The author suggests penalizing small market teams for sitting on funds rather than spending them on payroll. The Pirates make an appearance.
The author is exactly right: the small market teams, Nutting being the prime culprit here, are using the larger markets to make their profits. The big market teams are willing to trade that money for two reasons: the small market teams make for easy competition in the race to make the playoffs, and the small market teams serve as schedule fillers for the big market teams. All 30 owners win with this arrangement, but fans in almost half of the markets rarely have the chance to see their team reach the postseason.
The author suggested that a salary floor be within 10% of the luxury tax ($213 million this year). It might be asking too much of a handful of franchises to meet that obligation. But more importantly, the floor shouldn’t be that high. Rather, make the floor lower, like $150 million because it would take away the ability of the larger markets to sign all of the best players. This would allow all the franchise to compete for players because the players would have to spread themselves out. They all couldn’t play in NY, Boston, Philly, Atlanta, Chicago, and LA. This would help to insure competitive balance and still allow for all the teams to make a profit.
It kills me that Nutting can collect all this money and never have to do anything with it in order to be competitive.
I can't see MLB doing it, but it would be nice to see a system where the owner profits by number of fans attending (as opposed to the MLB handout). Give a lot more incentive to put a good product on the field.
Just watched the American League Playoff game, and that excitement in Cleveland was something. It is a darn shame that our owner is such a penny pincher that we cannot have that excitement in Pittsburgh. I have mentioned it before, and I will say it again I think his ultimate goal is to move the team from Pittsburgh when the lease is up at PNC Park in 2030. What a rotten individual if that is his future plan.
fjk090852-7 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 1:36 am
Just watched the American League Playoff game, and that excitement in Cleveland was something. It is a darn shame that our owner is such a penny pincher that we cannot have that excitement in Pittsburgh. I have mentioned it before, and I will say it again I think his ultimate goal is to move the team from Pittsburgh when the lease is up at PNC Park in 2030. What a rotten individual if that is his future plan.
I don't think he wants to move the team. Why would he? He's making a nice profit and that's all he cares about. If he went to another city, they'd be all excited and expect to have a competitive team. But he'd still keep the #29 or so payroll and continue to lose while making his money from MLB luxury tax. Since he doesn't offer a competitive product, he wouldn't be packing a ballpark with fans somewhere else any more than he does in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is sadly accustomed to Nutting's ways. But doing the same thing in a different city that got excited when he brought MLB to them would quickly get them very angry and might even put political pressure on him to change his way of doing business.
fjk090852-7 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 18, 2024 1:36 am
Just watched the American League Playoff game, and that excitement in Cleveland was something. It is a darn shame that our owner is such a penny pincher that we cannot have that excitement in Pittsburgh. I have mentioned it before, and I will say it again I think his ultimate goal is to move the team from Pittsburgh when the lease is up at PNC Park in 2030. What a rotten individual if that is his future plan.
I don't think he wants to move the team. Why would he? He's making a nice profit and that's all he cares about. If he went to another city, they'd be all excited and expect to have a competitive team. But he'd still keep the #29 or so payroll and continue to lose while making his money from MLB luxury tax. Since he doesn't offer a competitive product, he wouldn't be packing a ballpark with fans somewhere else any more than he does in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is sadly accustomed to Nutting's ways. But doing the same thing in a different city that got excited when he brought MLB to them would quickly get them very angry and might even put political pressure on him to change his way of doing business.
Agreed. I don’t see him going through the hassle of moving just to run the same grift in another city. He’ll do what he can to bleed as much as he can from the western PA community when the PNC Park lease is up. What I’m going to be interested in is if PNC will continue to be willing to attach its name to the ballpark that houses Nutting’s failing organization. The bank can’t be happy with how that’s worked out. But then what other enterprise would want to do business with, and have their name associated with, a guy like him? He wants the easy money that goes along with naming rights. If he can’t get it, he’ll spend even less than he is now.