- This topic has 351 replies, 28 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
The cap can’t happen unless there’s a salary floor, which requires some owners to commit to full revenue sharing. The power brokers won’t because they are raking in cash. It’s all circular.
The truth is that the other owners don’t like Cohen because he makes them look cheap and greedy. If the shoe fits.
All of the owners are wealthy, regardless of how they made their money. This list is a bit over a year old but it lists BDW as the 9th wealthiest owner in MLB at $4 Billion.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/12/mlb-owners-net-worth.html
It doesn’t matter whether an owner has a net worth of $500 million, a billion, or several billion. Owning a MLB team is just like owning any other business. The business has to stand on it’s own. Ask the Wizard of Omaha.
Pretty interesting that it costs more for a family to go to Busch than to Citi Field.
Well that was last year, before the spending splurge. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Wallet sticks it to his customers worse than Mr. Moneybags.
blingboy said:
Well that was last year, before the spending splurge.
No, not really. Before the most recent splurge, but it wasn’t the first splurge by any stretch. The 2022 Mets had the second highest MLB payroll at $268.3 million, just $2 million off the lead (Dodgers). That was $112 million more than the Cardinals.
Yeah, but look at all the nice special promotion souvenir giveaway games that he offers up…The best one was the Kolten Wong Hawaiian themed Cardinal jersey game…That game fell on a date 2 or 3 days after which Kolten had just been demoted to Memphis…They had to quickly place Kolten back on the Big League roster and transport him back to StL. to afford the coveted jersey any credibility…Haha!
It doesn’t matter whether an owner has a net worth of $500 million, a billion, or several billion. Owning a MLB team is just like owning any other business. The business has to stand on it’s own.
Why does a MLB team have to be profitable every year? I don’t think Cohen cares if the Mets are profitable or not, at least right now. He just wants to win a world series.
If a team is profitable 7 out of 10 years but then goes on a 3 year splurge it is quite likely that the team is going to be profitable over the 10 year span but that 3 year splurge might lead to a championship. Some owners are willing to do the splurge and some are not. Priorities are different.
What the fan’s are paying is the delta in a zero-sum economic chain.
The players are making significantly more. Broadcast media subscription prices have gone up. Licensing and merchandising costs sure aren’t going down. Prices of corporately advertised products seem to always go up. Team revenues and profits go up. Etc. So yes, the end consumer foots the bill. How can that be argued?
I did leave out the owners as individuals, so maybe they’re offsetting the the rising bills personally, haha. That can’t be right and doesn’t square with them being the greediest bastards in the entire chain.
gcottar…It has to be profitable every year because the psyche, soul and spirit of this exclusive club of business people revolve almost entirely around the concept of generating large amounts of revenue. They neither realize much joy from spending their vast fortunes, nor will they ever have the time in this world to deplete anywhere near what they’ve accumulated. They already possess everything that’s material that they’ll ever desire or need. Their levels of dopamine are increased and satisfied almost exclusively by an obssessive type of motivation, which is the motivation and drive to increase profit margins. They can’t help it.
I doubt someone like Cohen, who is worth $15 Billion, is really counting on the Mets churning out a profit so he can afford another jet or big house. What gets his juices flowing is winning a world series. You can’t go down to the hardware store and buy one of those trophies (at least not a real one). It has to be earned on the field.
I am not saying he is looking to lose millions of dollars every year for the next 20 years but I doubt he is losing sleep over it either. If he lost $100M per year it would take 150 years to go through $15 Billion. He is basically a fan with a lot of money and the other owners don’t like it that he is not playing nice and acting like the stereotypical conservative businessman.
gscottar:
Thank you, of course a team can spend in the red for a couple of years. All kinds of big businesses run in the negative on occasion. If the Front office brought in some “real” talent I would gladly pay a higher ticket price.
Public companies are given a report card on the Street every quarter based the quarter’s profits. Private companies are also run to make a profit. In the business world, you don’t have owners of companies reaching into their own pockets to buoy up companies that show a loss. At least not for very long. They would sell or liquidate if it continued. I don’t know why people have such a fairy tale image of owners. They’re smart, tough businessmen. It will never happen, but a hard cap is needed. It simply isn’t healthy for most of the MLB teams having little to no chance of winning the big trophy.
Smart all right. Smart all the way to the bank. Hard to romanticize or sympathize with those who exploited minor leaguers for decades. Would still be exploiting MLB players, too, had they not unionized. Antitrust protection allows MLB and its owners to take liberties other businesses legally cannot. Fans always seem at the bottom of their priorities. Etc, etc, etc…
That is not a fairy tale anything.
The anitrust protection afforded to Big League owners is of itself puzzling, but when you take into consideration that the exemption has been upheld numerous times, it’ll make your head spin. I simply don’t get it.
Just read this week that the Justice Department wants to change that.
Typical workers vs. management/ownership discussion. The basic question is who takes the financial risk? Take antitrust out of it. No major league owner is guaranteed a profit. They have to run their business competently. And anyone who thinks what Cohen is doing is good for MLB is misguided.
bccran said:
And anyone who thinks what Cohen is doing is good for MLB is misguided.
Because competition is bad when you are trying to protect a monopoly. Ignore antitrust because it is really uncomfortable.
The basic question is who takes the financial risk?
The clear answer is…the minor league players. Followed by the major league players, especially the pre arb guys. The owners have just about 0 risk of losing money. Has any team ever actually shown that they lost money on the on the field product?
I’m not talking about when teams pretend that building fancy apartment buildings or off site team related amenities is somehow baseball related spending that they won’t make back and then some.
25 – why would you begrudge people for building Ballpark Village? Is been the only exciting addition I can remember to a badly outdated and decaying downtown.
I am a true Conservative thru and thru and I am happy that I pull for the Cardinals. I don’t want to be associated with any of those Left-wing hellhole cities that were mentioned by the OP.
25 – why would you begrudge people for building Ballpark Village? Is been the only exciting addition I can remember to a badly outdated and decaying downtown.
I don’t begrudge them anything…but it’s disingenuous to act like spending on that should somehow be tied to spending on the team. I don’t have the quote but I’m pretty sure I recall BDW himself mentioning Ballpark Village spending as something that has impacted payroll. I’m certain that Dewitt’s comments on baseball being a not very profitable venture have to do with spending on outside projects that are not related to the on field product.
Put another way, MLB owners spent about $4.2 billion against confirmed revenues of over $10.8 billion last year. Given the high player salaries (this isn’t like some rank and file company where benefits probably make up a large chunk of their costs relative to salary), it’s impossible to believe that their “other” costs exceeded or were anywhere near $6.4 billion last year (over $200M per team in excess costs?). Yet, folks like BDW will claim things like Ballpark Village as somehow related to the on field product when they are clearly not.
Quite frankly, I was cheering when the owners kept away from garish moves and were accused of collusion by the players union.
I coached a little league team for a number of years. Each year we held a draft, so every coach had an equal opportunity. It was a lot of fun drafting and coaching the players toward a championship. What fun would it have been if one coach was allowed to draft all the players in the first and second round for himself.
Here’s the irony of CT. Brian sets the stage for an in-depth look at our prospects. Every year. He does a countdown of our top 50 prospects.
He highlights those who just missed the cut. He highlights his personal sleeper. He does a great job. All of this is great fun as we track these players coming through the system. Then they finally get to the majors and are blown out of the water by some bozo who spends a gazillion dollar to buy every high end free agent in sight. That quite frankly takes all the fun out of it.I’ll take tracking the kids and rooting for them. Winning that way takes a lot more creativity and developmental expertise. And lays the foundation for a greater pride in accomplishment.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.