Balta1701

The problem with that model is that there are 20 teams that go into an NBA season with pretty much no hope of winning. This hurts their season ticket sales, this hurts their walk up sales, this hurts their big business clients, this murders their ability to grow fanbases. Just ask yourself this Q...how many people in China are going to tune in to see a Kings/TWolves game? Or buy a walkup ticket? If the NFL is the model for a successful league...the NFL operates totally differently. Almost every team goes into the season having some reason for hope. Baseball is almost the same way, with some Pittsburghian exceptions. In the NBA, if you don't have a winning local team, the only reason to buy season tickets is to see when Lebron and Rose come to town, and you can do that by buying 3-4 tickets if you really care. And there's almost zero reason to tune in on TV. Supposedly, the NBA's numbers last year showed a $300 million loss...but there were like 8 teams that turned a >$100 million profit (combined). So 20 or so teams lost $20 million each, and the rest turned in $8 million or so in profits. If you're in the $20 million lost crowd...there's very little obvious path to getting in the top if you don't nail a draft pick, and then that still doesn't guarantee you a shot at a title if you don't overspend.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 03:20 PM) No one wants to deal him, it is all matter of Matt being "expensive" and us having cheap replacements. I'm not even sure we have cheap replacements, based on what Thornton normally provides. I'd call the motivation for dealing him "Getting something more useful back based on our current situation." If we don't get that...then he's out in the pen next April.

Perry pulled in $17 million in Q3. This is a solid number, similar to what Romney pulled in in Q1 when he announced. I haven't seen a Q3 number for Mittens yet.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 02:26 PM) They paid something like $130 million in revenue sharing in 2010. The National TV contracts alone are about $600 million a year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 02:22 PM) Teams with those payrolls don't receive funds. Yes they do. Baseball takes in an enormous amount of shared funds these days. DirecTV package, radio packages, merchandise, playoff revenue, national TV contracts, ESPN contracts, those funds don't just go to the low revenue teams. The Luxury tax dollars go to the low salary teams...but at this point, even the Yankees are only paying a small luxury tax amount.

Maybe you should visit Detroit. Chrysler's ads tell me that you need a visa.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 02:17 PM) They call that in the business "a joke". I think he's setting himself up for legal action against himself. Lying to the government like that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 02:17 PM) Not with a $75 million payroll Boras suggested a couple years ago that for the low-salary teams, revenue sharing dollars were totalling something in the $80-$90 million range.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 09:54 AM) So you'd be against signing Kazmir to a minor league deal, why???? Season FA-Vel 2007 92.4 2008 91.8 2009 91.2 2010 90.6 2011 86.8 He's either hurt or he's off something. I don't want to pay for his surgery and I don't want him if he's on something. If he were to come in and clock 93 on a radar gun, fine.

You don't smoke or drink?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 02:11 PM) And watch your season ticket base go back to 1970 levels. With revenue sharing dollars, it still would have a good chance at profitability.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 02:09 PM) If Reed comes anywhere close to what he is supposed to be, that is a dynamite right side. The only man can always come from the loser in the 5th starter derby, or whomever The Cooper Project is. I doubt they go with 6 relievers if they lose Matty and Sale. And if they have to go with a 7 man pen...which is of course entirely possible...then not only are there 2 rookies out there in Santiago and Reed, but we're back to the Bruney style garbage for the 7th slot. Better than having him in the 6th slot I guess...but still...it'd be nice to reach the point where the last man out of the bullpen belonged on a major league roster.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 09:44 AM) And (again) it is totally impossible to do with Rios, Dunn, and Peavy's contracts around. You can't do it totally-Royals-Style, but there's a different way that things could happen. If you had to push salary to $75 million...you hold those 3, dump everything else, and plan on losin 100 games next year. If any of the 3 happen to have a good enough first half that you can move them without paying the rest of their contract...you get rid of them immediately at that point.

QUOTE (Chet Kincaid @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:50 PM) I hope Hahn gets the Angels job. If the Angels job is basically the guy who takes the blame while Scioscia and Moreno make all the decisions, I hope he doesn't.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 02:04 PM) Lots of teams do fine with only two lefties in their pen. Three is nice, certainly, but if they have to cut, would you rather see Buehrle not re-signed if Thornton's $12M were the difference? Based on this season, I'd really say that the 3rd lefty is overkill if 1 of them isn't the closer. Especially if we're running with only a 6 man pen for some reason...that left Crain as the only reliable RHP. Even Crain + Reed + Santos is still a fairly weak right side since there's no right-handed long man.

I'm not sure you want to do that, Wall Street is there, you have to protect them at all costs.

Good.

Every so often.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 10:46 AM) If they are really that close, it will get done very quickly. I really don't have the impression that they're this close. If they were, they'd be meeting like crazy to save the regular season opening. They're not. I think there's a real big competitive balance issue that the owners are trying to figure out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 01:50 PM) Today there was a grand total of six of them out there, assuming all of the people standing there were with the protest. Chicago doesn't allow sleeping on the sidewalks so there have been a lot of shifts in and out.

Can you be sure of that?

Phil Rogers tries to ponder what the Cubs would have to give up for him.

Unless he actually is a publishing house!

Final 2 weeks of the preseason canceled, Stern sets a deadline of next Monday for an agreement to be reached before the first 2 weeks of the Regular Season are gone. Problem is, no meetings are scheduled before next Monday.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 5, 2011 -> 04:19 AM) But my point is if Ozzie does that and we lose the series, that is remembered as THE DECISION that cost us the series. We couldn't overcome that decision by Oz. Just as many people still think our whole season was defined by Juan's 2 muffs in April. I say look around, all the losing managers are catching big-time heat. I see...so our season was defined by Juan Pierre's muffs in April (Which is pretty close to accurate)...but people wouldn't stop blaming Ozzie. But they blamed Pierre. But Ozzie...Pierre....drops...Thornton...brain...snap...pop...crackle....cereal...