Re: Buying a World Series costs an arm AND a leg not an arm OR a leg
Posted by:
Nationals.Jihadist
()
Date: August 18, 2017 12:18AM
Yup...those cheapass Lerners...not bothering to sign Strasburg to a new deal before his current one expired...wait.
Before you go calling the team owners cheap...take a look at the sports landscape. DC is not a great sports town. DC uses pro sports as means of lobbyists plying their trade on the public sector...and sales and marketing plying theirs on the private sector. Tickets to games for all teams are a means of conducting this town's business.
This is not NY, PGH, PHI, CHI, or BOS. There is no blue-collar here...and what blue collar there is...goes to watch DC United.
Sports teams are viable business enterprises here because there is lots of discretionary income and people don't live and die on the team's performances because few people are born and bred DC folks. Everyone comes from somewhere else. Since 1999, Dan's Snyder's Redskins have been to the playoffs 5 times, played 6 games and went 2-4. They haven't won a Super Bowl in 25 years.
And yet, they are one of the most profitable and valuable of all pro sports franchises. If people still come to your games, regardless of the team's performance, why spend any more on your expenses including player's salaries then you have to? Hell, FedEx Field didn't even have an actual hi-def JumboTron until 2 years ago and only because the league told them to install one.
And with WSH being a transient area, as a vendor I'm actually buying for WSH's opponents. I have corporate suites for Wizards, Caps, Nationals, Orioles, Redskins and Ravens. Part of my account management is knowing what pro sports teams my clients root for...and when those teams are in town, I make sure to take them to the game.
I love my DC teams but they frequently underperform...to the delight of my clients and to the benefit of my business interests. And until that model changes...the ownership dynamics of my teams will not change.