Revenue Sharing and Contraction

#1
J

JTrainDavis

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2006
Messages
24,398
Likes
20
#1
Thoughts? (Thanks OE

There are give or take a half dozen teams that are turning profits for the owners by making no effort to field teams that can be considered competitive over a 3-4 year window, in the case of the Rays, or not legitimately competitive at all, in the case of Florida, Pittsburgh, KC, and Cleveland.

I read somewhere that 85% Attendance is the "Mendoza Line" for a club to break even. It pisses me off that in original baseball markets like Pittsburgh and Cleveland, how excited should Cleveland fans be that the Indians brought in Chad Durbin and Austin Kearns to right the ship?

In my perfect world, the owners would cannibalize Florida, KC, and Tampa, and hold a 3 round draft for the players contracted to those clubs, honoring all existing contracts, and be done with it.

If you are turning a profit selling 55% of your tickets and fielding a bad team, you don't deserve one.
 
#3
#3
Never gonna happen and not the best solution. Players union isn't going to let players loss 95+ starting jobs. Of course the Yanks and Sox of the world are pushing for this, push the little guy out and reap the talent rewards.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#4
#4
wounded mullet said:
Never gonna happen and not the best solution. Players union isn't going to let players loss 95+ starting jobs. Of course the Yanks and Sox of the world are pushing for this, push the little guy out and reap the talent rewards.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
Click to expand...

Not at all my motive for saying this, but with the addition of 4 expansion teams since I was a kid, the overall quality of baseball has gone to ****. Tampa had a good setup, much better than the Miami model, but it is still flawed to attempt to be competitive for 3-4 out of 10-12 years, at best.

Since the Amateur Draft came into place, it has been proven that payroll isn't a be all, end all. It's not like the 50's and 60's where the Yankees were using the A's as a farm system.

I realize it's your team, mullet, and it sucks, I lost a team too, but if the dollars and cents don't add up, than **** happens.
 
#5
#5
Basically my point is that the revenue money was intended to be spent on the club, not for profit.
 
#6
#6
JTrainDavis said:
Not at all my motive for saying this, but with the addition of 4 expansion teams since I was a kid, the overall quality of baseball has gone to ****. Tampa had a good setup, much better than the Miami model, but it is still flawed to attempt to be competitive for 3-4 out of 10-12 years, at best.

Since the Amateur Draft came into place, it has been proven that payroll isn't a be all, end all. It's not like the 50's and 60's where the Yankees were using the A's as a farm system.

I realize it's your team, mullet, and it sucks, I lost a team too, but if the dollars and cents don't add up, than **** happens.
Click to expand...

Im assuming you are reffering to the Ken Rosenthal's article. The fact is yes, teams like the Rays and A's have shown some issues with fan attendance and market growth. Maybe the MLB expanded beyond their reach 12 years ago, fact is it's way too early in this process to determine long term stability with the Florida teams, and im not saying this because im a fan of one of them, probably saying it with a little more passion though.
If the Red Sox and Yankees are going to take advantage of salary cap-free system, they can't also complain about the luxury tax setup as Hank did earlier in the week when he said that teams like the A's and Rays take advantage of the system.

Baseball is not going to sell more tickets or merchandise, or have more fans watching games on TV if they contract two teams. Oakland has shown they can bring in fans in the past and central Florida (Orlando area) is still an untapped potential baseball market with plenty of room for growth.

​
 
#8
#8
I can see the reasoning yeah, i just doubt it will happen. Screw the Marlins, it's too humid to play in Miami in July anyways...
 
#9
#9
It isn't too early to tell whether or not Florida can truly be a supportive state for a MLB franchise. The Marlins win two titles and then have a wholesale on talent, that would be kinda hard to follow from a fans perspective, still yet, if they tried to remain competitive the stands would still be empty. Miami has possibly the worst fan base in America and that includes all sports.

Tha Rays have been a good team for a few years now but every night that play at home it looks like a ghost town.

If it hasn't happened yet, will it ever?
 
#10
#10
I think Tampa Bay is somewhat trying. They wouldn't be one of the teams I'd contract at first
 
#11
#11
It is messed up that those handful of teams trod out garbage every year and still make money from it.

I don't think contraction is the answer, then you'd have no teams left in FL.

I wish American sports leagues had the same set-up as Euro soccer leagues, where if you finish below a given percentile in league standings, you get knocked down a league for the next year.
 
#12
#12
I agree, but the current setup of feeder leagues with club affiliations is unalterable, unfortunately.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#13
#13
milohimself said:
It is messed up that those handful of teams trod out garbage every year and still make money from it.

I don't think contraction is the answer, then you'd have no teams left in FL.

I wish American sports leagues had the same set-up as Euro soccer leagues, where if you finish below a given percentile in league standings, you get knocked down a league for the next year.
Click to expand...

Who cares if Florida has a team or not? They have not shown the ability to support a franchise, they don't deserve it.
 
#17
#17
It was a joke people. Calm down.

I think contracting two to four teams would be the best thing in the world for the game itself. That said, the business side of it will never allow it. You are basically shutting down 12 to 24 organizations counting minor league systems if you do it.
Posted via VolNation Mobile
 
#18
#18
So long as thry continue to turn a profit, they will still be around, look at the Expos, they were terrible and instead of contracting, they move to Washington and continue to suck.
 
#20
#20
JTrainDavis said:
Not at all my motive for saying this, but with the addition of 4 expansion teams since I was a kid, the overall quality of baseball has gone to ****. Tampa had a good setup, much better than the Miami model, but it is still flawed to attempt to be competitive for 3-4 out of 10-12 years, at best.
Click to expand...

My dad swears that the quality of play in baseball has sucked ever since they expanded from the original 16 teams. Of course, he grew up after Jackie Robinson but before expansion, which means that he grew up watching probably the highest level of play that baseball has ever had.


Since the Amateur Draft came into place, it has been proven that payroll isn't a be all, end all. It's not like the 50's and 60's where the Yankees were using the A's as a farm system.

I realize it's your team, mullet, and it sucks, I lost a team too, but if the dollars and cents don't add up, than **** happens.
Click to expand...

Payroll is still close to a be all, end all. The following article about the Yankees is required reading:

The*best team money could buy - Joe Posnanski - SI.com

It's also obviously worth pointing out that the Red Sox have made the playoffs in 6 out of the last 8 years, too. The amateur draft is almost beside the point now; smart, rich franchises now deploy vastly more resources on scouting and signing Latin American players. I knew that the era of the Braves' dominance was over not when any of the Big Three got old and left, but when I read an article in ~2001 or 2002 saying that AOL was cutting their international scouting budget as part of a cost-cutting move.
 
#21
#21
JTrainDavis said:
Basically my point is that the revenue money was intended to be spent on the club, not for profit.
Click to expand...
I'd like to see a salary floor implemented to combat the owners that are basically receiving MLB welfare.
 
#22
#22
^ That is a great idea. Revenue sharing is fine, but you gotta spend X amount to stay competitive.
 
#23
#23
milohimself said:
^ That is a great idea. Revenue sharing is fine, but you gotta spend X amount to stay competitive.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that that's the answer, I think it will only serve to inflate payrolls, while not getting to the root of the problem.

With the huge discrepancy in payrolls top to bottom, a hard cap wouldn't fix much either. The teams that pay tax obviously don't care about it, none of the owners in the league are running cliff's hardware store to make payroll.

Going on what Vercy said above about int'l players, I think all international players either have to become draft eligible at 17, or be unable to sign an int'l free agent until they are 22.

I'm not sure how many owners are needed to veto a change like that, I almost assume that there are enough to keep it from happening, though.
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top