Quote:
Originally Posted by jaymoney
dont cry, its not noboby fault your teams owner is a cheap ass. in MLB there is a thing called revenue sharing, so if your owner decides to pocket the cash instead of reinvesting it back into the team like other team do (Yankees, redsox, etc) that is soley on them
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See it's attitudes like that, that are destroying the game. 10 years ago the Jake sold out every game for 5 years and the Indians still truly couldn't compete because NY, Boston and the big markets even in bad years dwarf everyone else in sales.
Mid and small markets can only demand so much a ticket. The big markets can practically name their price because their base is bigger. The advertisers are more apt to advertise where more people will see their name, national broadcasts are more apt to show games where they feel they will get the better ratings. (You always hear almost every year a small market gets close to the playoffs how networks fear ratings will tank.)
Now,you take into consideration, every owner wants to make money and is not going to spend millions upon millions to lose money. Teams are put on very thin lines. When a team like the Cubs was getting ready to file bankruptcy, when the commish, himself a few years ago told us there were several teams that were close to not making payroll, that tells you the money isn't there in some cities. Owners own teams to make money not lose it. Small/Mi market team owners usually cannot justify paying 1 player $10 million/year when the rest of the team will pretty much be rookies and low level players. Look what signing A-Rod did to Texas, it destroyed the fan base for years because the team wasn't able to pay other players enough to have a competitive team out there.
So, now you have 3 choices.... let teams go bankrupt and move them (in which case you hope a fan base is there) but you disgruntle fans in the city you move from and economically hurt that city plus piss of politicians who can start looking at that anti-trust exemption..... You "carry" those teams and so a portion of every dollar that team gets goes back to MLB thus in the end they can't spend money on payroll because they have loans they have to pay.... OR you devise a true revenue sharing program and salary cap and let every city have a chance again. You treat the teams as equals, even the money out and instead of being entities among themselves they become subsidiaries (like NFL/NBA teams... etc). This would allow owners to make money, allow GM's to truly go out and do the work they can to put out the best product and so on.
Now, Selig who was a small market owner to a horrific team (Milwaukee) that had no base to speak of, became Commish and swore to even the playing field. All of a sudden Milwaukee after years of not getting a stadium bill passed gets one passed, money flows in and Selig shuts up about changing the system. hmmmmm
Then we have to look at the players. If you're Roy Halladay, and you have Boston/NY, Seattle, Oakland and Cincy offering basically the same moeny... most likely you will go to Boston/NY, because more fan base = more advertising = more chances to command bigger dollars to endorse products = more money playing in NYC/Boston/LA. So Mid and Small Market teams end up having to offer more money. Then the agents come in and they want to show other clients they can get every penny they can.... then the MLBPA tells players you need to go where there is more money so that the guys coming up will make more... then you have the NIKE/PEPSI/ etc telling the player they'll pay more if he goes to a bigger market where more people will see him using their products and know his name.
But the player's/ agent/ advertising is the common thread in all sports. Lebron will be offered much more in Cleveland than anywhere else ( Larry Bird Exception), but he'll make more in NY/Chicago/LA because NIKE will pay him more because he'll be seen more.
Sports isn't about guys out there to win for a city, to bring pride and championships to the fans anymore. It's all about bottom lines. Bottom line, especially in MLB is Big Markets = Big $$$$$$ and not just from the teams.
Until MLB can get some kind of workable cap and revenue sharing that helps the Small and Mid markets, MLB will always have 3 maybe 4 teams that have everybody and everyone else basically a farm team, raising players up to the majors, getting them experienced and then shipping them out to the big markets. Thus a team like Tampa/Cleveland/Cincy/KC/Det/Pitt/Oak may be competitive and damned good for a year or 2 but then fall back into mediocrity when they can't afford the players they brought up. That doesn't help keep a fan base. The only thing that keeps a fan base is being able to keep your star players and be competitive year in and year out. Give the fans hope every year.