A quick note on the business side of things
1 Comments Published by Colin Wyers on Friday, March 7, 2008 at 11:05 PM.
It's getting really late and I should be getting to bed soon, so I'm going to just hotlink this and deal with this tomorrow.
But TribCo VP/general council Crane Kenney, who's apparently been the Shadow Government of the Cubs for some time now, has sat down with the beat writers and gone over the myriad of business issues that face the club.
I'll be honest - I haven't had time to read all of these yet, just skim them. here's what sticks out at me at first glance:
- I still am far from thrilled with the angle the Sun-Times is taking on this; it's very tabloidy and sensational. Which, I suppose, is the Sun-Times for you.
- Apparently payroll is "north of $120 million;" I want to see how that matches up against what's been published. (I haven't updated my salary chart since mid-December, when the Cubs were right around $117 million.)
- The Cubs seem to be aggressively trying to find new revenue streams; they seem to want to push into Spanish-language radio broadcasts, for example.
- Kenney claims the Cubs are now actually more independent of TribCo than before, which seems to contract the surface impression but on second blush seems like a reasonable enough assertion.
All of this is going to bear more examination; hopefully I'll return to the topic tomorrow.
Labels: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Finances, Media
I've been to a DMB concert before, and it's probably one of the more inspiring live shows I've had a chance to go to. (Of course, the fact that I spent a good part of high school downloading bootlegged DMB concerts probably had a bit to do with that.) Just... if you're in St. Louis around that time and you need pot, well, now you know where to find it. There will be pot.
And as a division rival, it pains me to see the Cardinals doing something like this. After all, the extra revenue from this will easily subsidize their big free agent acquisitions. Like... Cesar Izturis. And Matt Clement.
Oh. Right.
Well at least they got to keep their big departing free agents, like Troy Percival and fan favorite David Eckstein.
Oh. Right.
Have fun, Cardinals fans!
It's Zell's money, and he needs it now!
1 Comments Published by Colin Wyers on Friday, February 29, 2008 at 11:26 AM.
Have you just bought a decaying major media corporation with a massive debt load? Is your credit rating reaching junk bond status? Are hedge funds considering $1.26 billion of your debt to be in default?
J.G. Wentworth can help!
J.G. Wentworth can turn your structured Major League Baseball franchise revenue into cash now! Simply sell off stadium naming rights and sell the stadium to the State!
It's your money! Use it when you need it!
Labels: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Finances
I'm really starting to get annoyed with the faux populism the Sun-Times is showing over Zell's plans to sell the naming rights for the Cubs.
Or maybe that understates things. It started off as annoying, at least - now it's passing over into outrageous. The Sun-Times, to be quite frank, is engaging in the sort of coverage that seems more in line with the days of Hearst than the modern, "objective" era we live in. They're not covering the story, they're creating it:
Even now, a mob clad in Cubbie blue is massing on the North Side, preparing to march to Michigan Avenue and storm Tribune Tower.
Well, it at least felt that way this week, after hundreds of furious Cubs fans e-mailed the Chicago Sun-Times in response to Tribune boss Sam Zell's plan to sell naming rights to Wrigley Field.
At least it felt that way. Conveniently illustrated with a photo of a mob of Cubs fans, designed to evoke the feel of the mob:
And this cute caption: "Hundreds of furious fans have emailed the Chicago Sun-Times in response to Tribune boss Sam Zell's plan to sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field."
I'm sorry, but nobody in that photo is e-mailing anyone. If anything they're welcoming Hitler to Nuremberg.
It's shoddy journalism and it's downright misleading and dishonest. The Sun-Times is exploiting the situation to sell newspapers, and using provocative and outlandish coverage to do it. It's self-serving and irresponsible.
Which isn't even the worst part - it fails to fully cover the issue at hand. Maury Brown, probably the best writer out there at uncovering what's going on over on the business side of sports, gives us the real reason Cubs fans should be concerned:
Sam Zell needs your money, and he’s looking in every nook and cranny to get it.
By now, you’ve heard that Zell (the now owner of the Tribune Co., ergo the Cubs) fully intends on selling off Wrigley Field, thus breaking apart two assets (the Cubs and Wrigley) that are synonymous with each other. He's doing so in an attempt to gain more revenues than the selling of the two as a package would have otherwise garnered.
But, while he does own the Cubs and Wrigley, Zell is looking to maximize the assets to squeeze even more out of the Friendly Confines.
...
Sam Zell is a business man, and not a business man interested Major League Baseball. Zell's whole direction is one of making money with his investments, either by selling assets or maximizing them. After all, Tribune is in $13 billion worth of debt. He is, no doubt, interested in getting his cash flow working to address that issue.
...
For fans of baseball -- and surely as the sun rises tomorrow, MLB thinks the same -- the sooner Sam Zell is removed from all things Chicago Cubs the better. While other corporate ownerships have been chastised by some fans for not doing enough to improve the team for the future, Zell isn't interested in anything more than getting as much money out of the Cubs and Wrigley as he can, and doing so yesterday would be nice, if you don't mind.
Go and read the whole article if you have time - it's absolutely fascinating. And then below the article you can find more of Brown's writings about Zell and the Tribune situation.
Zell is attempting to make a quick buck, and he doesn't care how he does it. He is literally mortgaging the future of the Cubs in order to pay off the Tribune's debts. This is why he's selling off anything he can that could conceivably provide the next owner with revenue in the next 30 years. Zell doesn't care about the Cubs; he cares about the massive debt the Tribune carries.
What Zell is doing today could hold down payroll for the Cubs for decades to come. That's the story here, and by obsessing over this populist campaign of theirs instead, the Sun-Times is doing Cubs fans everywhere a massive disservice.
Labels: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Finances
Anyone who's ever questioned the desire of athletes to chase the money needs to read John Brattain's article about Santana wanting out of Minnesota.
After four postseasons and two Cy Youngs, all of which made tons of money for the Pohlad family, Santana, could, with one more year’s work, reap the fruits of his labor and do what all too many major leaguers never do and hit the open market.
It was this set of circumstances caused that Jim Pohlad to utter the statement: “There's loyalty and wanting to stay in Minnesota, and it varies from player to player.” What did Pohlad mean by this? In all practical terms in meant that Santana’s loyalty should translate into accepting less money than he is worth in baseball’s marketplace.
If Santana accepted this route, what would happen in the grand scheme of things—who benefits? Will the savings cause prices to watch Twins games to go down?
No.
Will it reduce the costs of going to games in the new park?
No.
Will your cable/satellite package that carries Twins games go down?
No.
Will the extra money be ploughed back into the roster?
Possible, but the Pohlad family’s track record indicates otherwise.
What then happens to the money Santana forgoes?
It goes right back into the pockets of the Pohlad family.
What the Pohlads are saying in effect is that the loyalty means that a kid from Venezuela who worked at his profession for 14 years to get to this point in his life should subsidize one of the wealthiest men in one of the richest countries on the planet.
I vaguely recall a Chris Rock sketch where he said something like, "Shaq is rich. The man who writes his checks is wealthy." It absolutely exasperates me - people, the cost savings of not handing out those big contracts go straight to the people who make the money off these things. Fans who get bent out of shape about the size of contracts - the absolute morans out in right field who booed Jacque Jones just because of the size of his contract, for example - have absolutely no context. If the money didn't go to Jacque Jones, do you know who it goes to? Tribune shareholders. Or debtholders.
And fans are obsessive about treating baseball as all-business, "nothing personal," when it suits our needs. A guy stops performing, we demand that he be sent down or shipped off. A guy gets past his prime, we are adamant that our team not sign the guy for anything more than a minor-league deal and a NRI.
And the team owners - well, it's certainly a business to them. And, on the whole, they do everything possible to wring every dime out of their players.
So why do we insist on athletes showing loyalty, when nobody is willing to show them any? And almost every major sports franchise is a corporate welfare case - they're the ones that need to be showing the locals some loyalty, not their employees. If your team isn't willing to spend enough - don't blame the rich. Blame the wealthy.
Maury Brown looks at team salary
0 Comments Published by Colin Wyers on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 1:39 PM.
On one hand, don't expect to be too surprised at the generalities. The Yankees and the Red Sox are wildly outspending everyone. The Marlins and the Devil Rays aren't spending anything.
But it does put to rest the idea that only the rich teams can compete. Rich teams like the White Sox and the Mariners went home empty-handed, while poor teams like the Diamondbacks and Rockies made deep playoff runs.
As far as the Cubs went - they placed eighth in salary overall on opening day, but by the end of the season had crept up to fifth place, with $115 million in salary. Only the Red Sox and the Yankees, of all the playoff teams, spent more per marginal win. But at least they made the playoffs, right?
Labels: Baseball, Chicago Cubs, Finances
