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Proponents of Mozeliak have used the “he got us into the playoffs x amount of times in X amount of years”. Well now they can’t use that line as many fans can envision no post season at Busch for a number of years to come. And then there is the multitude of imprudent transactions that have put this team in its present state of disrepair. The farm system has been in decline for the last several years and the turnover of managers and coaches would have any fan smelling something rotten in Denmark.
IMO, here has been a fundamental break down of enthusiasm on the field and that has lead to the dismay of Card fans everywhere. In the past few years many young pitchers have been hyped up as a #1 or #2 for years to come…. you know the suspects. But when all the cards are turned over there is a jumbled hand of nothing. Its water over the damn…. but there are many ex-Cardinal prospects making headlines in other cities. Coincidence or a trend of poor decisions? To act as though nothing has changed is pure folly. I for one am not feeling too positive about the St. Louis Cardinals right now. Hell, I could go on but its not worth the aggravation.
Our club has had a good nucleus of players and for about 10 years now has approached each season looking for that one key player to get them over the hump. They have never truly committed to building a powerhouse team for say 3-4 years down the road. They have tried to be just good enough to get to post season.
It could be that by July the difficult decision will be made to do that longer term commitment, and abandon the long standing approach of just trying to be good enough.
As of today the Cards sit at 7-8, 4 games behind the Brewers and are in last place in the NL Central. This is becoming the trend and not the outlier. I don’t see that changing as the season goes on.
The Cardinals these days are an average organization thus are getting average results. That really isn’t surprising. I don’t view their overall philosophy of building from within with a smattering of trades and free agents to be a problem. The problem is that the people executing the plan are not as smart as they think they are. I think we will need a front office shakeup to brake out of our rut of mediocrity.
As for the idea of baseball teams being a business so they should be ran as a business, I agree with that to a point. Yes they are businesses thus need to be profitable to be sustainable long term, however, I think there are some differences than other industries. Professional and collegiate sports teams play a role in the community that other businesses don’t. Sports teams refleect the identity of a city, state, or region. Sports teams create strong emotional and psychologcal attachements in people that other businesses don’t. I can’t think of the last time I spent hours pondering how McDonalds, Subway, or Home Depot could be better but I think about that for the Cardinals every single day. We have a message board here to debate everything possibly related to the Cardinals. Do other businesses have that? I can remember as a kid gathering around the radio or tv every single night from April to October to listen or watch the Cardinals. It was family bonding.
My point is that owners of sports teams have a relationship with their customers that is very unique from other businesses. I would suggest that they give that consideration when determining how close they stick to their budget and there are probably a few owners out there who do that or have done that in the past. They are obviously in the minority though.
Gscottar is talking about a husiness’ goodwill, which is an item on the balance sheet and something that can be impaired should an enterprise’s fair market value decline.
The Cardinals are at a low point related to recent times and the DeWitt era. The fan base is not thrilled with management as the reception to Mo showed on opening day.
If this cellar dwelling continues through this year it will be interesting to see if anyone in management, from the field personnel on up, pays the price. With the odd decision to extend Marmol, it might be that Mo is offered a slightly early retirement package and Bloom takes the reins in 2025. But then Bloom might see what most everyone other than Mo sees as far as Marmol and make his first move to replace the manager.
Ownership, collectively and individually, seem to have done everything possible to nullify every possible justification for continuation of the anti-trust exemption. Presumably, except for continuing to funnel money wherever it gets funneled to keep the exemption on the books.
As to the state of the Cardinals organization, it has been a long downhill coast since the day the smart people left for Houston. I have been arguing that stance ever since. The momentum is gone. The organization is at the bottom of the hill. Everything having to do with “The Cardinal Way”, as it meant originally, is gone, having been shown the door, or retired, or moved on. BDW doesn’t understand that the magic beans left town years ago, and what he’s clutching now are just beans.
I agree, the Cardinals as an organization have sort of lost their way. They need to recalibrate from “just get in the playoffs” to “win the division every year”, because, let’s face it, they are in the second-easiest division to win.
As for the moves of the past two off-seasons, I think DeWitt is still trying to cover the team’s losses from 2020 & 2021. And until he feels he has earned those losses back, there will be no meaningful changes.
Finally, Brian often points out that there probably won’t be an impetus to change until attendance drops. Last year, the Cardinals drew 3.2 million fans. The prior year was 3.3 million fans. Once they dip below 3 million fans in a season, the front office might take notice. But then, are they going to go into hibernation with spending like they have the last two years? Or are they going to put an emphasis on winning again to build back the fan base?
Well, they sold 3.2 million tickers anyway.
This next home stand will be interesting attendance-wise. There is no reason there should be sparse crowds and no shows for the Brewers. In the old days, when folks were in the stands because they were baseball fans rather than because they got the company’s tickets today, there would be a good turn out to see the reigning NL champs come to town. We will see how the DBs draw.
As for the moves of the past two off-seasons, I think DeWitt is still trying to cover the team’s losses from 2020 & 2021. And until he feels he has earned those losses back, there will be no meaningful changes.
You might be right but I am assuming the Cardinals weren’t the only team to see losses during the pandemic.
Another explanation would be uncertainty over the tv contract. Hopefully that gets resolved one way or another after this season.
LACF said:
Finally, Brian often points out that there probably won’t be an impetus to change until attendance drops. Last year, the Cardinals drew 3.2 million fans. The prior year was 3.3 million fans. Once they dip below 3 million fans in a season, the front office might take notice.
Very thought provoking post, LACF.
Regarding the above comment, I have said that. However, since COVID, I have also observed on many occasions the heavy ticket discounting the Cardinals are offering to try to keep attendance up. What I have heard is that season tickets have been consistent, which is their core revenue. But they had and are having aggressive sales on games that would have sold out in the not so distant past.
That is a long-winded way of saying there is more to the financial picture than just “total attendance”. My suspicion is that profits are down and they certainly know it.
The $64,000 question is whether profit can be increased by spending more money. In my business experience, it can instead be a negative spiral downward. Less profit means lower investment, which leads to less profit, etc…
How do you break the cycle? Their answer in the past has been low-cost internally-developed talent.
One of the problems they may be running into is that cutting a ticket price in half does not cut the cost of attending in half. Not even close. Last season at work they were constantly giving away the company’s tickets to employees and they often had very few takers, and one reason I often heard was it costs too much even with a free ticket.
One thing I don’t think they factor in is the value of signing a draw. Gray might sell a few tickets, but Lynn and Gibson won’t, and neither will anyone else they signed.
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