Quote:
Originally posted by thephuse
I have a question, Are the owners of other baseball teams really unable to sign an a-list player like Steinbrenner can? Or is it just that they arent as "generous" to go into their own pockets? Cuz i figure most owners of baseball teams are multi-billionaires... Correct me if im wrong, but dont other owners think of Profit > Team?
|
Most aren't necessarally multi-billionaires. Besides, in some of those cities, like Oakland, Milwaukee, Kansas City, etc., it's hard to make any type of profit from the ticket sales, local media, and other income because of how much really good players cost thanks to guys like Stenbrenner.
Look at Montreal. They have had so many great players in there that if they had the payroll available of St. Louis or Houston or another middle-market team, they could have won a couple World Series by now. But because of the lack of money, they couldn't keep any of those guys, which killed all fan support, and now they're going to move sometime soon.
There are cases of owners, best example of which is Carl Pohlad (I think that's right) of the Twins, who have good baseball towns and obscene amounts of their own money, but choose to spend as little as possible. They are dying out, fortunatly.
The problem comes down to baseball needing a way to even the playing field, so to speak, for the teams in smaller markets, while forcing all the owners to spend something to allow everyone to be competetive.