Why Won't Baseball Let Mark Cuban in?

[DuffMan]

I only get 151 Million results for NBA..

If you google "National Basketball Association" (which is smart enough cross check NBA as well), you get 20.4 Million results.

If you google "Major League Baseball" (which is smart enough to cross check MLB as well), you get 44.9 Million results.

What does it say? That anything largely can be manipulated to say what you want it to say.

Yes indeed, I have the power in influence google results to support the argument I am having on the internets.

Now if you will excuse me I'm going to get google to support my argument that I have the biggest wang in the state of Iowa.

 

[JHHawk]

Conventional wisdom around Chicago when Cuban was stonewalled for the Cubs was that Reinsdorf(Seligs closest confidant) blackballed Cuban because
1. He is richer than sin and would spend the Sox into a shallow grave and take over the city.
2. He is not ''old school' like the Ricketts who can be counted on to not embarrass the league.

I am fine with a Cuban taking over the Dodgers...not in the AL and not in Chicago...so that the Sox are left alone.

 

[twinlaker]

Yes indeed, I have the power in influence google results to support the argument I am having on the internets.

Now if you will excuse me I'm going to get google to support my argument that I have the biggest wang in the state of Iowa.

Claaasic!

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

Really? Two of MLB's largest and most historic franchises have difficulty meeting payroll on a regular basis. 1/3 of MLB teams exceed MLB's own standards for debt loads. I can think of 6 teams off the top of my head that routinely draw less than 10k live bodies to see games.

Baseball is just in terrible shape. I'm a fan and I'm willing to bet I can't name half the all-star team or pick them out of a police lineup.

Well you better let Forbes know, apparently they haven't got the message.

The reality is that baseball is booming. The NFL and NBA both have labor contracts expiring next year and the doom and gloom coming from all parties indicate that lockouts are almost a foregone conclusion for both sports. MLB also has its labor deal expiring in 2011, but you don’t hear players or owners complaining because almost every team is making money and the average MLB salary hit $3 million for the first time in 2010 . There is no chance of a lockout in baseball.
Yes attendance was down 0.5% this past season and is down three straight years (7% overall) from a record 79.5 million fans in 2007, but part of that decline is from two new stadiums opening in New York with smaller capacities. In a lousy economy MLB continues to post record revenues. Overall league-wide revenues are up 500% over the past 15 years as teams benefited from 18 new stadiums opening and the explosion of regional sports networks. Revenue growth has outpaced salaries leading to record profits of $522 million or $17.4 million per team in 2009.

Cliff Lee Contract Is More Proof How Flush MLB Is - Kurt Badenhausen - Jock Rich - Forbes

 

[DuffMan]

Here is something interesting. If you judge the popularity of a sport in part by judging the popularity of it's players the NBA wins in a land slide.

Each year SI does a list of the 50 riches sports stars. They break down earnings in terms of salaries and endorsements (which are estimates). The list from June 2010 contained 13 MLB baseball players, and 16 NBA players.

When you look at thier endoresment dollars, which is a very good indicater of the players popularity, you find the 13 MLB players made an average of 1.959 million dollars each in endoresments. That's pretty good right?

The average NBA player on that list took home 7.456 million in endoresments.

That seems to me to be a pretty good argument that the NBA is much more popular.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/specials/fortunate50-2010/index.html#ixzz0uKfpqm00

 

[DuffMan]

Well you better let Forbes know, apparently they haven't got the message.

The reality is that baseball is booming. The NFL and NBA both have labor contracts expiring next year and the doom and gloom coming from all parties indicate that lockouts are almost a foregone conclusion for both sports. MLB also has its labor deal expiring in 2011, but you don’t hear players or owners complaining because almost every team is making money and the average MLB salary hit $3 million for the first time in 2010 . There is no chance of a lockout in baseball.
Yes attendance was down 0.5% this past season and is down three straight years (7% overall) from a record 79.5 million fans in 2007, but part of that decline is from two new stadiums opening in New York with smaller capacities. In a lousy economy MLB continues to post record revenues. Overall league-wide revenues are up 500% over the past 15 years as teams benefited from 18 new stadiums opening and the explosion of regional sports networks. Revenue growth has outpaced salaries leading to record profits of $522 million or $17.4 million per team in 2009.

Cliff Lee Contract Is More Proof How Flush MLB Is - Kurt Badenhausen - Jock Rich - Forbes

Really? The attendance figures are down because 2 NY stadiums were built that have smaller capacities?

The Yankees paid attendance (which we all know is at best 75% of actual turnstyle attendance) is 82% of capacity.

The Mets? 67.7% of capacity.

It doesn't look like they are turning anyone away because of thier smaller ballpark.

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

Really? The attendance figures are down because 2 NY stadiums were built that have smaller capacities?

The Yankees paid attendance (which we all know is at best 75% of actual turnstyle attendance) is 82% of capacity.

The Mets? 67.7% of capacity.

It doesn't look like they are turning anyone away because of thier smaller ballpark.

Early season attendance is always down, you keep reaching for all these obscure ways of measuring how a league is doing. The MLB is setting all time revenue highs, the NBA is losing money, it's that simple.

 

[DuffMan]

Early season attendance is always down, you keep reaching for all these obscure ways of measuring how a league is doing. The MLB is setting all time revenue highs, the NBA is losing money, it's that simple.

Here you go sport. This compares 2011 attendance through June 13th to 2010 attendance through the same date in 2010. Through 993 games attendance is down just under half a million people.

Change in Baseball Attendance 2010 to 2011 - Baseball-Reference.com

You keep reaching for all these obscure excuses to explain why baseball attendance is anemic. MLB is hemmoraging fans, it's that simple.

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

Here you go sport. This compares 2011 attendance through June 13th to 2010 attendance through the same date in 2010. Through 993 games attendance is down just under half a million people.

Change in Baseball Attendance 2010 to 2011 - Baseball-Reference.com

You keep reaching for all these obscure excuses to explain why baseball attendance is anemic. MLB is hemmoraging fans, it's that simple.

The NFL has an attendance problem too chief. But you know what they have in common with the MLB, they make money.

NFL attendance down for third consecutive season: Blackouts to blame? - NFL - Yahoo! Sports

When the NBA is losing money as a league you can't make an argument that they are more successful than the MLB.

 

[OO44]

Bud Selig has been the worst thing for baseball since adding the DH.

I don't hate many people, but I HATE Bud Selig.

Ditto. Butthead Selig knew all about the steroid abuse and did nothing because steroids saved baseball(McGwire v Sosa)

 

[OO44]

I would love to see Mark Cuban buy the Dodgers.

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

"So pushing back on what commissioner David Stern has estimated to be about $300 million in combined losses, with 22 teams in the red, has to happen at the bargaining table with the single-greatest source of owner expense: player compensation. For the little guy, this is like squeezing a refinance out of Bedford Falls' Mr. Potter."

$300M in losses, 22 teams losing money sounds like a thriving league pal.

After thrilling Finals, NBA faces offseason of uncertainty | NBA.com

 

[FML]

This year's NBA finals had one game with a tv rating of over 24 million viewers. This past MLB World Series highest rated game was just over 9 million viewers. That is not even close. Even the year before with the Yankees playing the numbers were not that much better.

 

[twinlaker]

This year's NBA finals had one game with a tv rating of over 24 million viewers. This past MLB World Series highest rated game was just over 9 million viewers. That is not even close. Even the year before with the Yankees playing the numbers were not that much better.

Does anybody ever think MLB or NBA will EVER go away from some major network? As a die hard MLB fan and somebody that never ever watches a minute of any regular season or playoff NBA game - but watches all NFL games I can say..... there is no way that MLB will disappear from prime time.

 

[DuffMan]

Mike I understand what you are saying. Baseball has a solid spreadsheet right now while the NBA has some work to do in regards to the labor agreement. Don't forget MLB was in a pretty bad shape in regards to a CBA less than a decade ago and they managed to overcome that to get to where they are today. Also don't forget MLB wouldn't be in the shape it is today without the revenu sharing model they currently employ. It's pretty likely the NBA will adopt some form of revenue sharing very shortly.

That said lets compare some similarities with another industry. This industry recorded record profits and revenue of just over 60 billion dollars in the year 2000. Like baseball they had a solid spreadsheet and a track record of success spreading over decades.

But they also shared some problems with baseball, they relied an awful lot on tradtion, they failed to embrace innovation and change, and they had problems appealing to people under the age of 25. Flash foward to 2009 and the newspapers revenue numbers had been cut in half and they were on the industry on it's whole was on it's deathbed.

 

[twinlaker]

Ditto. Butthead Selig knew all about the steroid abuse and did nothing because steroids saved baseball(McGwire v Sosa)

I am so tired of hearing this trite argument! McGuire v Sosa was interesting to casual fans.... not the fan that remembered Mantle v Maris. Baseball has survived for 140 years... it will go on with you or with out you!

 

[trj]

"So pushing back on what commissioner David Stern has estimated to be about $300 million in combined losses, with 22 teams in the red, has to happen at the bargaining table with the single-greatest source of owner expense: player compensation. For the little guy, this is like squeezing a refinance out of Bedford Falls' Mr. Potter."

$300M in losses, 22 teams losing money sounds like a thriving league pal.

After thrilling Finals, NBA faces offseason of uncertainty | NBA.com

David Stern works for the owners so those numbers are skewed a ploy in the negotiations for leverage. I rather see the numbers from a independent auditor.

Regardless, the NBAPA, is far weaker than MLB/NFL so David Stern and owners will get what they want which is a hard NFL type salary cap. The NBA like MLB and the NFL are trying to find or create new revenue streams. It will be a short period of time before the NBA will be on par with baseball in terms of revenue.

 

[MultipleDundieAwardWinner]

Early season attendance is always down, you keep reaching for all these obscure ways of measuring how a league is doing. The MLB is setting all time revenue highs, the NBA is losing money, it's that simple.

It absolutely is that simple. Something can be very popular and still be a bad business. YouTube, for example, garners a ton of eyeballs but hemorages money. The NBA is a horrible business model, and it will be a long lockout to sort it out. The loss of a substantial part of next season is likely, and that will damage the sport.

 

[bighawkeyedaddy]

I love both basketball and baseball, I coach both. There is nowhere I would rather be during the summer than at the ball fields coaching or hitting grounders and throwing BP to my son. My love for MLB has dwindled so much the last few years that I barely care anymore. It is hard to care when on any given weeknight, the Twins, Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, White Sox, and Royals games are all blacked out because of low attendance and the insane fact that the Des Moines market is considered to be for all of these teams.

 

[hawkfarmer]

Money wise, it doesn't hurt that there are twice as many MLB games as NBA games and larger stadiums. Now, I hate the NBA so I'm biased. I just wanted to put that out there.

I don't follow the NBA so I don't know how MLB payrolls compare to NBA payrolls but think of the revenue difference based on # of games and attendance.