Boswell on Attendance

[osfan83]

This is treating the symptom, not the cause, and is mainly a tool to protect the owners from their own stupidity.

I agree that the NFL-moment for one national TV contract is probably gone. The only possible way that MLB could do that is by virtue of their anti-trust exemption. If a commissionar had balls, he could try it. But it's sure not something that Bumbling Bud is gonna do. Plus, you can legitimately say it is unfair. The Yankees *should* have more money because of their larger market.

It's not disparity that makes it suck, it's the extremeness of it. I think there is a more-moderate way to fix the extreme disparity. It involves 3 things:

1. The main thing: make the teams split local TV net-revenue 50/50 with the rest. (This makes sense and is fair because the Yankees won't make a dime from TV money without a visiting team to play.) Each team keeps half their TV money and pays the other half into a pool of money. Then, every team gets a share of that pool. This makes the Yankees only twice as rich as the others.

2. A secondary thing: put an AL team in the Meadowlands. Move TAM there. This would dilute the NYY pie.

3. The other main thing: Require teams to invest their share of the pie into the roster, not the owner's pocket, else they don't get their share of the pool.

These actions would impact the cause of the problem, not just the superficial symptoms.

FA salaries are, in and of themselves, not the cause. It's the way the owners have constructed a system that makes FA salaries go crazy. The only reason the salaries are so high is that the owners didn't listen to Charley Finley: he told them that their own insistance on the *way* to handle FA is what would drive player salaries thru the roof. He was right. If they had done what Finley said, a small market team could compete. But the owners were, as usual, too stupid. I'm against a spending cap that will protect the stupid owners from themselves.

I personally don't have a problem with your plan... but I don't think you will ever get Steinbrenner to give up half his YES money, without a lot of litigation.

Don't know that an AL team in North Jersey will do much to the Yanks. Not for maybe 20 years. a generation or two of kids growing up with the Jersey team might build a fan base, but that will have to be coupled with a nice long losing period by the Yanks.

A minimum spending limit is fine...but cities like KC, Pitt, Tampa and others would have to be convinced they could win under the system before the fans came back... and if these owners are going to be forced to spend more on their roster, there better be more people comming through the gate!

BTW Hockey went through this same problem but to a much lesser extent. Most of the NHL money comes from local contracts. The Rangers were outspending the league... but the Rangers wern't smart enough to put together a winner with their extra money. Last years work stopage addressed the problem, and now there are both minimums and maximums teams can spend on their rosters.

[mojmann]

Change isn't going to happen anytime soon. Overall, baseball is thriving right now.

But the crash will come eventually.

[RShack]

I personally don't have a problem with your plan... but I don't think you will ever get Steinbrenner to give up half his YES money, without a lot of litigation.

Then let him face a season with no opposition teams. How much would the Yankees take in then? That wouldn't need to happen, but it makes the point: it's not about "taking something away" from him, it's about changing the MLB formula for splitting TV money. I might be wrong, but AFAIK, I think TV money is something that MLB treats like it doesn't exist, it's in a different category than other forms of revenue. Regardless, TV money comes from selling an MLB product and MLB owners can vote to redefine how much MLB gets for that product. I think the big battle would be between accountants as much as between lawyers. But such things can be sorted out.

Don't know that an AL team in North Jersey will do much to the Yanks.

It's just the only way I can think to dilute their huge advantage in market size. Can you and Bird_Man think of other ways to accomplish that goal?

[DrungoHazewood]

I don't see a Northern NJ team having that big an impact on the Yanks, Mets.

NJ has 2 teams of its own (Devils, Nets) and they are the poor sisters to their NY counterparts (Rangers, Knicks) despite being much better run franchises.

Put the Devil Rays in the Meadowlands and no one will care. Few will drop their Yankees, Mets allegiances.

One team in NJ might not solve many problems. But a whole system overhaul, where all the minor leagues are independent, the NL and AL are independent from one another... that would fix a lot. Teams would be free to move anywhere they wanted. Leagues would be free to put teams anywhere they pleased. One NJ team in the majors would only dent the Yanks and the Mets, but 12 independent, competing minor league teams and 4-5 major league teams in the greater NY area would eventually make the competitive advantages of fielding a team there quite small. One team in KC would have similar resources to a team with only a fraction of a scattered, diffuse NY market.

It happens in European soccer. London, as a percentage of the UK market, is like New York, Chicago, and Houston put together. But there are a dozen or more soccer teams in various levels splitting the London market and none of them have a permanent advantage. Smart soccer management and independently rich owners decide who'll be competitive, not geography and monopolistic abuses.

[SilentJames]

JEEEZ I hate that excuse. Angelos has been the owner for at least 10 years and scouting, drafting and player evaluations have been horrible. HE is directly responsible for the 8 straight losing seasons.

EBW and Jacobs should be credited for Camden Yards not the destruction of the Orioles. That credit is owned by peter angelos, attorney at law and family.

Given the number of high draft picks the Orioles have had over the past 8 years, having only 4 players in the top 100 of baseball prospects (Markakis inlcuded) and none in the top 10 is direct reflection upon angelos sterling incompetence as an owner.

bewteen 83 and 93 how many everyday, on-the-field starters ACCTUALLY panned out for us that came out of our system?

Eli and EBW began the divorce from the city and EBW wanted to move the team to the DC suburbs - Im not saying that they should be demonized but they got off because they had the luxury of being an owner at a time when owners really didnt matter that much, if EBW were around today I bet you he would be just as hated as Angelos.