Yanks get Mo's successor

Yes, and if I want to go out and buy an Italian leather couch and I only have $1,000 and old laundered bits of snotrag in my pocket, I'm going to pretty much be shit out of luck, too.

 

The truth.

 

From the guy who thinks teams should lose massive amounts of money every year so they can keep up, so it is just your delusional version of the truth.

 

It still isn't sinking in that I'm not criticizing the choices the Rays made, is it? I'm criticizing the system that forces them to make those decisions while the big-revenue franchises don't have to.

spnited, on the other hand, is criticizing them.

 

OOP, don't blame the system. Blame, if you must, the people of Tampa-St. Petersburg. The Rays built an entertaining and successful team that was a pennant contender and went to the World Series once in 2008-2010. And people just didn't reward them by buying tickets -- not in sufficient quantities anyway. In 2010, it was obvious during every broadcast of a Sox-Rays game from down there the gate was still largely bumped by traveling Red Sox fans. Minus the bump in attendance that is supposed to and usually does follow winning, a franchise doesn't get the bump it should from broadcast and sponsorship revenue, either, because cable networks and potential sponsors take their cue from the paid attendance agate line:
I don't think baseball's financial system is the Rays' problem. Those are, IMO, their dreadful stadium and more generally the over 15 years of evidence we have that Florida is just a shitty place to sell regular season baseball.
If the Pirates were ever to get good (dream on I know), the history of Pittsburgh as a sports town suggests they would be rewarded financially for the expense of building a winner.

 

The last time the Pirates were good, in the early '90s, they were still at the bottom of the majors in revenue and attendance. That was even with a run of three consecutive appearances in the NLCS with the best player in the National League playing left field for them.

That has always been my point. The potential revenue just isn't there in some cities. They can make a profit, but they will never bring in revenue on a level to be competitive with what the big markets do.

So the big markets have the advantage even if the small markets do things right and build a winner as the Rays have.

 

Can we have an actual baseball conversation? Didn't you guys once make a thread to funnel all of this into so the rest of us don't have to read you saying the same thing hundreds of times over and over?

 

I believe it was killed by the mods. Sorry, Guy. I can imagine why you don't like the discussion of the impact of money on baseball as a Yankee fan. And I can understand just being sick of it. But it absolutely relates to this story.

 

OK, so bring it up, point out the connection & stop taking the Pavlovian bait which drags you into the tiresome repetitive stuff. This has nothing to with the Yankees - I just feel my eyes glazing over when it gets started (I keep waiting to see when it deteriorates into whether The Steelers QB raped the fake sell-out crowd in Jacksonville). As a Cowboy fan, Jet-hater, American (=beyond casual hockey fan) & casual Knick fan still in recovery from the Isaiah era, I'm desperate for any real baseball conversation, which is what I think is going on when a thread on the Yankees signing their first prominent FA of the off-season, only to find the latest breathless update on the debate about whether or not you suck.

 

Did you mean to say your frustration has nothing to do with you being a Yankee fan? I'm sorry, but I know many Yankee fans don't like this topic because they feel like it diminishes the accomplishments of the team. And in my eyes, it does.

The one thing far more tired than money in baseball discussions is the Pavlov comments. Spare me. I enjoy debating the topic and it absolutely applies here.

Debates are going to get repetitive on here sometimes. Comes with the territory. If you want to discuss some other aspect of Soriano's signing, by all means, suggest it.

 

Do you realize what an economically depressed part of the country the Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater area is? The unemployment rate is over 12 percent.

 

OOP definitely sucks. I didn't think that was up for debate. *ducks and runs*