But they didn't keep winning and didn't build it the right way.   We can quibble as to what happened there but the issue is that they didn't. I should have been clear in my previous post, even when they were winning, attendance was middle of the pack.  It was never at the top, so it's not like attendance was ever amazing.   Again, let's find a team that has a high payroll that is perpetually in the middle of the pack to the bottom half of attendance for years on end.  

The MLBAM payments.

I'm not reading anything into what you're saying. You're saying it. Your words are out there for anyone who cares enough to read them. I'm offering you just a little advice. You may have noticed that you find yourself in conflict on this board. I'd suggest that maybe if you approached your discussions a little differently that wouldn't happen. Two relatively modest suggestions...  Don't presume to know the motivations of others. And don't misrepresent the positions of others and then attack your misrepresentations. You'd find yourself in a lot fewer conflicts if you do. Just a suggestion. And I've spent far too much time of this matter already. And the longer I spend the preachier I sound..  I don't want to suggest I'm without faults... I'm clearly not. As for the Orioles and whether they're trying to field the best team in 2021... have you considered the possibility that fielding the best team in 2021 isn't necessarily the compatible with fielding the best team in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025,? And that maybe ownership and management are more interested in sustainability?

If they kept winning and were building the organization the right way?  Of course it was.  Why would it be sustainable for those 5 years but not beyond it?  They were able to do it because they were winning...they had more to spend.    Now, they could probably spend it anyway but the increase in revenue is obviously huge for them.  That increase came from winning...just as the decrease comes with losing.

Was it sustainable?