The following is an article sent in by Wright Smith, a graduate of The College of Wooster class of 2009. Wright can be reached for contact here.
Baseball season never ends- they take a break from the games but it’s never not time to be thinking baseball. With the hot stove of the post season, and the mere 12-week break from post season to preseason, it never really quits. I’m ready for what next season has in store for the Sox. I love talking baseball, but I meet a challenge here in DC, there are few people willing to- wether they are ashamed of their allegiance to or just burnt out from cheering for a shitty team, they aren’t quite as ready. That’s fine you do don’t want to talk, but please do not resort to making good teams the evil villain. I am tired of hearing fans of under-performing teams whine that they are not doing well because they are in a small market and if they had the fandom of the Sox or Yankees, they would be perennial guests of the post season.
In case you missed it, Scott Boras made some remarks the other day, basically railing teams for not being as productive as possible. I know his motive is just to prime the pump on this off season’s hot stove, trying to juice as much money for his clients as possible, but I find myself on the same page. Don’t get me wrong, sports fans, I think Boras can rot in hell, I do have to agree with the man on this one. The point of a baseball team is to win championships. A professional sports team should not be run as a business, they are a past time and they need to be treated accordingly.
In an attempt to find the article that broke Boras’ remarks, I came across this one from The Boston Globe. In it, is says that Boras was referencing numbers from a Bill Madden piece in the NY Daily News. It then goes onto quote the NY Daily News article. In this quote, it references the Tribe, which got me thinking of my poor friend Dan, who just did not have a good season as far as being a baseball fan goes: The tribe liquidating their entire roster, except Grady, dumping Wedgie and finishing with a balmy .401 winning percentage, all just two seasons removed from winning the AL Central and taking the eventual World Series champs to seven games. And I won’t even mention his lackluster performance in fantasy baseball this year. I may have come in second, but I still beat you.
But I digress. In the NY Daily News article, Madden references the amount of cold, hard cash that was donated to the Tribe by more financially inclined teams- the figure was around $20 million dollars. He then points out that MLB doles out another $35 mil from the central fund. Bill Madden is then kind enough to do a little math for us. He shows us that the $20 mil in revenue sharing, plus the $35 mil from MLB, off sets about 65% of the Tribes $81 million salary, leaving them only $26 million in the hole before a single fan walks through the gate on Opening Day. Madden then points out that there is still local media revenue, and in Cleveland’s case, there are a few difference channels dumping in more coin- STO, the NBC Sunday games and the numerous, radio rights. I would venture a guess to say that this would make up about half of the $26 mil left in limbo, leaving us with a pesky $13 million. This means that the Tribe would only need to make $13 million dollars from their fans in order to cover their entire payroll for the season. Even when finishing tied for last with the Royals and with the 4th worst record in baseball (at least the Royals had Greinke to sell tickets), the Tribe was still able to bring in 1.75 million fans through those turnstiles. This means that the Tribe would need to make less than $10 dollars a head to be over their annual salary. This number also does not include the season ticket holders who paid in advance for their seats and, come mid-August, were too embarrassed to show their face around Ontario Street. Now imagine how much more it would be if the Tribe made closer Scott Boras’ estimated $40-50 per fan. Granted number would include the merchandising and concessions like the 18 different jerseys they have and the $8 beers. I understand that fans are held captive and it’s hard to sit through 9 innings of Cleveland baseball without being under the influence, but how come the UG can sell 12 oz of beer for only a dollar when it costs the Indians $8 dollars to sell 20 ounces of the same beer. All of these factors combined could make the Indian’s payroll somewhere between $135 and $150 million, landing them square in the top 5 highest payrolls. Now, if I learned anything from my IS besides the fact that if you go to Morgan at 4am in February or March, you will not be alone, you can not necessarily buy yourself a championship (Though the Yankees certainly did a good job contesting that). You can, however, most certainly buy yourself a competitive team. And guess what else, the more the Tribe would spend, the more they would make. If the Tribe spent more of their money, leading to a better team, I would venture a guess that their average attendance would probably jump by 5,000 fans meaning an extra $16 million to $20 million a season. So it would pay to spend the money you’re getting.
And then there is the advertising. How much money do you think the Cleveland Clinic, Sherman Williams, Pepsi, Office Max and Giant Eagle pay to have their logos plastered inside the park? Not to mention how much Progressive pays to have their white Ford Escort parked in center field. Progressive, hmm, why does that name sound so familiar? I mean, I know they have President Palmer doing episodes for them, but there’s something else. Oh yea- I see that sign every time I go to Cleveland. I would venture a guess to say that there has to be a little money left over from the sale of the naming rights to the stadium that took place about 2 years ago. If memory serves, I think it cost Progressive just over $50 million to change the name on that blue sign above the left field Jumbo-tron, and unless Larry Dolan and Mark Shapiro decided to do a home-made, remake of the remake of Brewster’s Millions, I would say that they still have some of that lying around.
So, coming from a Red Sox fan, don’t keep complaining to me about how Cleveland can’t compete because they are a small market team. MLB baseball makes an effort, or in the Indians’ case, about 55 million efforts to keep them competitive. Start letting Mark Shapiro and Larry Dolan know that they have the money to spend this off season. Do it now, because before you know it, it will be mid-February and pitchers and catchers will be in camp, and then you blink, it’s the All-Star break, the Tribe is once again 14 games back and lighting the match that leads to their annual fire sale. The only difference is, this time Lebron will be gone.
On November 7, the Field Hockey team squared off against the Battling Bishops of Ohio Wesleyan in the NCAC Championship game. The Scots won on a goal from Brittany Montgomery, and the Scots captured the title, thus sending them to the NCAA tournament. Brandon Jacobs, Allie Hall and Jason Weingardt were on the call for WCWS.
On Halloween WCWS broadcast the Fighting Scot-Kenyon game, Wooster beat Kenyon by a score of 5-1 behind a hat-trick from Brittany Montgomery and a goal by Amanda Artman. Brandon Jacobs, Allie Hall and Jason Weingardt were on the call, as the wind was howling and the temperatures dipped down to the mid-40’s.
