Monday, May 08, 2006

It's Not the Marlins Fans That Matter To the Franchise,...

...it's the fans of the Mets and Yankees and other big-market teams that are literally the money-stream keeping the Marlins and other small-market teams going, according to Mike S. of Mike's Mets blog.

In that link, he quotes several articles on the subject of revenue-sharing, including Jayson Stark quoting an unnamed "prominent baseball man" whose description of small-market-team economics sounds suspiciously like what the Marlins are trying to do (or avoid):

"Talk about welfare, there's zero incentive for these teams to take that (revenue-sharing) money and spend it. ... If they get better, they draw more people. If they draw more people, they get a better TV contract and they sell more hot dogs. And if you do that, you lose your $30 million a year [in revenue-sharing money only]. Then you actually have to run your franchise like a real business and make it work."

2 comments:

Mike said...

I'm the person who wrote the post that you're linking to. I don't really consider the Marlins a small-market team. I think with a domed baseball stadium -- if it ever happens -- the Marlins will be a successful franchise.

It seems to me, as an outsider looking in, that this is more about the Marlins and state and local governments playing chicken with each other, and the Marlins fans are just pawns.

Again, though, I'd never characterize South Florida as a small market.

photi said...

That's true, even though people have been pegging it as such for so long it's almost automatic to believe it. The fact that it isn't is shown by looking at every market the Marlins have threatened to move to this time around, each one smaller than South Florida.

I even agree with you on another thing - baseball obviously can work here. Their first year the Marlins drew over 3 million fans and 1997 over 2.3 million, even with all the rain. Personally I think they haven't really recovered from the 1994 strike. That hiatus planted the seeds of suspicion that continued to grow with Huizenga's dismantling and sale, Henry's double-talk and then sale to a proven franchise-killer who ends up doing another dismantling, and MLB's threats of contraction and relocation. Even after 2 World Series wins, the fans down here know enough not to get their hopes up too high, because round the corner is coming another threat or another fire sale.

I think the fans want to see a finalized commitment to this area, both from the front office and MLB. That's what the stadium represents, not just a over-sized umbrella.