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krj
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Baseball in America
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Oct 25 14:43 UTC 2001 |
Baseball Commissioner Pete Selig says he's warming to the idea of
putting two baseball teams out of business. One of the probable
victims is the Montreal Expos, who have been a poor team in business
terms for many years; no surprise there. But the other team picked
for extinction is the Florida Marlins. That's a surprise to me:
the Marlins are one of the most recent expansion teams, beginning
play in 1993, and they play in one of the hottest growth areas of
the country, Miami. And they won a world series in 1997.
From the world series to extinction in only four years. Wow.
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| 109 responses total. |
richard
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response 1 of 109:
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Oct 25 15:24 UTC 2001 |
I hope they don't do this. They should let the Expos move. The Expos
averaged only like 7,000 fans per game up in montreal, the city there
wont fund a new stadium and they are stuck playing in that awful 1976
olympic stadium. It is not a good situation. Let the Expos move to
Washington D.C., where there have been ownership groups trying to get a
new team for years and where there is an empty stadium (RFK stadium)
where they could play until a new field is built out in the Virginia
suburbs.
The Marlins have bad ownership. Miami is a great market and they won a
world title a few years back. It is not fair to the fans there to take
away their team just a few years after they got it.
Also the big market teams that make all the money should engage in
profit sharing. The Yankees made $100 million this year because of
local tv rights. Montreal barely made $20 million and didnt meet their
$26 million payroll. They lost money. There needs to be profit
sharing if these small market teams are to survive.
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gull
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response 2 of 109:
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Oct 25 15:34 UTC 2001 |
Re #1: "The city won't fund a new stadium." I've always wondered why
professional sports that, overall, make millions upon millions of
dollars a year expect tax payers to foot the bill for their places of
business.
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slynne
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response 3 of 109:
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Oct 25 15:47 UTC 2001 |
re#2 - because cities that dont fund new stadiums end up losing their
ball clubs like montreal is going to do. it kind of sucks that taxpayers
should subsidize a business like that but having a baseball club play in
one's town can sometimes have advantages that exceed the costs to the
municipality that is paying for the stadium.
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krj
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response 4 of 109:
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Oct 25 15:53 UTC 2001 |
This is probably a good a place as any to point to this item from
Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper:
(Um, the URL is not repostable; try searching for "United Center"
at their site...)
Anyway, the essay says that today's major league sports teams rest
on two economic pillars: the willingness of corporations to
shell out big money for things like stadium naming rights,
season tickets, luxury suites, and TV advertising; and the
willingness of governments to build stadiums and arenas.
And in the aftermath of September 11, it seems most
likely that both of those pillars will sag tremendously if not
collapse.
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richard
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response 5 of 109:
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Oct 25 15:59 UTC 2001 |
There is a movement afloat here in NYC to replace Yankee Stadium with
a new stadium. Yankee stadium is a baseball cathedral, but it is aging
and doesnt have all those nice things like luxury suites. Steinbrenner
wants it torn down and replaced. The Yankees made $100 million last
year from huge tv rights fees and licensing fees. Yet the plan that
Steinbrenner and Mayor Guiliani have cooked up would have the taxpayers
funding the new stadium. It has become an issue in the mayor's race.
They'll cut funding for public services to pay the city's debts arising
from the WTC towers collapse and recovery effort (all those firefighters and
construction folks down at zero working double time overtime adds up!), but
we'll still pay for the Yankees new field? Talk about misplaced
priorities. Mayor Guiliani is trying to rush this deal through before he
leaves office in January, because his likely successor- Mark Green the
Democratic Public Advocate-- is staunchly opposed to it.
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slynne
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response 6 of 109:
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Oct 25 16:58 UTC 2001 |
I know. I was really bummed about the Tigers moving out of Tiger stadium
into the brand new Comerica Park. Blech. No more Tiger baseball for me.
I drive to Toledo for the Mudhens and like them enough to forgive them
having a new downtown ball park.
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