relievers earning $2-3 million.

I can't fault the players for taking the money if it's there

I can, however, fault them for their strikes and threats of strikes. They claim they strike because of the salaries earned by the bottom tier players. The major league minimum is a few hundered thousand a year, and this isn't a sport where most players are going to suffer injuries that will shorten their life (like football). Heck, their mandated minimum per diem for food on the road is more than what my wife earns in a day at work.

If they want better salaries for the bottom tier players, they have to recognize it will come at the expense of the top tier players, which is what almost every team's union rep is.

It'd be real simple to accomplish this. Set a salary cap and a minimum salery expense (to avoid things like what Florida did after winning the series). Then raise the minimum salary. That would alleviate the very problem that the players claim is the true reason for strikes.

Wanna bet they wouldn't agree to it?

[Shooter 2.5]

I was at a party and a guy asked me if I liked sports. I told him that I was involved with the shooting sports and that I shot in 5 competitions a month. He then informed me that he meant the ball sports and that I wasn't interested in "sports".
I thought that actually being out there and playing meant that I was interested in sports and not watching a TV program.
Our numbers are increasing. We have gone from half a dozen shooters to 40+ and the competitions and matches now take all day.
It wasn't a surprise to find out that the Kansas City Chiefs gave money to the anti-gun people because they didn't want anyone switching sports.
I also see more people exercising in the parks. It looks like people have stopped being couch potatoes while watching sports to taking an active role.

[Richard Kimball]

The players have proposed much more modest increases in revenue sharing, saying any dramatic differences might slow the growth of player salaries.

When teams like the Rangers offer contracts to players that are more than the book value of the team, it's obvious that the game cannot continue as it has been. Alex Rodriguez contract is valued at $250,000,000 and the Rangers attracted 1.3 million in attendance last year for home (2.3 million home and road) I know that there are also television revenues, concessions, parking, etc. However, we're talking about one player costing the equivalent of 1 dollar a ticket for both home and road games for ten years, or $2 a ticket if you consider home games. That's 1 out of 44 players it takes to put on a major league game, not even considering that there are a boatload of costs other than player salaries. Players claim "the fans come to see us." Yeah, but how many are going to come and see you play wearing t-shirts and cutoffs playing with broomsticks in the abandoned Kmart parking lots?

Player salaries currently have no basis in economic reality. Another factor is that there are so many more sports options for fans than there were forty years ago. I can't fathom baseball maintaining it's popularity, even if they were doing everything correctly (and they're certainly not) simply because of this increased competition, particularly with cable programming giving publicity to what were formerly niche sports.

I wouldn't want to see MLB go away, even though I seldom watch it. I do want to see the sport go back to some semblence of reality in economic models. Will quit worrying about it at all when major league sports teams get their hands out of the taxpayer back pocket for stadium deals, etc.

[Richard Kimball]

the disparity of the big market teams (Yankees) versus small market teams (Pirates) isn't good for the game...unless you're a Yankee fan.

Yeah, and long term, it's not even good for them. Everybody wants their team to win, but how many people sit on the edge of their seats waiting for the outcome of the last Harlem Globetrotters-Washington Generals game?

[Numbers Guy]

Salary caps work extremely well in the NFL. That would be an ideal model.

One advantage the NFL has in doing that is almost complete revenue sharing (since all regular season games are on networks). The revenue differences among teams are from ticket sales, exhibition game TV/radio, and regular season radio. Those are minor compared to the network money.

Baseball can't achieve the same level of revenue sharing, but it can do one thing on local TV revenue: split it 50-50. In other words, if the Yankees are playing the Twins, the local Yankee TV money generated by that game should be shared by the two teams, not by the Yankees alone. Without the second team there's no game. That would do a lot to ease revenue disparities, and it's a reasonable approach.

Owners complaining about high salaries only have themselves to blame, of course. "Stop me before I kill again".

[Eric in the Ozarks]

For every seller, there has to be a buyer. A good book is cheaper and more entertaining than baseball and I don't get beer spilled on my shirt.

[Lightnin]

I doubt it would be Tampa Bay as they have one of the lowest payrolls in the game and have a decent cash flow--but I could be wrong.