Who is to blame if there is not MLB baseball in 2020?

[MongoBoy]

1 hour ago, Yossarian said:

Where would you say they have "made" money?  They get no revenue from ticket sales?  They are paying out player salaries.  I would venture a guess that they have lost money on stock holdings.  Are they getting income from TV rights for games that are not being played?  I'm not sure.  I would bet that they really are "losing" money during this whole thing.  Just like the rest of us.

Billionaires (millionaires) have their hand in more than 1 business.  It's like when investing in the stock market.  You diversify.  They do not have all of their eggs in one basket.  Some owners may also be treating their teams as a business write off.  Not all of them are like Kennedys where the money was just passed down. They didn't become billionaires by making bad decisions.   I'm also pretty sure they are insured against this sort of thing. 

[scOtt]

1 hour ago, MongoBoy said:

Billionaires (millionaires) have their hand in more than 1 business.  It's like when investing in the stock market.  You diversify.  They do not have all of their eggs in one basket.  Some owners may also be treating their teams as a business write off.  Not all of them are like Kennedys where the money was just passed down. They didn't become billionaires by making bad decisions.   I'm also pretty sure they are insured against this sort of thing. 

One thing to consider. We talk about (and think) that there are 30 Billionaire owners, or at least multi-hundred millionaires. While that is true to a point, they are only the the controlling interest CEO's of teams. Teams like the Orioles for example, are also partly owned by minority owners. These are not billionaires for the most part. Tom Clancy's widow (ok he DID make a LOT of money! ) Pam Shriver, Jim MacKay at one time, I can't remember more right now, but these are for the most part not filthy rich by any means. Just very well off with an interest in their home team. Not rich enough to be widely diversified like an Angelos or a Steinbrenner. These minor investors will be hurt if they don't play. No dividend that they probably kind of count on every year.  Like Clarke Griswold's Jelly of the Month Club.

[George]

1 hour ago, MongoBoy said:

Billionaires (millionaires) have their hand in more than 1 business.  It's like when investing in the stock market.  You diversify.  They do not have all of their eggs in one basket.  Some owners may also be treating their teams as a business write off.  Not all of them are like Kennedys where the money was just passed down. They didn't become billionaires by making bad decisions.   I'm also pretty sure they are insured against this sort of thing. 

A CPA needs to pore over tax returns to attain a true picture of an owner's MLB business.

If a billionaire signs off on a bad contract, then the contract must be honored. It's our free enterprise system. You win some, you lose some. Self-made billionaires win more than they lose.

[Can_of_corn]

Just now, George said:

A CPA needs to pore over tax returns to attain a true picture of an owner's MLB business.

If a billionaire signs off on a bad contract, then the contract must be honored. It's our free enterprise system. You win some, you lose some. Self-made billionaires win more than they lose.

How many MLB owners count as self made billionaires?

[George]

31 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

How many MLB owners count as self made billionaires?

Don't know the answer for MLB owners. Most billionaires inherit the foundaiton of their great wealth. Inheritance taxes are mostly avoided by tax attorneys specializing in estates.

[atomic]

I don’t really care who is to blame. If they can’t come to an agreement they will only be hurting themselves. But in the end it is their decisions. As long as the players aren’t say things like they deserve full salary because they are risking their lives I don’t get upset about it. 
 

Playoff hockey will be on soon enough. Plus with everything being closed like schools and summer camps and stores I frequent, my trips to Barbados and Denmark cancelled it makes me realize how meaningless baseball is. 

They could never play another baseball game and I would be fine. Blake Snell and the Angelos boys might have to get real jobs. Affects them a lot more than me.

[atomic]

7 hours ago, Dipper9 said:

I have no problem with this line of thinking.

But by the same token, when they return in 2021 or whenever, don't be shocked by the small crowds in their ballparks.  

At some point these overpaid "entertainers" need to realize that without fans, there is no sport.  So in that respect, perhaps this pandemic is the wake up call needed to improve the sports model across all sports.  

Also if less people are employed there will be less advertising dollars as businesses have less revenue they will pull back on advertising budget.  We are in a world of pain economically. Players and owners are going to have to come to grips with having less income.

[now]

6 hours ago, forphase1 said:

We all know that the underlying cause of the season not being played is the virus. 

The one element missing from this search for blame and root cause is the most direct one: the regulatory response to the virus (i.e., lockdown) that mandates closure of such events as MLB.

[Chavez Ravine]

It’s the new reality. Do you play a game, sing in the church choir, attend a lecture, do tequila slammers in Cabo now that all that marginally adds  to your risk of death (more than it already did) and also contributes to increasing the likelihood that your grandma and friend with chronic asthma might die? Or more pertinently, that some anonymous stranger might die?

[orioles119]

46 minutes ago, Chavez Ravine said:

It’s the new reality. Do you play a game, sing in the church choir, attend a lecture, do tequila slammers in Cabo now that all that marginally adds  to your risk of death (more than it already did) and also contributes to increasing the 0.02% chance that your grandma and friend with chronic asthma might die? Or more pertinently, that some anonymous stranger might die?

Thought I would update this with the more recent data point.  After all, the CDC can't decide anymore what to do with this virus anymore than all of us sitting here at our keyboards.

[Chavez Ravine]

13 minutes ago, orioles119 said:

Thought I would update this with the more recent data point.  After all, the CDC can't decide anymore what to do with this virus anymore than all of us sitting here at our keyboards.

They are clear on what to do with your chickens:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/health/salmonella-outbreak-chicks-ducklings-kiss-trnd/index.html

[scOtt]

41 minutes ago, Chavez Ravine said:

It’s the new reality. Do you play a game, sing in the church choir, attend a lecture, do tequila slammers in Cabo now that all that marginally adds  to your risk of death (more than it already did) and also contributes to increasing the likelihood that your grandma and friend with chronic asthma might die? Or more pertinently, that some anonymous stranger might die?

That's my biggest fear. I've never said it on here before but I live at home with my mother. In the house with the famous balcony. She's 82 and has chronic breathing problems among other things. I'm 57, almost 58. My weight and BP and cholesterol is down but I'm far from healthy. I eat processed crap mostly, drink way too much and smoke two packs a day. I am highly at risk and fear that when I go out for groceries or tobacco or beer or whatever that I will pick up on something and bring it home and infect mom. And she will NOT survive this.

So I glove up and mask up religiously. I go out to 3 stores? I use 3 pairs of gloves. I wash my masks with anti-bacterial periodically. I'm as careful as careful can be. I take this crap serious af!

 

The "famous" balcony.

[scOtt]

24 minutes ago, orioles119 said:

Thought I would update this with the more recent data point.  After all, the CDC can't decide anymore what to do with this virus anymore than all of us sitting here at our keyboards.

That's the worst fear in this! And people slam the CDC like they change their minds every day so I'm just going the do whatever the F I want to do.

That's STUPID. They change their minds because NOBODY understands this confounded virus yet! Data and our (collective) SLIM knowledge of this virus changes daily, weekly. So until we get a handle on it we need to do the best and simplest things we can to slow it down. Which is is WEAR A GD MASK when you're out! Stay tf home. Don't be out at bars and baseball games and bowling and haircuts where you are either spreading or picking up this virus. Ignore politicians. Listen to medical professionals who are trying their best to combat this.

[scOtt]

Took me FOREVER to find that balcony picture. Ten minutes at least. Photobucket changed their format and the new one is totally unusable!

Why do sites keep changing [shtuff] for the sake of changing? It's never an upgrade, it's just now I have to search around to find where crap is that I used to get to lickety split in 10 seconds. I blame Bill Gates.

[Chavez Ravine]

7 minutes ago, scOtt said:

Took me FOREVER to find that balcony picture. Ten minutes at least. Photobucket changed their format and the new one is totally unusable!

Why do sites keep changing [shtuff] for the sake of changing? It's never an upgrade, it's just now I have to search around to find where crap is that I used to get to lickety split in 10 seconds. I blame Bill Gates.

I think because if they only employed the ten or so folks that made meaningful and actual improvements every ten years or so, the economy would be even more screwy than it already is. I have used tech continuously for the past 35 years and can count on one hand the things that have actually improved over that time.