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Another Modest Proposal
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Monday, November 20, 2006
Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently took a long pull of the black bottle veterinarians used to put aging pets to sleep. In the article, Smizik states, "One of the reasons is because of the message the ticket-buying public sent to the Pirates last season when 1.86 million purchased tickets to give the team its fifth-highest attendance in history. By their willingness to spend money to watch a 14th consecutive losing season and by showing up in astonishing numbers late in the season, these people told Pirates ownership exactly what it wants to hear:"
Bob seems to think 1.86 million tickets sold is a large amount. Sure, it is the fifth highest amount sold in Pirates' history, but that is more of a condemnation of the Pirates' historic inability to draw well at the box office rather than a message that fans are swarming the stadium. The Pirates were 27th in MLB attendance, drawing just 23,269 in sales per game. The disheartening fact is the Pirates had a strong season ticket boost because of the All Star Game (over 11,000 full season ticket packages were sold). In contrast, in the Mexican League, the Monterrey Sultans averaged 17,990 a game while the nearby Saltillo Sarape Makers drew 10,634 a game.
Are teams like the Pirates, who are perennial losers and poor box office draws, good for baseball? The Pirates only drew 27,586 per game on the road (26th in the majors). Meanwhile, they guzzled from the pitcher of revenue sharing like a man with a hangover takes of pull from the orange juice carton straight from the fridge while his wife still sleeps. Most importantly, they don't appear to use any of that money to better their organization. Why should the other owners continue to subsidize their incompetence? (BTW, I am not just picking on the Pirates here, substitute any other perennial loser).
What teams like the Pirates need is an incentive to better themselves. Owners like the Paper Boy Prince and the McNutty's are past the point of positive reinforcement they need a swift swat from a large stick across their buttocks. Contraction is not a viable threat, so how about stripping their major league status and putting a AAA team in the city while the major league club plays somewhere else, say Monterrey, Portland, or Havana (once Castro goes to the big communist block in the sky)?
Punish perennial losers and poor attendance draws by forcing their team to play elsewhere if they don't clean up their act. A team that remain under .500 for five consecutive years becomes a candidate for re-location. Same with teams that can't draw over 2.3 million in that time period. After the five years, the "qualifying" teams with the worst record in each league gets moved and a AAA team plays in their stadium for the year. MLB gets the revenues from the relocated team while the losers get the AAA revenues. The city gets in major league team back after one year, and the next bunch of losers take their place. After about another five years, the bottom feeders will have either made themselves competitive or sold the team. At that time, MLB should expand into the markets they used as the stick.
Sure, the logistics are going to be a pain the ass. Flying into Monterrey is no picnic, plus the MLBPA is going to have something to say about the travel having to play games in the heat. However, the MLBPA is going to see owners spend more on salaries to remain competitive, so the long term gains should make them come around. Besides, the five year threat period might be enough to get the bottom feeders motivated, and the re-locations would be unnecessary.
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Another Modest Proposal
Bob seems to think 1.86 million tickets sold is a large amount. Sure, it is the fifth highest amount sold in Pirates' history, but that is more of a condemnation of the Pirates' historic inability to draw well at the box office rather than a message that fans are swarming the stadium. The Pirates were 27th in MLB attendance, drawing just 23,269 in sales per game. The disheartening fact is the Pirates had a strong season ticket boost because of the All Star Game (over 11,000 full season ticket packages were sold). In contrast, in the Mexican League, the Monterrey Sultans averaged 17,990 a game while the nearby Saltillo Sarape Makers drew 10,634 a game.
Are teams like the Pirates, who are perennial losers and poor box office draws, good for baseball? The Pirates only drew 27,586 per game on the road (26th in the majors). Meanwhile, they guzzled from the pitcher of revenue sharing like a man with a hangover takes of pull from the orange juice carton straight from the fridge while his wife still sleeps. Most importantly, they don't appear to use any of that money to better their organization. Why should the other owners continue to subsidize their incompetence? (BTW, I am not just picking on the Pirates here, substitute any other perennial loser).
What teams like the Pirates need is an incentive to better themselves. Owners like the Paper Boy Prince and the McNutty's are past the point of positive reinforcement they need a swift swat from a large stick across their buttocks. Contraction is not a viable threat, so how about stripping their major league status and putting a AAA team in the city while the major league club plays somewhere else, say Monterrey, Portland, or Havana (once Castro goes to the big communist block in the sky)?
Punish perennial losers and poor attendance draws by forcing their team to play elsewhere if they don't clean up their act. A team that remain under .500 for five consecutive years becomes a candidate for re-location. Same with teams that can't draw over 2.3 million in that time period. After the five years, the "qualifying" teams with the worst record in each league gets moved and a AAA team plays in their stadium for the year. MLB gets the revenues from the relocated team while the losers get the AAA revenues. The city gets in major league team back after one year, and the next bunch of losers take their place. After about another five years, the bottom feeders will have either made themselves competitive or sold the team. At that time, MLB should expand into the markets they used as the stick.
Sure, the logistics are going to be a pain the ass. Flying into Monterrey is no picnic, plus the MLBPA is going to have something to say about the travel having to play games in the heat. However, the MLBPA is going to see owners spend more on salaries to remain competitive, so the long term gains should make them come around. Besides, the five year threat period might be enough to get the bottom feeders motivated, and the re-locations would be unnecessary.
bads85 at 5:43:00 PM EST Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
11/22/06 10:22 PM