First off, I know this will never happen.
Baseball made a huge mistake in putting teams in Florida.
This past weekend, Biz of Baseball posted a story about the difference between the Yankees' payroll and the smallest payroll teams each season during this decade and whether or not the luxury tax is making any difference.
Well, the one thing the really caught my attention with this story was the teams that had the lowest payroll. No one should be surprised that from 1999 to 2009 the Marlins were at the bottom 4 times, the Rays 5 times and the Twins 2 times.
Now the Twins were in the middle of the contraction talk during the early '00s when their payroll was at the bottom, so it isn't very surprising...but they have since recovered. And their attendance has been rather good (in the middle third of the league most of the time) considering that they play the worst stadium in baseball in my opinion.
So in 9 out of the 11 years that were analyzed, a Florida team had the lowest payroll in baseball. WTF!
And the excuse that is usually made is that their attendance is too low for them to afford any players.
Now, I know that the Rays have been downright horrible up until 2008. But even after a World Series appearance in '08, it didn't do much to draw people to the ballpark this past season. (yes, attendance was up, but they were still 23rd out of 30 teams.)
After the 2003 title for the Marlins, they moved from 28th in attendance all the way up to 26th. Hmmmm.
So these teams are consistently at the bottom in payroll, which coincides with their low attendance figures. Yes, some teams have had seasons where their attendance is lower...but not consistently. As a result, they are able to take losses during some seasons and keep their payrolls at a reasonable level. I'd love to blame ownership for this...but I just can't if these teams are not drawing.
And can you blame the people of Miami and Tampa for this? No...I really can't do that either because if any of those people are baseball fans, they likely already have an allegiance to another team already whether it be from transplant or because of a spring training.
The owners of these teams have been arguing that they need a new stadiums. The Marlins have won that battle and are building a new facility on the old Orange Bowl site now. The Rays are still fighting to get that new stadium built.
But, honestly, I don't see that really making much of a difference. Baseball teams, for decades, played in bad stadiums...if fans aren't into the team, they still aren't going to show up. If a team is good, and people care about the team, people show up to the ballpark no matter how crappy the facility is. It doesn't matter with these Florida teams.
So let's just get rid of these teams.
What would be the loss? Seriously...a couple hundred thousand people mildly upset? Big deal. For the health of the game...let's just have baseball in Florida happen during spring training. And Baseball can do a re-alignment and have an equal number of teams in each league (added benefit).
Besides, two less teams gives the Cubs a better shot at winning the World Series, right?
6 comments:
Maybe if 28 teams dropped out the Cubs would have a reasonable chance?
Obviously certain teams are happy making money by getting the luxury tax money, the televsion money, revenue sharing and licensed goods money. What's the incentive to put a winning team on the field? Some teams are in the black before one fan buys a ticket.
Spending more on players isn't likely to increase attendance (as shown above) so it will only cut into the profits.
It's the same with the Cubs. Until they get really bad, attendance is terrific. There probably isn't even that big a difference in how much licensed apparel and miscellaneous merchandise is sold. They start out the year with certain guaranteed income sources such as the local and national broadcast rights.
As one observer noted, the perfect Cub team is one around 80 to 85 wins so it can make claims to be in contention late in the current season and be considered a competitive team for the next season. That way people keep going through the turnstyles in the fall, then will purchase all the tickets for next year before the first game.
The truth is, I haven't forgiven the Marlins for beating us in the '03 NLCS.
They should go away just for that.
Doc,
I guess that's the same as me hating on the '69 Mets. And in both cases, it was as much a failure by our heroes as anything that the opponent did.
Maybe we should go back to 8 teams in each league. The Cubs were really successful back in those days!
Well, I think getting rid of the Mets is a given for most Cub fans, but they actually have some rather passionate (plus loud and annoying) fans.
Can you just imagine the quality of baseball if the talent had to be spread among only 16 teams?
And it would probably drive down player salaries.
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