Why Won't Baseball Let Mark Cuban in?

[HawkeyeMike23]

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.

MLB games aren't blacked out in Des Moines because of low attendance. They are blacked out because the teams regional network shows games in the same area and this only applies when they are shown on ESPN. Their games are never blacked out on the regional networks.

 

[WhiteThunder]

Those regional sports networks print money for themselves and the teams, so it's unlikely it will change anytime soon At least DirecTV lets me watch the Cubs while Mediacom would not.

 

[Hawkeye1690]

I was really hoping he'd get to buy the Cubs.

Baseball has seemingly blackballed this guy.

Was listening to some ESPN radio today and Cowherd brought up some good points.

This guy basically took over the LA Clippers when he bought the Mavericks. He has invested his own money, made it one of the best 'players choice' destinations in the league, he treats his players like royalty more than just their huge paychecks, and his team has been to the NBA finals twice in the last five years and is now the NBA champion.

Kurt Schilling said players would trip over themselves to play for a guy like this.

Is he a bit of a rogue at times? Sure. No more than was George Steinbrenner.

Jon,

The best advice I could give you here is to stop worrying about Cuban buying the Cubs and being black-balled by MLB and simply do the right thing here!! Get a new team that actually has a chance to win. No fan should be forced to live their whole lives knowing their team will NEVER have a chance to win. As a Cards fan, it wouldn't be right for me to keep this sound advice to myself!!

Sincerely,
Hawkeye1690

 

[tm3308]

Revenue is not the best way to judge a league's popularity. It's the best way to determine which is the best business. Baseball makes more money because they are very sound in their business model. But the NBA is FAR more popular. More people talk about LeBron/Kobe/KD/Rose/etc. than they do Pujols/Votto/Tulo/Halladay/etc. It's that simple. More people care about the NBA, but the NBA's way of doing business absolutely sucks.

 

[RLeahey14]

MLB is very good about generating paid attendance numbers. I'm talking about fans through the turnstyles. I don't need to see attendance figures to see what 20k+ thousand empty seats look like in Pittsburg, Cleveland (despite a winning team), Tampa Bay, etc.

Let's go Pirates! Dude, I think I heard that guy in the upper deck fart.

I've never seen anything like this in a major sport other than baseball.

Using Pittsburgh as an example doesn't prove anything. Of course if you pick one loser from each league you can find an empty stadium. What about this picture from the New Jersey Nets?

 

[MultipleDundieAwardWinner]

Revenue is not the best way to judge a league's popularity. It's the best way to determine which is the best business. Baseball makes more money because they are very sound in their business model. But the NBA is FAR more popular. More people talk about LeBron/Kobe/KD/Rose/etc. than they do Pujols/Votto/Tulo/Halladay/etc. It's that simple. More people care about the NBA, but the NBA's way of doing business absolutely sucks.

I think everyone knows that the NBA is a more popular game overall...for now. The NBA's failed business model is leading to an atomic lockout that could seriously damage the league. They will be asking players to give back 1/4 of their contracts like the NHL did.

In 1994, when baseball went on strike, MLB was having a monster year, just like the NBA did this year. When they came back, no one cared for 5 years.

 

[trj]

I think everyone knows that the NBA is a more popular game overall...for now. The NBA's failed business model is leading to an atomic lockout that could seriously damage the league. They will be asking players to give back 1/4 of their contracts like the NHL did.

In 1994, when baseball went on strike, MLB was having a monster year, just like the NBA did this year. When they came back, no one cared for 5 years.

NBAPA is far weaker than MLB/NFL and will cave at some point my guess will be probably January. 40-50 game schedule the league won't miss a beat.

David Stern is extremely arrogant, but he is also very smart and he probably has the most influence/power of all the commissioners he will not let the NBA get to a point that MLB got in '94. If anything he is on the phone`with his protege(Gary Bettman) on a daily basis and discussing what not to do when you are asking for a major overhaul of the system.

 

[trj]

Using Pittsburgh as an example doesn't prove anything. Of course if you pick one loser from each league you can find an empty stadium. What about this picture from the New Jersey Nets?

Bad example, you probably should have used the Timberwolves.


The Nets have a billionaire owner and will probably be playing in a nice new arena in some New York borough(sp?) called Brooklyn. I'm just sayin......

 

[MultipleDundieAwardWinner]

I wonder how much a prolonged lockout would harm the NBA internationally. NBA is the most popular American sport in wealthy countries (Westrn Europe and China), but if it goes away for a while, it will be hard to reconnect with foreign fans.

Interestingly, I lived in Australia for a few years, and down there basketball is considered a women's game, particularly in the region I lived in, where the local team was like the UCONN women. Come to think of it, those jerks think all American sports are lame.