How do MLB teams turn a profit?

weaponry expert

weaponry expert

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Serious question. 
With the salaries they pay their players, the low attendance, lack of popularity, etc. how do owners even make money? It doesn't make sense to me.

Votto getting 225 milion and some pitcher getting 127 million made me wonder. Baseball is the 3rd most popular sport in this country at best and MLB pays its players way more than the NFL or NBA does. Marlins home games have like 200 people in the stands. Other than the Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, etc most other teams have terrible attendance too so they can't be making money off ticket sales. Other than the hardcore MLB fans the average person isn't that interested. Since nobody watches it they can't be making that much money on advertising. 

Somebody break it down please.
 
Pretty sure it's the second most popular sport and also more games + nothing else on in summer = massive local TV deals.

edit


In the age of DVR's, piracy, and the Internet networks are more and more desperate to find ways to get you to watch live tv. There is only one DVR proof, piracy proof form of content and it's live sports, with baseball you get 160 games of dvr proof content, thqt *$+# insanely valuable especially in summer where nothing else is on.

Remember also that all the networks are inherently owned by cable companies too, people HATE paying for cable, and live sports is for a lot of people the ONLY reason they keep cable, so basically this has made Baseball teams rich, because t networks will basically give them blanks checks increasing the amount of resources that teams have to spend on players and with The reds tv deal expiring in 3 years, they wanted as much bargaining power as possible and having a young marketable star like Votto is key.
 
Originally Posted by Osh Kosh Bosh

Pretty sure it's the second most popular sport and also more games + nothing else on in summer = massive local TV deals.

edit


In the age of DVR's, piracy, and the Internet networks are more and more desperate to find ways to get you to watch live tv. There is only one DVR proof, piracy proof form of content and it's live sports, with baseball you get 160 games of dvr proof content, thqt *$+# insanely valuable especially in summer where nothing else is on.

Remember also that all the networks are inherently owned by cable companies too, people HATE paying for cable, and live sports is for a lot of people the ONLY reason they keep cable, so basically this has made Baseball teams rich, because t networks will basically give them blanks checks increasing the amount of resources that teams have to spend on players and with The reds tv deal expiring in 3 years, they wanted as much bargaining power as possible and having a young marketable star like Votto is key.
Click to expand...

THIS
Along w/ the fact, MLB is the oldest league in America, so it has a lot of history w/ Americans. Japan provides MLB revenue as well, so MLB has a decent overseas prescience unlike NFL.
 
Originally Posted by Weaponry Expert

Serious question. 
With the salaries they pay their players, the low attendance, lack of popularity, etc. how do owners even make money? It doesn't make sense to me.

Votto getting 225 milion and some pitcher getting 127 million made me wonder. Baseball is the 3rd most popular sport in this country at best and MLB pays its players way more than the NFL or NBA does. Marlins home games have like 200 people in the stands. Other than the Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, etc most other teams have terrible attendance too so they can't be making money off ticket sales. Other than the hardcore MLB fans the average person isn't that interested. Since nobody watches it they can't be making that much money on advertising. 

Somebody break it down please.
Click to expand...
Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.

Baseball being America's pastime, isn't just a saying. Teams have 82 home games. Big market/rich history teams sell out a ton of their games. That's 3-4 million people in their ballparks on tickets alone. Add parking, concessions, merchandise, and most of all sponsors and ads. And don't forget teams like the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and other have their own networks.

"Terrible Attendance" is pretty much just what you see on T.V. fact is tons of tickets are sold to those games you see empty parks at. And while teams like the Pirates, Royals, Astros etc haven't been successful and have low attendance, they benefit the most from teams like the Yankees, Mets, Angels, Tigers, Red Sox, Cardinals. It's called revenue sharing as well as luxury tax payments.

Unless a team has a financial meltdown situation from the top of the food chain like the Dodgers just had and or like the Mets had with Madoff, these teams are not broke or struggling for money. There are just certain GM's with mindsets to spend and others who are frugal.

This farce you speak of "the average person isn't interested in baseball" is absolutely idiotic. How about you correct your sentence to say "the people I hang out with" don't like baseball. The biggest knock on baseball is that it's "boring" due to length. And while that is true at times even to big baseball fans, it's a game that has a loyal following. Baseball is universally loved probably just under soccer in terms of popularity. The NFL has struggled to be popular in other countries aside from USA and Canada hence their London stupid experiments. The NBA isn't widely popular outside the USA either. Baseball has done the best job, aside from soccer, expanding it's brand into many other countries.

Guys with contracts like Votto, Adrian Gonzalez, CC Sabathia, Pujols are the rarest of the rare. For every monster contract like that, there are tons of players making vet min or still on rookie contacts. 
 
I've read that owning a sports team isn't particularly a money making venture. Like sure it can be lucrative, but most of the attraction just comes from being able to say that you own the team, its more of a prestige thing. I dont know how true that is though
 
look at the stadium seating and how many people attend games, theres your answer.

plus baseball is very popular, i use to hate on it but even i like it now.

/thread
 
MLB is #2 behind NFL in revenue.

Yes, higher than the NBA.

So they implement a robust revenue sharing system for all the teams losing money
 
Originally Posted by Weaponry Expert

Serious question. 
With the salaries they pay their players, the low attendance, lack of popularity, etc. how do owners even make money? It doesn't make sense to me.

Votto getting 225 milion and some pitcher getting 127 million made me wonder. Baseball is the 3rd most popular sport in this country at best and MLB pays its players way more than the NFL or NBA does. Marlins home games have like 200 people in the stands. Other than the Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, etc most other teams have terrible attendance too so they can't be making money off ticket sales. Other than the hardcore MLB fans the average person isn't that interested. Since nobody watches it they can't be making that much money on advertising. 

Somebody break it down please.
Click to expand...
roll.gif
 
Originally Posted by venom lyrix

Originally Posted by Weaponry Expert

Serious question. 
With the salaries they pay their players, the low attendance, lack of popularity, etc. how do owners even make money? It doesn't make sense to me.

Votto getting 225 milion and some pitcher getting 127 million made me wonder. Baseball is the 3rd most popular sport in this country at best and MLB pays its players way more than the NFL or NBA does. Marlins home games have like 200 people in the stands. Other than the Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, etc most other teams have terrible attendance too so they can't be making money off ticket sales. Other than the hardcore MLB fans the average person isn't that interested. Since nobody watches it they can't be making that much money on advertising. 

Somebody break it down please.
Click to expand...
Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.

Baseball being America's pastime, isn't just a saying. Teams have 82 home games. Big market/rich history teams sell out a ton of their games. That's 3-4 million people in their ballparks on tickets alone. Add parking, concessions, merchandise, and most of all sponsors and ads. And don't forget teams like the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox and other have their own networks.

"Terrible Attendance" is pretty much just what you see on T.V. fact is tons of tickets are sold to those games you see empty parks at. And while teams like the Pirates, Royals, Astros etc haven't been successful and have low attendance, they benefit the most from teams like the Yankees, Mets, Angels, Tigers, Red Sox, Cardinals. It's called revenue sharing as well as luxury tax payments.

Unless a team has a financial meltdown situation from the top of the food chain like the Dodgers just had and or like the Mets had with Madoff, these teams are not broke or struggling for money. There are just certain GM's with mindsets to spend and others who are frugal.

This farce you speak of "the average person isn't interested in baseball" is absolutely idiotic. How about you correct your sentence to say "the people I hang out with" don't like baseball. The biggest knock on baseball is that it's "boring" due to length. And while that is true at times even to big baseball fans, it's a game that has a loyal following. Baseball is universally loved probably just under soccer in terms of popularity. The NFL has struggled to be popular in other countries aside from USA and Canada hence their London stupid experiments. The NBA isn't widely popular outside the USA either. Baseball has done the best job, aside from soccer, expanding it's brand into many other countries.

Guys with contracts like Votto, Adrian Gonzalez, CC Sabathia, Pujols are the rarest of the rare. For every monster contract like that, there are tons of players making vet min or still on rookie contacts. 
Click to expand...


You're opening sentence pretty much summed it up
laugh.gif
 
162 games = 162 games worth of tv ad revenue alone. 

Add Parking, Peanuts, Beer, merch, whatever.  Even if they only get 15,000 fans (size of most NBA joints is 19,000) so while baseball make look empty, if your spot holds 40,000 fans, you still doublin or triplin what NBA places pull, with double the amount of games.  If you can only fill the 15K I mentioned, it's close to the same amount as NBA squads, with double the amount of games no matter what. 


Plenty of money to be had. 
 
Originally Posted by venom lyrix

Originally Posted by Weaponry Expert

Serious question. 

With the salaries they pay their players, the low attendance, lack of popularity, etc. how do owners even make money? It doesn't make sense to me.




Votto getting 225 milion and some pitcher getting 127 million made me wonder. Baseball is the 3rd most popular sport in this country at best and MLB pays its players way more than the NFL or NBA does. Marlins home games have like 200 people in the stands. Other than the Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, etc most other teams have terrible attendance too so they can't be making money off ticket sales. Other than the hardcore MLB fans the average person isn't that interested. Since nobody watches it they can't be making that much money on advertising. 




Somebody break it down please.
Click to expand...
Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.
Click to expand...
 
Originally Posted by venom lyrix

Originally Posted by Weaponry Expert

Serious question. 
With the salaries they pay their players, the low attendance, lack of popularity, etc. how do owners even make money? It doesn't make sense to me.

Votto getting 225 milion and some pitcher getting 127 million made me wonder. Baseball is the 3rd most popular sport in this country at best and MLB pays its players way more than the NFL or NBA does. Marlins home games have like 200 people in the stands. Other than the Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, etc most other teams have terrible attendance too so they can't be making money off ticket sales. Other than the hardcore MLB fans the average person isn't that interested. Since nobody watches it they can't be making that much money on advertising. 

Somebody break it down please.
Click to expand...
Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.

This farce you speak of "the average person isn't interested in baseball" is absolutely idiotic. How about you correct your sentence to say "the people I hang out with" don't like baseball. The biggest knock on baseball is that it's "boring" due to length. And while that is true at times even to big baseball fans, it's a game that has a loyal following. Baseball is universally loved probably just under soccer in terms of popularity. The NFL has struggled to be popular in other countries aside from USA and Canada hence their London stupid experiments. The NBA isn't widely popular outside the USA either. Baseball has done the best job, aside from soccer, expanding it's brand into many other countries.
Click to expand...
You call him out for saying he has no idea what he's talking about, and then you go ahead and type this nonsense? How is the NBA not widely popular around the world?

And basketball is more popular than baseball around the world. It's popular on every continent. Can't say the same for baseball.
 
Originally Posted by WitnessMyCalm21

Originally Posted by venom lyrix

Originally Posted by Weaponry Expert

Serious question. 

With the salaries they pay their players, the low attendance, lack of popularity, etc. how do owners even make money? It doesn't make sense to me.




Votto getting 225 milion and some pitcher getting 127 million made me wonder. Baseball is the 3rd most popular sport in this country at best and MLB pays its players way more than the NFL or NBA does. Marlins home games have like 200 people in the stands. Other than the Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, etc most other teams have terrible attendance too so they can't be making money off ticket sales. Other than the hardcore MLB fans the average person isn't that interested. Since nobody watches it they can't be making that much money on advertising. 




Somebody break it down please.
Click to expand...
Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Considering I asked somebody to break it down for me and stated in my post that I didn't understand I thought it was a given that I didn't know much about the subject. Y'all are ridiculous. 
 
Probably the quickest most intelligent thread backfire I've witnessed...
laugh.gif

Baseball/MLB is turning robust profits.

NBA more popular than MLB... 
laugh.gif
 *(Only on NT)
 
Originally Posted by dmbrhs

Originally Posted by ooIRON MANoo

NBA more popular than MLB... 
laugh.gif
 *(Only on NT)
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You talking America or worldwide?
Click to expand...
America.
Baseball is bigger in certain areas internationally (Latin America, Japan), while basketball is bigger in others (Europe, China).  It's really hard to gauge.
 
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