QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 3, 2011 -> 05:08 PM)
It is a real concern that is completely glossed over by the melt it down crowd. Even after a minimal move like the Jackson deal, there were already people starting to talk about White Flag trades. Because of the history of this organization, you can't sell off everything, and expect people to show up. I'm not even talking about the 10% drop. I am talking about a massive drop off. If we sold off completely the season ticket base would drop by a large percentage, as would the payroll. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to have seen a $70 to $75 million payroll in 2012. In our case that would mean Dunn, Rios, and maybe Konerko somehow. That number would death spiral until our farm system started producing. Which if you are talking about a real turnover, you would be talking about 3 to 5 years, if it worked.
This is exactly right, payroll will be down in the $70s if we don't get into contention and fool people into putting down playoff deposits. That being said I am not opposed to dropping payroll and going young as the division will still be winnable even without a huge payroll (but based on the young talent we have seen in our system they don't produce at a MLB level). It will likely be a 5-year rebuilding project and a lot of 15-20,000 attendance nights (I mean only drawing 25,000 for a Friday night fireworks game against Boston is just silly).