Selig's salary

[Migrant Redbird]

I was speaking in terms of just revenue.

OK. Point taken. However, "money machine" implies huge profits, not just revenue. Baseball teams have more expenses than football teams do, which is why the estimated return on investment is so much better in the NFL than it is in other sports.

It was a surprise to see that Forbes only estimated one team to have "lost" money in 2006 -- the Yankees! We know that the Yankees income in the YES network is firewalled off from the team income, but it's still a shock to see an operating income loss of $25M estimated for the Yanks.

[byrdz]

In regards his conflict of interest, you can basically apply that to every CEO of every publicly traded company in the world. All CEO's have the power to cover up and/or hide things from the shareholders, and like Selig the truth usually comes out.

Yeah it just takes an act of Congress, literally. Don't you think it's a bad sign when the federal government forces a "CEO" to make rules for something that he should have probably done long ago?

As far as increased revenues go; a lot of this was accomplished standing by while some of the more prominent baseball players of our generation pump their bodies up artificially to boost their numbers thereby making baseball a more popular sport and filling everyones pockets, including Selig's. That's where the conflict of interest exists and was no doubt taken advantage of by Selig. Matter of fact, I'm shocked that they haven't gone after him since he would have known about the drug use long before it was widely publicized. Ethically speaking, it's really no different than double charging old ladies in California for electricity.

[66-70-83-??]

Yeah it just takes an act of Congress, literally. Don't you think it's a bad sign when the federal government forces a "CEO" to make rules for something that he should have probably done long ago?

As far as increased revenues go; a lot of this was accomplished standing by while some of the more prominent baseball players of our generation pump their bodies up artificially to boost their numbers thereby making baseball a more popular sport and filling everyones pockets, including Selig's. That's where the conflict of interest exists and was no doubt taken advantage of by Selig. Matter of fact, I'm shocked that they haven't gone after him since he would have known about the drug use long before it was widely publicized. Ethically speaking, it's really no different than double charging old ladies in California for electricity.

OR, a lot of it was accomplished because of 18 sparkling new state of the art baseball stadiums were built under his watch.

[Mackus]

Selig is the best commissioner in history from the owner's perspective. MLB is reaching unheard of profit levels. He's underpaid if anything.

[orayole]

He's underpaid if anything.

EEK!

Anyone that makes 7 digit figures is overpaid imo.

[DrungoHazewood]

OR, a lot of it was accomplished because of 18 sparkling new state of the art baseball stadiums were built under his watch.

That has a lot to do with it. And Bud led the charge to wring every cent possible out of cities and states to build those stadiums for the owners. With the exception of the park in San Francisco every other stadium was built under Bud's rules, with taxpayers footing almost all of the bill and the lease deals structured so the owners took home almost all of the profits.

[Migrant Redbird]

That has a lot to do with it. And Bud led the charge to wring every cent possible out of cities and states to build those stadiums for the owners. With the exception of the park in San Francisco every other stadium was built under Bud's rules, with taxpayers footing almost all of the bill and the lease deals structured so the owners took home almost all of the profits.

The new stadium in St. Louis was also financed by the owners, but the city and state spent quite a bit on infrastructure improvements. I don't have the numbers handy, though.

One incentive for the owners to finance the stadium is that it eliminated them needing to contribute to revenue sharing. For 2-3 prior seasons, the Cardinals were among just a handful of MLB teams that joined the Yankees in contributing to everyone else's bottom line. Again, I don't have the numbers, but I believe the Cardinals total revenue sharing contributions were under $10M, considerably less than the Yankees coughed up. Now the Cards are recipients again.

[wildcard]

That is why MacPhail would leave the O's in a second for the comish's job.