Jump to content

MLB response to tanking: more playoff teams?


Frobby

Recommended Posts

15 minutes ago, Frobby said:

 

You guys are hilarious.   Per Forbes, the average value of a major league team has increased from $1.2 bb to $1.78 bb in Msnfred’s first four years in office.    He’s not going anywhere.   

Due in large part to media contracts.  But we have seen what happens when those are over valued (ESPN layoffs).  The backlash is painful.  

I think the warning signs are there that despite the market valuation baseball is not a healthy sport in a number of ways. (Attendance, cheating, faith in the fairness of the game, tanking, stadium issues, unmarketed players).  

Manfred is not really addressing those issues.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Camden_yardbird said:

I am definitely for eliminating the 1 game wildcard.  It can be exciting but is kind of like your boss saying "Congratulations for landing that multimillion dollar contract for the company, as a bonus I am going to give you a half of a day off."

If baseball wants to fix tanking, it has to fix its Revenue sharing problem first and foremost. 

That's like saying if the world wants to fix climate change, then a simple solution is to just get Republicans and Democrats and the Chinese and the Indians to all come together in a spirit of mutual cooperation and shared sacrifice and they'll work out something awesome.  If it was that easy, it would have happened generations ago.

The problem with fixing revenue sharing is that the people who bought into the Yanks and Dodgers and Red Sox and Cubs and Astros and Giants and Cardinals and others did so on the basis of a model where they have dominant revenue streams.  Their franchise values are based on this.  You are asking them to voluntarily give up $10s or $100s of millions of dollars or more for the good of teams who they currently beat on a regular basis.  The only way they agree to this is if they see the entire structure on the verge of collapse, and even then they probably start off by lopping off weak teams rather than sacrifice their own finances.  And MLB is not on the verge of collapse - it's at peak historical revenues; pretty much the opposite of collapse.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Camden_yardbird said:

Due in large part to media contracts.  But we have seen what happens when those are over valued (ESPN layoffs).  The backlash is painful.  

I think the warning signs are there that despite the market valuation baseball is not a healthy sport in a number of ways. (Attendance, cheating, faith in the fairness of the game, tanking, stadium issues, unmarketed players).  

Manfred is not really addressing those issues.

I'm curious as to what stadium issues MLB has.  95% of the league plays in a relatively new or refurbished or classic stadium that was paid for by the taxpayers and that they rent at heavily discounted rates.  I don't like the idea of socializing the costs of professional sports stadiums across the 75% of the population who doesn't care, but from an owner's and baseball fans' perspective the stadium boom is probably Bud Selig's greatest triumph and lasting legacy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Camden_yardbird said:

Due in large part to media contracts.  But we have seen what happens when those are over valued (ESPN layoffs).  The backlash is painful.  

I think the warning signs are there that despite the market valuation baseball is not a healthy sport in a number of ways. (Attendance, cheating, faith in the fairness of the game, tanking, stadium issues, unmarketed players).  

Manfred is not really addressing those issues.

Are owners running to leave the sport? 

All sports have negatives. MLB keeps making money. They certainly have their issues and things to fix but it is still very popular. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While this specific proposal might not be perfect, the idea of expanding the playoffs (realistically alongside with expansion to 32 teams) seems inevitable. I'm personally a fan of the idea to expand to 6 playoff teams, give the top 2 teams a bye, while teams 4-6 play in a best of three series; second round best of five; etc.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, Camden_yardbird said:

Due in large part to media contracts.  But we have seen what happens when those are over valued (ESPN layoffs).  The backlash is painful.  

I think the warning signs are there that despite the market valuation baseball is not a healthy sport in a number of ways. (Attendance, cheating, faith in the fairness of the game, tanking, stadium issues, unmarketed players).  

Manfred is not really addressing those issues.

The Fox media contract is very recent (Nov. 2018), and worth about 50% more than their last deal.    The next ESPN deal is expected to be similar.    I’ve been hearing about how the TV rights market was a bubble since at least 2013, but the reality is that rights fees continue to increase. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Philip said:

 I haven’t read the other comments yet, but this commissioner is such a complete disaster I cannot imagine that he hasn’t been quietly killed yet. I cannot fathom how a majority of the owners think he is a good thing for baseball. Every single move he has made has been bad.The worst was his reaction to the cheating scandal.

He cannot go soon enough, Hell, I’d even be willing to replace him with Dan.

The commissioner isn't going rogue here.  He would never do this without at least the tacit consent of the owners.  He was hired for a reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

 

You guys are hilarious.   Per Forbes, the average value of a major league team has increased from $1.2 bb to $1.78 bb in Msnfred’s first four years in office.    He’s not going anywhere.   

I am not sure why they would say the value has gone up that much.  Attendance is down.  TV viewership is down.  People who subscribe to RSN's is down.  Perhaps Forbes is wrong.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Frobby said:

The Fox media contract is very recent (Nov. 2018), and worth about 50% more than their last deal.    The next ESPN deal is expected to be similar.    I’ve been hearing about how the TV rights market was a bubble since at least 2013, but the reality is that rights fees continue to increase. 

I wouldn't be surprised if ESPN ditched the MLB.  One are of concern for Disney is these money losing Contracts for sports.  I can't imagine MLB is making any money for Disney.  

ESPN Sunday Night baseball average 1.6 million viewers.  Compared to the 12.6 million viewers they averaged for Monday Night football.  And the only reason they draw as much as they do is all the Yankees games on there. If they had an equal distribution of teams on their like the NFL does they probably would average less than a million per game. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, glenn__davis said:

It would be funny maybe like the first 1 or 2 times.  But it would happen so frequently that it would lose its luster.  A baseball playoff series is essentially a coin toss.  

It’s way too gimmicky and wreaks of Manfred desperately trying to attract younger fans. 

If this idea gets put in place then Manfred will go back to his horrid extra innings proposal of starting each inning with a runner at second base. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




  • Posts

    • Yeah the amenities are pretty outdated at the yard and they seem to do nothing year over year to improve them. The touchscreens have been banged on to death to the point they barely function, so you can't accurately fill out your order at the kiosks, and they don't have a way for the people behind the counter to ring you up at many of the food places. The sound is low to non-existent in certain sections of the club level, like around 218. Seems like there should be speakers that reach there but they might have been damaged by rain, etc. and they are too lazy to fix them. If you go to a game that's even slightly busy, you will wait forever to get into the bathroom, and the sink will be an absolute mess with no soap or paper towels. It's even worse on the club level where they have one sink that's right by the door. Nearby businesses don't care, either. The Hilton parking garage reeks of decay, pot and human waste. They don't turn on the air circulation fans, even if cars are waiting for an hour and a half to exit from P3, filling up the air with carbon monoxide. They only let you enter the stadium with one 20 oz bottle of water. It's so expensive to buy a drink or water in the stadium, but with all the salty food, 20 oz of water isn't enough, especially on a hot day. Vegetarian food options are poor to none, other than things like chips, fries, hot pretzels and the occasional pizza. Vida Taco is better, but at an inconvenient location for many seats. The doors on the club level are not accessible. They're anti-accessible. Big, heavy doors you have to go through to get to/from the escalators, and big, heavy doors to get to your seats, none of them automatic (or even with the option to be automatic with a button press). Makes it hard to carry food out to your seats even if not handicapped. The furniture in the lounges on the club level seem designed to allow as few people as possible to sit down. Not great when we have so many rain delays during the season. Should put more, smaller chairs in and allow more of the club level ticket holders to have a seat while waiting for thunderstorms to pass. They keep a lot of the entrance/exit gates closed except for playoff/sellout games, which means people have to slowly "mooooo" all the way down Eutaw St to get to parking. They are too cheap to staff all the gates, so they make people exit by the warehouse, even though it would be a lot more convenient for many fans to open all the gates. Taking Light Rail would be super convenient, except that if there's at least 20k fans in attendance, it's common to have to wait 90-120 minutes to be able to board a non-full train heading toward Glen Burnie. A few trains might come by, but they are already full, or fill up fast when folks walk up to the Convention Center stop to pre-empt the folks trying to board at Camden Station. None of the garages in the area are set up to require pre-payment on entry (reservation, or give them your card / digital payment at the entrance till). If they were, emptying out the garage would be very quick, as they wouldn't need to ticket anyone on the way out: if you can't get in without paying, you can always just leave without having to stop and scan your phone or put a ticket in the machine. They shut down the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Station in 2015 because the Maryland Stadium Authority was too greedy. That place was a fun distraction if you were in the area when a game wasn't about to start, like if you show up super early on Opening Day or a playoff day. Superbook's restaurant on Eutaw is a huge downgrade from Dempsey's in terms of menu and service quality. Dempsey's used to be well-staffed, you could reserve a table online, and they had all kinds of great selection for every diet. Superbook seems like just another bar serving the same swill that the rest of the park serves, with extremely minimal and low-quality food. For that matter, most of the food at the stadium is very low quality these days. A lot of things we used to love are made to a lower standard now if they are served at all. These are gripes about the stadium and the area that haven't changed my entire adult life. Going to an O's game requires one to tolerate many small inconveniences and several major inconveniences, any number of which could easily be fixed by the relevant authorities if they gave a damn about the people who pay to come see the team play. You would think a mid-market team would be able to afford to invest in the fan experience. You would think the city and partnering organizations like garages, the Stadium Authority and MTA would at least try to do their part to make the experience enjoyable and free of kinks. You would think they would put some thought into handling the "growing pains" of the fanbase due to recent renewed interest after the dark years. Instead, all we get is the same indifference and the same annoyances year in and year out. The whole area is overdue for a revamp. Not sure if $600 mil will get it done, but at least it's a start. Hopefully they can start to patch up some of the many holes in the fan experience. If you're not going to invest in Burnes, at least make it so paying customers have an easier, more enjoyable time getting to/from the stadium and having some food while we're there.
    • Elias has only been in rebuild mode with the O's so there's not much to speculate on there.  Houston, where he spent his formative years, doesn't seem to like to be on the hook for more than a couple of big long-term contracts at any given time.  I can see that as being Elias' choice as well, albeit with a lower overall cost - Houston runs a big payroll.  But it's all guesswork.  I really don't know. If Elias takes the 2025 payroll to $150 million it will creep up to $200 million or so by 2028 just from keeping the core together.  That's where I start to wonder about sustainability due to market size, economic forces, etc., etc., etc... If it were up to me, I would add a couple of free agents this offseason even if the contracts were longer than ideal and be conservative about extensions elsewhere until the prospects establish themselves a little better.  I think there's a competitive opportunity that the team is already into that's worth exploiting. I think ownership is very happy to have Elias on board and they're not inclined to force him to do anything.  I also think Rubenstein's demonstrated business prowess is great enough to assume that he has had plenty enough time to come to a mutual understanding with Elias as to goals.
    • We need a RH O’hearn…in addition to Westburg. At least 3 batters that will push up the pitch count and cause damage in the top 5 of the lineup.
    • Boy,  that Jackson Merrill is a good young player that is playing his best ball down the season stretch and in the playoffs.   He's only 21.  I guess some young guys are able to play up to the pressure.   Who could have guessed that?
    • I’m aware.   You are arguing something im Not.
    • What agreement? The agreement you are talking about happened as a result of the move.  The MASN agreement would not have existed if Angelos had gone to court to block the move.
    • I’m saying the Os had an agreement with MLB and that should have held up.  Been pretty clear about that. 
  • Popular Contributors

×
×
  • Create New...